goloso

goloso
crazy about a food

Dictionaries translate goloso as gluttonous. I disagree. Yes, it stems from the same word--gola (throat)—as in peccato di gola (sin of the throat, which may be my favorite kind). But like swine, gluttons snarf up everything edible. A goloso may be a buongustaio (food lover), a buona forchetta (hearty eater) or a ghiottone (gourmet) but also craves a particular type of food, such as cioccolata, nutella, supplì (Roman rice and cheese balls) or (in my case) fiori di zucca (fried zucchini flowers).

The Italian lust for food dates back to ancient Rome, where citizens savored exotic delicacies such as flamingo tongues, roasted swan, cherries from Asia, pistachio nuts from Syria and dates from Egypt. According to culinary lore, Nero was a goloso for flavored snow from nearby mountains—the original gelato.

The love of both food and language played a pivotal role in the creation of Italian as we know it. In the late Renaissance a group of irreverent young Florentine intellectuals set out to separate the literary equivalent of wheat from chaff. The members of L’Accademia della Crusca (the Academy of Bran) playfully gave themselves names related to cooking and baking, such as Lievito (yeast or leaven), Macinato (milled into flour) and Grattugiato (grated). Working diligently for decades, they produced Il Vocabolario della Crusca, the first great dictionary of officially recognized words in Italian—or in any European tongue.

Every year the Crusconi would gather for an annual stravizzo, a term they defined with understatement as “eating that happens together with pleasant conversation.” The menu from one stravizzo (its modern form stravizio denotes debauchery or excess) presents five staggering courses that included veal, tongue, prosciutto, pigeon, chicken, capon, lamb, meat rolls, soup, several varieties of pasta, artichokes, Parmigiano, strawberries, pears, peaches, biscotti—and stuzzicadenti (toothpicks).

By the end of such an eating orgy, each of the word-lovers was pieno come un uovo (full as an egg). Sooner or later many a goloso ends up that way.

Sayings and Expressions:

buongustaio -- food lover
buona forchetta -- hearty eater
ghiottone – gourmet
pieno come un uovo – stuffed (literally full as an egg)
prendere qualcuno per la gola -- get to someone through his love for food
(literally to take someone by the throat)