You May be a Food Geek If...
Geeks come in all sizes, shapes, religions, colors, and areas of geekdom. I have a good friend who's a financial geek -- she really gets off on things like estate planning and income averaging. Go figure. In my time I've been a computer geek and I'm a bit of a writing geek (I ordered Eats, Shoots and Leaves before it was released), but my longest running obsession is food. I'm a food geek.
You, too, may be a food geek if…
You have more than three kinds of olive oil in your pantry.
You write a letter to the editor when you find an error in the food section of the paper.
Your copy of Larousse Gastronomique has dog-eared pages.
You have more than three kinds of rice in your pantry.
You don't think $150 is an unreasonable price for an All-Clad skillet, but still love your $25 Lodge.
You keep saffron in your spice drawer.
In fact you have more than one spice drawer plus at least one spice rack in the pantry for things you don’t use regularly. (The saffron may be in the spice rack.)
The clerks at William-Sonoma know you by name.
Half the liquor in your liquor cabinet was purchased for a recipe -- and the other half has been used in recipes.
You not only know what goes in sausage, but you've made sausage.
You can count the number of processed foods in your kitchen on one hand -- and you can't count the number of appliances on two hands.
You like to curl up in bed with a good cookbook.
When someone asks if you have a KA you know what they mean and answer, "Yes."
The produce manager at the local supermarket hides when he sees you coming.
Harold McGee is one of your heroes.
24 Comments:
It looks like I am not a complete and total geek, but I am well on my way to geekdom. Or is that geekhood?
Kalyn,
Was there any doubt?
A foodgeek for sure!.....
Let's not forget the meat guy who knows you by first name, and reserves the good cuts to share.
Too true, though I must admit the pages of my Larousse are still in pristine condition... ;)
When someone asks if you have a KA and you say "Empire Red."
When you don't have any salt shakers in the house; all your 10 or 12 varieties of salt are dispensed by pinches.
Shall we get into number of types of soy sauce? Vinegars? Non-olive oils?
(BTW, $25 for a Lodge? Thrift shops, m'dear! Already seasoned.)
Fun.
Ah man.
Add, if your walls/shelves/racks/cabinets could not hold one more skillet, not even an 8". And you use them all, too.
Count me in.
Biggles
Rosa,
It's a terrible burden.
Skat,
Do you mean Toby or Lloyd?
Melissa,
These days I usually use post-its to mark pages.
CC,
People who make their own salt are in a world unto their own. And I did buy my Lodge new -- for about $8 35 years ago.
Oooo this is great!
Umm, yeah, I really identify with the liquor cabinet comment!
*five* kinds of olive oil (including one "brazen hussy olive oil" to balance the "extra virgin" side a bit)
my copy of Larousse cost me two bucks (meaning it's OLD) and I have an original Fannie Farmer (which I never use but may auction one day to buy waterfront property)
rice: 4, 5, 6...7...maybe 8
but, here's the one that puts me way over the top: I GROW my own saffron! (and someday I will go back to Bolinas and make salt so I can be cool like some folks)
Doc,
I've got stuff in plastic boxes on the porch because it wouldn't fir in a closet, which has stuff that wouldn't fit in the dining room, which has stuff that wouldn't fit in the kitchen.
McAuliflower,
I taught a kids cooking class today, and we ended up discussing the practicality of Bananas Foster Pizza -- flambe.
KM,
I didn't actually count anything in my kitchen -- I didn't want to frighten anyone by setting the bar too high. But growing your own saffron? You and Cookiecrumb are definitely out there on the edge of culinary sanity.
Hooyah !!!
I have several shelves set up in the garage for spill over of books, cookware, holiday stuff.
I just love walking 70 feet out the back of my house to the garage and perusing my shelves for needed lovelies. It's like I have a large house or something.
Biggles
You grow your own saffron? HOW COOL IS THAT!!
Geek central! I wish I had much much more stuff too.
NEVER go to the Fancy Food Show. It really is so outrageously fabulous and I have gone three times now.
I'm a geek -- but it looks like I'm in good company. :)
Oh me... I thought maybe I was squeaking by into the non-geek area: I had to look up lodge, all-clad and KA...
You know you're really lost when you refuse to own a KA because you have several different kinds of whisks, not to mention wooden spoons that will work just as well. And a drawer full of brand new wooden spatulas and spoons just in case the olive wood ones you use now break (yeah right, as if olive wood anything is going to break!)
-Elizabeth, who doesn't own amy lodges but has 2 cast iron frying pans, a cast iron griddle and a cast iron stove top waffle iron... as well as a copy of McGee's "On Food and Cooking" in the bathroom.
Doc,
That not a garage, that's your "kitchen annex."
Gabriella,
Food shows are inherently evil.
Curious,
The best company!
Elizabeth,
We all have our own ways of expressing our inner geekiness. And I must admit that keeping a copy of McGee in the bathroom is pretty damned geeky.
LOL!
This was too funny to read. And very appropo.
But "kitchen annex"! LOL! That is what I need to re-name the basement. I can just imagine the confusion on my guests faces when they ask where something is. "In the kicthen annex, of course."
I'm proud to be a geek, btw. It's fabulous company to keep. ;-)
Kitchen Geeks Unite!
Hard not to be one when you're a food blogger. ;D Such a nice group of people!
I have KA envy! No more room for appliances. I keep telling my husband John that we must move to build a much bigger kitchen with a spankin' pantry. No wee spice drawer for me!
My current favorite book is Ruth Reichl's "Tender at the Bone."
My mom just gave me three old cookbooks that I quickly tagged with more than one pad of post-it notes while watching World Cup games.
Nice blog. Thanks for the post!
Wow, we suck.
Yes on the saffron and two spice drawers. Dave curled up with a Rick Bayless book last night in bed. Oh, and we've made sausage, but sadly not yet with casings. Also check on Harold McGee.
Everything else though? Never been in a Williams-Sonoma. Had to think long and hard about what KA stood for. I sell All-Clad at the store I work at but our own pans are strictly thrift store & gifts. Liquor cabinet? Ahahahahahah.
Sigh. Sometimes I think I'm just too dammed broke to be a food blogger. (Yeah, it's one of those days. I've been selling spendy culinary toys to rich tourists all weekend and some idiot who is actually a chef on a local boat came in and asked if we carried "foy gras" I kid you not.)
That said, I do hope that one does not have to afford fancy appliances to be considered a food geek!
Miz D,
I would say the mark of a food geek isn't so much what they have as what they covet.
Oh, well then that makes me an ubergeek! I work in a gourmet shop and I want to own everything we sell!
Miz D,
I figured.{g}
GREAT post. I'm ecstatic to be in the company of so many food geeks! (and to know that even though I rate high on that list...there are others that are even higher!)
Michelle,
Even food geeks can be overachievers.
And congratulations!
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