If you’re a twenty-something living in New York, being a “food person” tends to come with the territory.  Food obsessed young people seek out the newest, hottest, restaurants. They mingle at the prospect park farmers market. They go to Smorgasburg to try out the latest and greatest home-grown, small batch, specialty items. They may even have the kitchen skills to prove their love of food. The term “foodie” is starting to go out of fashion because it’s already become mainstream. The newest, hippest food culture celebrates food in a way that abhors pretension (think: ethnic food and reinvented comfort food) and celebrates the alternative (think: supper clubs and Do or Dine).

The rise of food culture amongst young people comes with a high price, but it is a price many are willing to pay. Several recent articles have addressed the fact that young people are spending their often times meager salaries on insanely pricey restaurant outings, gourmet food, and extravagant eating experiences in general. Is this a trend that’s here to stay?

New York Magazine features an article which asks the important question, “When did young people start spending 25% of their paycheck on pickled lamb tongues?” It goes on to describe in detail the eating habits of one young person, Diane Chang. In one week, she spent $350 on food alone, a combination of restaurants she’d been meaning to try  (Korean BBQ in Queens) and ingredients for home cooked meals for her friends. She does not identify as a Foodie, but rather just “likes what she likes.”  Read Diane’s response to the New York Magazine article here, where she disputes some of the claims made in the original article, saying that they were taken out of context.

The Unaffordable Luxury of Food, an article in the New York Times, makes the point that “every generation of young New Yorkers finds its own way to squander its meager earnings, and this one seems content to spend the money it makes on expensive, curated food with little sense that it is really squandering anything at all.”  A tad patronizing, maybe, considering the fact that living in NYC is anything but cheap, and just by virtue of living and working here as a young person indicates that you have yourself together a little bit.  Another, more optimistic way to look at this is that young people choose to spend their money differently then previous generations.

The relatively new wave of eating ethically – being aware of the environmental impacts of how we eat – is an important  part of this trend. Eating conscientiously and seeking out the best, freshest, ingredients is certainly a positive, but it can come with a hefty price tag.  Young people do show a hard core dedication to eating well, but not everybody blows their pay checks on constant expensive nights out.  If a general awareness of food politics is occasionally accompanied by excessive spending on food, it’s not the worst thing in the world.