Hello Readers!
We see the word gourmet used to describe everything from popcorn and soda to cooks and kitchens. It's printed across items at the grocery store and used in ads for pizza delivery chains. We see it a lot, but what does it mean? What is gourmet? The Oxford Online Dictionary defines "gourmet" as a noun meaning "a connoisseur of good food; a person with a discerning palate." So, when used to describe food or cooking, gourmet food is "suitable for a connoisseur of good food." Most people use "gourmet" a bit more loosely than the Oxford Dictionary. When describing foods, gourmet generally means using higher quality ingredients and/or new or special methods of preparation to create food. It is also now an industry classification for premium foods in the United States.
There has been a huge trend towards gourmet foods and a large increase in the gourmet market in the past decade. The U.S. Market for Gourmet and Specialty Foods and Beverages cite rising incomes, wider access to culinary knowledge and an "overall penchant for indulgence" as reasons for this rise in popularity in fine foods. However, pop culture has a big hand in this also. Movies ("Julie and Julia"), television ("Chopped" "Top Chef" "The Taste") and books ("Kitchen Confidential," "Omnivore's Dilemma") all push us toward discovering new foods, new cooking methods, new restaurants, etc.
Here at Euforia, we describe our cakes as gourmet - we only use all-natural ingredients to make our Triple Delight and Thousand Layer cakes. Each of our cakes are created from traditional Indonesian recipes, and they are hand-made using Dutch baking techniques. We do also make them gluten-free for our Foodies avoiding gluten. So satisfy that "overall penchant for indulgence" and order a Euforia cake!
We see the word gourmet used to describe everything from popcorn and soda to cooks and kitchens. It's printed across items at the grocery store and used in ads for pizza delivery chains. We see it a lot, but what does it mean? What is gourmet? The Oxford Online Dictionary defines "gourmet" as a noun meaning "a connoisseur of good food; a person with a discerning palate." So, when used to describe food or cooking, gourmet food is "suitable for a connoisseur of good food." Most people use "gourmet" a bit more loosely than the Oxford Dictionary. When describing foods, gourmet generally means using higher quality ingredients and/or new or special methods of preparation to create food. It is also now an industry classification for premium foods in the United States. There has been a huge trend towards gourmet foods and a large increase in the gourmet market in the past decade. The U.S. Market for Gourmet and Specialty Foods and Beverages cite rising incomes, wider access to culinary knowledge and an "overall penchant for indulgence" as reasons for this rise in popularity in fine foods. However, pop culture has a big hand in this also. Movies ("Julie and Julia"), television ("Chopped" "Top Chef" "The Taste") and books ("Kitchen Confidential," "Omnivore's Dilemma") all push us toward discovering new foods, new cooking methods, new restaurants, etc. 
Here at Euforia, we describe our cakes as gourmet - we only use all-natural ingredients to make our Triple Delight and Thousand Layer cakes. Each of our cakes are created from traditional Indonesian recipes, and they are hand-made using Dutch baking techniques. We do also make them gluten-free for our Foodies avoiding gluten. So satisfy that "overall penchant for indulgence" and order a Euforia cake!