If you ask half a dozen people for their definition of gourmet food, the chances are high that you'll receive a half dozen different responses. Understanding what is meant by gourmet food, a gourmet recipe or even a gourmet restaurant can be very difficult, since it seems to have so many different definitions.
For some people the idea of gourmet food is synonymous with expense, and they will often tend to assume that anything expensive is likely to be gourmet. This could just as easily apply to individual ingredients used within a meal, or it could apply to the entire meal. For some people the definition of gourmet goes beyond even the entire meal, and can be applied to the establishment where the food is served, so that they see it as being a gourmet restaurant.
Other people see gourmet as referring not necessarily to the price of the food or the ingredients, but the quality of the ingredients. Good food starts with good ingredients, just as poor quality or cheap ingredients are more likely to result in food which is lacklustre, poor in nutrition and bland in terms of taste. For a meal to be good, tasty and well worth it the ingredients have to be of the finest quality, rather than simply picked off the shelf at the local supermarket.
Both of these two definitions or understandings of gourmet food can be considered equally valid, yet there is a third category into which many people's definitions of gourmet food often falls. For this definition of gourmet food it is not the expense which is considered to be of the greatest significance, nor is it necessarily the rarity or quality of the individual ingredients, although quality is still considered to be an important considerations.
However, it is the process of preparing and cooking the meal which is of greatest significance, since it is not so much the individual ingredients, but how they are combined. Such an argument could be considered akin to taking a selection of words and putting them together in various ways. A poet may be able to create something wonderful and thought provoking from them, whereas others just come up with ordinary sentences that fail to sparkle.
These three general understandings of what is meant by gourmet food are all reasonably understandable, and in their own ways perfectly valid. Gourmet food is about quality, and this quality can be reflected in the ingredients and in the way in which the ingredients are combined. Naturally the finer the ingredients and the better quality they are the more likely it is that the cost will increase, and it is for this reason that very often gourmet food can be more expensive than off the shelf products found at the supermarket.
For those who enjoy gourmet food and appreciate the difference the extra quality makes, this slight increase in expense more than justifies it. However, there is also a fourth category of people who view gourmet food in an entirely different way, and it is this fourth category which can often result in people failing to consider the virtues of trying gourmet food from time to time.
If you ask people for their definition or understanding of gourmet food a surprising number of people will respond by suggesting that gourmet food is unhealthy, exceptionally rich, fattening and not good for the cholesterol levels. Certainly it is true that there are examples of gourmet food which may hardly be suitable for someone looking to shed several pounds fairly quickly, but equally the same could be said for a wide variety of foods and ingredients that would never be considered by anyone to be gourmet in any way.
The truth is that because of the high quality of many of the ingredients involved in what is considered to be gourmet food, many of the recipes and dishes are actually extremely good for you. Poor quality fruit and vegetables may well have far less nutritional value than might be imagined, and many cheap packaged meals have a huge number of unappealing ingredients.
Gourmet food more often than not includes only ingredients which are natural and of good quality, meaning that if you look around for suitable recipes and ingredients, you may well find that you can still enjoy gourmet food even if you're on a diet.
Author Resource:
Gourmet Food | http://www.thegoodfoodnetwork.co.uk/ | French Food
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