“Just like the music of, say, Drag City bands on a nineties campus, food is now viewed as a legitimate option for a hobby, a topic of endless discussion, a playground of one-upmanship, and a measuring stick of cool” – Michael Idov

Our generation’s relationship with food and dining has shifted from pure nutrition to a kind of cultural capital. Food has become a way for people to meet, interact, and prove that they are in the know. Michael Idov explores this hipster food culture through his case study of Diane Chang, “When Did Young People Start Spending 25% of Their Paychecks on Pickled Lamb’s Tongues?”Chang is a young New York woman who despises being called a foodie as she explains, “When I hear the word foodie, I think of Yelp. I don’t want to be lumped in with Yelp” (102). Idov chronicles this movement from the old and fusty discussing fine dining to the “Generation X ethic” as a two-pronged endeavor: the growing use of social media and cell phone technology, but also the restaurant revolution in terms of aesthetic dining (102). The restaurants changed and so the culture around the food changed, too. Continue reading →