Historically, food has been linked to morality, whether through the meanings of foods or the effects of eating and the pleasures that arise from it. Because eating is a pleasure in various instances, it has also been subject to multiple interpretations that seek to limit, condition, or even circumscribe it to certain norms or parameters to be followed, depending on different contexts: from medical norms about how to eat "well," to social norms about etiquette or which foods are accepted as edible, passing through religious norms that condemn gluttony and the consumption of certain foods under specific circumstances.
In this sense, greed and gluttony—as the enjoyment of eating a lot, with appetite, with anxiety—have been the subject of study, but also of condemnation, socially, culturally, and religiously. Greed, for example, is a cardinal sin in Catholicism, and gluttony is often associated with personality flaws, such as a lack of self-restraint or discipline. Yet, in this line dividing good from bad (which in reality, no circumstance falls neatly into such a division), enters gourmandise. In fact, this is a French term that, when translated into Spanish, is usually rendered as greed or gluttony. The subtle but profound difference is that, in certain contexts, gourmandise is celebrated, accepted, and even promoted.
Gourmandise was the subject of essays by Jean Anthèlme Brillat-Savarin, considered the father of gastronomy. He did not reduce it, however, to a mere function of pleasure: "Gourmandise is one of the main bonds of society; it is she who gradually extends this spirit of conviviality that brings together the different classes each day, merges them into a single whole, animates conversation, and softens the angles of conventional inequity." Thus, one of the most important gastronomes in history not only recognizes the primordial social function of gourmandise, or the act of enjoying a good meal with good company, but also establishes that in these situations, there are always inequities, tensions, and inequalities that can be diminished when sharing the table.
Faced with this great description of gourmandise as the way we enjoy food—sitting at the table, having great company, and being moved by a menu laid out before us—we must ask ourselves how small, subtle differences in perception can mean something entirely different. In a reality increasingly plagued by the "ought to be," the concept of gourmandise invites us not only to see food as a set of norms of "one should not eat..." or "one should not do...". Gourmandise, or the pleasure of eating, without pretension, without seeking trendy foods or those positioned in certain social sectors, is the most authentic enjoyment of eating. Gourmandise is, then, that side of the coin often forgotten when food is reduced to something highly normative or only accessible to a few in terms of social prestige based on what is eaten. Gourmandise is the most spontaneous, celebratory, and satisfying aspect of the relationship we can have with food and all the meanings surrounding its consumption.
— This article was originally published in Spanish by Liliana Martínez Lomelí. Translation generated with AI from the original text.
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