I was asked at work today about the word 'foodware'. I had never heard of it and nor had onelook, but it does get a respectable number of google hits. As far as I can make out it seems to cover cooking utensils and crockery. Has anyone else come across it or can anyone confirm that this is what it means?

Bingley

Trendy, trendy, trendy.

The hip food magazines use this term to refer to all containers (cooking, serving, eating off of, and storing) which come in contact with food.

One hopes that, like a rash or a pimple, if one waits long enough it will go away.

Ah, I see. My reading matter does not extend to hip food magazines. I assume they take a rosy view.



Bingley

Trendy, trendy, trendy

Heaven forfend that we should have a generic term for all those items.

Interesting. And fitting for the times in that many people (too many) use their kitchens for serving pre-prepared foods. I know many a teacher at my school who confesses to avoiding cooking always...and I do mean always. They say they only buy prepackaged foods and go out to dinner a lot. They take cartons of food home so that they'll have enough to serve for meals quickly heated in their microwaves. They confess never to using their stoves and ovens.

Somehow the term 'foodware' sounds right on the money to describe this growing lifestyle: heatin' it and storin' it. I realize the term, from what's been discussed above, means more than this, but I'm just saying that I think the term is particularly fitting for the lifestyles I hear about.

Can't say I like thinking about a kitchen filled with refrigerated pre-pared ready-to-eat food in foodware to be microwaved as a place that evokes a sense of home sweet home, but that appears to be the case in many lives I hear about. "Edwards makes the best homemade pies." That's what I hear.

Well, I had never seen the term before (Father Steve, I reckon we all now have a hint of what you read in all your spare time ), but it makes sense: there is cookware, flatware (why called so, anyway?), and tableware, and though if there's "storageware" I haven't heard of that either, but it makes sense in our hurried world that an umbrella term would have been created. Or perhaps it was just someone's marketing ploy.
Gee--if you accidentally get something in your mouth that is unpalatable and you (hopefully discreetly) get rid of it into your napkin, does your napkin become foodware?

I think there are rather a lot of people these days who don't actually cook, or not very much. The people we bought our house from must have been like that. We found textured Berber carpet...in the kitchen. What on earth would you do if you spilled oil, milk, or dropped an egg?

Take it to the berber shop?

There is a section at the local Crate and Barrel where the containers offered for sale are termed "bakeware."

for the latest line in pinnies?

Bingley

cookware, flatware, and tableware

Also, at Crate and Barrel, a section of wine glasses called "stemware."

Okay; all these -wares: whence the term?

Cambridge sez: "used, often in shops, to refer to items of the same material or type, especially items used in cooking and serving food: tableware, the kitchenware department."

"And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day..." Nehemiah 10:31 AV

I am out the door and on my way to diocesan convention. Won't be back until Sunday night. There will be several vendors there (including bibliopoles). One wonders if one will be able to buy some churchware, or clergyware, or something.

Godware?

Godware?

everyware...

Because it's stamped out of sheets of flattened metal.

The term ‘foodware’ was coined in 1999 by a group of gastronomical taxonomists known as DELFT (Demarcate Every Last Food-related Tool). Founded in 1996 by L. Inneaus Quiche, PhD, of the Massachusetts Institute of Taxonomy, DELFT’s primary objective was to re-examine the existing classifications of thousands of food-related tools and correct any structural deficiencies within the classification process that could lead to culinary confusion.

Between May of 1996 and December of 1998, the members of DELFT conducted an extensive examination of the existing classification structure and concluded that the structure was unable to describe any food-related tool above the level of Phylum, i.e., there was no term to describe the Kingdom to which the food-related tools belonged. After intense debate, DELFT members finally agreed on the word ‘foodware’ as being an acceptable term to describe the Kingdom of food-related tools. Shortly thereafter, DELFT released the following examples of taxonomical classification for food-related tools:

Butter Knife

Kingdom: Foodware
Phylum: Dinnerware
Class: Tableware
Order: Flatware
Family: Silverware
Genus: Cultellus
Species: dilitatus


Sauce Pan

Kingdom: Foodware
Phylum: Kitchenware
Class: cookware
Order: Metal ware
Family: Copperware
Genus: Lebes
Species: condimentus


Salad bowl

Kingdom: Foodware
Phylum: Dinnerware
Class: Tableware
Order: Dishware
Family: Ceramic ware
Genus: Catinus
Species: moretus


Wine glass

Kingdom: Foodware
Phylum: Dinnerware
Class: Tableware
Order: Drink ware
Family: Crystal ware
Genus: Phiala
Species: vinaria



Don’t believe a word of it!

Don’t believe a word of it!

If you would've come up with something *better than "DELFT" I may've.

dgeigh--have you ever read any of edward lear's botany books? you'd love them. see if your local libary has anything (or check out dover publications, they have a few volumes of lear)

his botanicals are better than is nonsense poetry or limericks.

If you would've come up with something *better than "DELFT" I may've.

Actually, "delft" belongs to the Genus "Catinus" of the Kingdom "foodware".

Dutch Village - Blue Delft Pottery

"Our specialty is the typically-Dutch delft blue pottery, as we stock delftware from many companies, in many different qualities. We have articles that fit any budget, from souvenir-quality to Royal Delftware."

http://www.bluedelft.com

Personally, I think Dgeigh has done the world a service in bringing Genus to this neglected Order.

In reply to:

---

If you would've come up with something *better than "DELFT" I may've.

---

I thought the give-away was its founder's name.

Bingley

I thought the give-away was its founder's name.

Me too. That was very clever J! It made my day.

That was great, J. Made me litereally [sic] LOL!

Made me litereally [sic]

Oh, that's good!