The Reimagining of Haute Cuisine: Discussing The Solitary Gourmet
No. 9 (2025-06-27)Author(s)
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Ana Fernanda Garduño MoralesUniversidad Autónoma del Estado de México
Abstract
Gourmet is a difficult concept to define. In her thesis You are what you eat: Contemplations on civilizing the plate with Gourmet, Caroline Voight argues that “gourmet refers to a way of thinking, born from a ‘civilizing process’ tied to what is now known as a lifestyle” (1996, p. 5).
From this perspective, the term is more closely associated with the experiences, status, relationships, and spaces involved in savoring a meal than with the simple act of consuming food. In this sense, gourmet distinguishes the human way of eating—mediated by cultural practices that emerge from civilizing processes—bringing a multiplicity of meanings to its construction, with status standing out as a central element.
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