Why I don’t want to be called a foodie

The other day I was asked ‘oh, you are a foodie too?’

I have to admit, I cringed inside (at least I hope it was only inside – I am not the best actress to be honest).

The ‘title’ of foodie is not one I take to, due to its overuse of everyone who has ever been to a restaurant.

My knowledge of food and the food business has been gathered over years of seeking out new cuisines, learning from chefs, sweating at the stove over new ideas and cooking my soul out.

I have met hundreds of foodies who couldn’t tell the difference between a fig and a date. The best way of watching ‘foodies’ is at food events.

A while back, I attended the launch of a new menu

at a hotel and bloggers from around the country were invited.

Beautiful girls with a large Instagram following stood in the room taking selfies.

As I love watching people, I kept an eye on them during the evening and it was gold. Don’t get me wrong, they were lovely girls but most of them didn’t take a bite.

Trays of food were offered around the room with beautiful morsels of finger food, showcasing the talent of the chef using local produce.

Two of these Insta-Girls took a piece of food each, took photos of each other and put it back on the tray without tasting any of it.

I checked their profiles later that evening and each photo had nice filters on it and text like ‘this is so delicious’. Wonder how they knew!?

So, someone calling me a foodie is a bit of an insult to be honest.

I have likes and dislikes as anyone else – I prefer fish to meat, European cuisine to Asian, can’t stand stews and hate ocra.

But I discovered these likes and dislikes by trying all of them.

I can cook you the perfect steak but would never order it – and I can make you an awesome stew.

Food has soul and if you can’t taste it, how can you talk, write about it or even love it?

A broadcaster called me once a food expert and as much as I felt warm and fuzzy, I wouldn’t call myself an expert.

Saying that, I can hold a conversation with most chefs and am asked food-related questions all the time by friends and followers online.

Does that make me an expert? Not really, it makes me someone who knows food very well.

I have a large collection of cookbooks and I collect recipes as other people would stamps and yet, I have never followed a recipe.

The first time I cooked for my parents (I was about nine years old), my mum wrote down the recipe for a stew (my dad is mad about stews).

I tried to follow the instructions, found it too boring and added my own ‘twist’ on my mum’s stew.

Now, at nine years old, you really shouldn’t follow your ‘instinct’ and the result was a concoction that only my dad was able to eat (although with steam coming out of his ears).

My senses have since developed into understanding what herbs and spices go with what food and I enjoy coming up with new ideas - just don’t call me a foodie!