What is this magic word gourmet?

gour·met /gʊərˈmeɪ, ˈgʊərmeɪ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[goor-mey, goor-mey] Pronunciation Key

–noun
1.
a connoisseur of fine food and drink; epicure.
–adjective
2.
of or characteristic of a gourmet, esp. in involving or purporting to involve high-quality or exotic ingredients and skilled preparation: gourmet meals; gourmet cooking.

OK, so when I hear gourmet I think of little gift baskets with all kinds of cheeses, crackers, meats, and spreads but are these ingredients gourmet? NO. The definition states fine food and drink not cheesy cracker, some aerosol spray cheese, and a 2 year old sausage! I went to the store the other day and I was examining the different bread labels when I noticed Sara Lee gourmet hamburger buns. The package had 8 large hamburger buns and it was called gourmet bread! Since when are hamburger buns gourmet? Hamburgers are up there with cheese wiz and crackers when it comes to "fine food". We now look at the buns and they are gourmet?

Here are some samples of gourmet according to marketers

A basket of BBQ sauce and some chips... Gourmet? I think not. It does have a gourmet price though $117 for this! Last I checked I could buy the whole BBQ sauce isle for $117.

Here we have a couple apples, a couple pears, couple oranges, and some nuts. This is also dubbed gourmet along with the price-tag of $119! Last time I went to the store apples were .25 a pound. So I can send this as a gift or I can send 476 pounds of apples... which would get a better response? Well, a funnier one anyway.

Now this takes the cake or pie so to speak. With this great gourmet gift you get an empty pizza box, 2 small jars of pizza sauce little bit of dough, and a circular dish. We are gourmet now with a price of $79 + shipping of course. The description says: "Mama Mia! For the true pizza lover in all of us, this gourmet pizza making kit will have you tossing your dough like the pro’s do!" Your damn right your tossing your dough... right out the window! We need to get Vinny down here to slap some knuckleheads around because this is a ripoff!

I'm sick of people calling stuff gourmet when it's just a bunch of stuff someone got from the store and then threw together in a basket. I can see it now. Go to the 99 cents store and they have brand names no ones ever heard of. Pick up a bottle of Atoni Gotti's pizza sauce and call it gourmet. Since no ones ever heard of it they will instantly think its gourmet! Who cares what it tastes like they already bought it. If they call to complain about the flavor you can say that they don't have the palate for true gourmet cuisine. Sigh... this is all too true.