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Gourmet vs Culinary - What's the difference?

gourmet | culinary |

As adjectives the difference between gourmet and culinary

is that gourmet is fine while culinary is relating to the practice of cookery or the activity of cooking.

As a noun gourmet

is a connoisseur in eating and drinking, someone who takes their food considerably more seriously than most.

gourmet

Adjective

(-)
  • (of food) fine
  • Gourmet coffee is just like regular coffee, only better.
    We need to go to the gourmet grocery store to get the exotic ingredients for this recipe.

    Usage notes

    Gourmet has become somewhat debased by marketing usage, and is considered by some a pretentious middlebrow term. Such users tend to prefer terms such as (artisanal) (emphasizing the craft) for fine food.

    Coordinate terms

    * (l)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A connoisseur in eating and drinking, someone who takes their food considerably more seriously than most.
  • Usage notes

    Gourmet emphasizes interest in quality of food and enjoyment of eating, sometimes to an obsessive degree: someone who “lives to eat rather than eating to live”. By contrast, a gourmand is someone more interested in quantity of food than quality.

    Synonyms

    * foodie

    See also

    * gourmand * haute cuisine ----

    culinary

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Relating to the practice of cookery or the activity of cooking.
  • Her culinary skills were excellent.
  • Of, or relating to a kitchen
  • Derived terms

    * culinarily

    See also

    * cook * kiln * recipe

    References

    * Krueger, Dennis (December 1982). "Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?" Studio Potter Vol. 11, Number 1.[http://www.studiopotter.org/articles/?art=art0001] English collateral adjectives