Aren't We All Foodies?

Mollie Katzen is the author of a top-selling cookbook from way back when (The Moosewood Cookbook? Anyone heard of it?) Anywho: 

 “I personally do not like the word ‘foodie,’ because as human beings we are all innately drawn to food, so to make food a niche thing is wrong,” she said. “I don’t even like the word ‘chef.’ I think they can take the food and sometimes themselves very seriously.” Of many of the superstar chefs on TV, she said, “I consider them to be entertainers and media personalities rather than cooks.” 

Those television chefs tend to make everything look daunting. Take even public television's America's Test Kitchen; every recipe is unnecessarily precise, involving a tedious litany of overcautious steps. Such grand food-ery gave rise to satires like Posh Nosh (there are eight episodes, all hysterical).

Is there anyone out there who doesn't like food? Anybody? Feel free to chime in. But I will assert that anyone who claims they don't like food, well, you simply don't know what food is supposed to taste like. Thank the good Lord my mother is Hungarian. 

The more pretentious television chefs I am exposed to, the more I snuggle up to an episode of Jacques Pépin. When watching him cook next to Julia Child, it is obvious that Jacques is a true French chef. He focuses on the finished product and technique, whereas Julia tends to get bogged down on minutiae. He demonstrates where one can cut corners and where one can't. 

No, I'm not stalking him.