Oh my word Gourmand, Gourmet, Gastronome, Glutton

Epicure, Epicurean Gosh! So many names to describe someone interested in food? Gourmand, Gourmet, Gastronome… Gourmet is not a glutton but do not hesitate to indulge in gastronomical journeys. My spouse is a gourmand!Gourmand? Your means she eats a lot, he said but thinking that his is a glutton. Gourmand is a lover of good food. The word ‘gourmand’ is used in a derogatory sense because he or she is a glutton: gobbles heaps and heaps of food.

Glutton is a person who eats too much (You ate the whole pizza? You’re a glutton!). Glutton also refers to a person who is always ready for something more that is unpleasant. He is a glutton for petty crimes. She is a glutton for perseverance for unachievable results. Other variants of glutton are gluttonous (adjective) meaning greedy for food), gluttonously (adverb) and gluttony (noun – eating and drinking too much).

Gourmand means who has a taste for fine food, fine dining, eating out in restaurants, gluttons. Gourmand has two meanings: a person who likes good food, or whose palate doesn’t compromise. Gourmet is a person who enjoys eating, or dining, good food and also an expert in selecting the choice of different foods, cuisines, and also wines. Gourmet restaurants are those that serve fine food; they are usually expensive.

Another word used for a person who loves good food is gastronome (gastronomist, gastronomer). Gastronome is a lover of great, and good food; a connoisseur. Gastronomy is the art and science of cooking, choosing and eating good food. Gastronomy is the study of relationship between food and culture. Gastronomy comes from the French word ‘gastronomie’. Gastronomic is an adjective.

Have you been on a gastronomical journey? Watch programmes on television on food and travel…you will be tempted to plan a gastronomic itinerary. Gastronomically is an adverb. The family decided to go out for a gastronomical meal but in the end they decided to eat at home. The mother prepared a gastronomically outstanding meal to the delight of all the diners.

Epicure is a person who evinces keen interest in food and drinks and derives pleasure out of them. Cookery shows and cookery books attract the attention of the viewers and readers if they are produced and written respectively by the epicures. Epicurean functions as an adjective and a noun. Epicurean is a person fond of pleasure and luxury.

When he was rich he was an epicurean; when he was poor, he was a pauper. For some elections in India is also a time to indulge in epicurean feasts and drinks!

Kovuuri G Reddy