gastrosexual

English

Etymology

From gastro- +‎ -sexual.

Adjective

gastrosexual (comparative more gastrosexual, superlative most gastrosexual)

1. (chiefly of men) Having interest in food and cooking, often as a means of expression or to make an impression on friends and potential romantic interests.
   • 2016, Mihalis Mentinis, The Psychopolitics of Food: Culinary Rites of Passage in the Neoliberal Age, Taylor & Francis, page 94:

     The point I am making here is that, whereas the consumption of male semen is ritualistically constituted in pornography and culinary literature as the 'essence' of the gastrosexual condition, female secretions, by way of contrast, are represented as 'abject', potential health hazards, and are excluded from the gastrosexual symbolic.

   • 2017, Michelle Szabo, Shelley Koch, Food, Masculinities, and Home: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 224:

     In the gastrosexual persona, we observe male chefs embracing an emotionally-charged caretaking role through food production. The gastrosexual persona represents a masculinity that complicates gender role boundaries in terms of both actions and affect.

   • 2020, Tania Lewis, Digital Food: From Paddock to Platform, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 80:

     Prescott in many ways carries on the "gastrosexual" legacy of Oliver but as I suggest he offers a more millennial updated take on food masculinity, blending elements of all Johnston and colleagues's male chef persona traits, including the chef artisan, the maverick, the gastrosexual, and the self-made man as well as representing what I am calling a "meatrosexual."

   • 2020, Emily J. H. Contois, Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture, University of North Carolina Press, page 14:

     While gastrosexual "foodies" express great enthusiasm for all things food, the dude's relationship to food remains ambivalent.

Noun

gastrosexual (plural gastrosexuals)

1. A person who is gastrosexual.
   • 2013, Ted Reader, Gastro Grilling: Fired-up Recipes To Grill Great Everyday Meals: A Cookbook, Penguin Group, page 10:

     In Gastro Grilling, you will find recipes for that special gastrosexual in your family, […]

   • 2017, Michelle Szabo, Shelley Koch, Food, Masculinities, and Home: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 224:

     The gastrosexual emphasizes the pleasure he finds in home cooking, although he mainly cooks for leisure rather than necessity. At the same time, the gastrosexual's food credentials are never in doubt, even while he takes on untraditional domestic food and care work.

   • 2020, Tania Lewis, Digital Food: From Paddock to Platform, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 80:

     Prescott in many ways carries on the "gastrosexual" legacy of Oliver but as I suggest he offers a more millennial updated take on food masculinity, blending elements of all Johnston and colleagues's male chef persona traits, including the chef artisan, the maverick, the gastrosexual, and the self-made man as well as representing what I am calling a "meatrosexual."

See also

• gastrophile