Real life: Have you got what it takes to be a full-time foodie?

"I think it conjures up images of this expensive little bubble – very white, middle class – where people are walking around going 'Oh, I've just bought the most delicious sourdough from the bakers and it only cost me £3.50' and that just feels a bit silly to me.

"I'm probably guilty of thinking about it too much though: What is a foodie?"

Well, if we're getting technical, a foodie is "a person with a particular interest in food; a gourmet", but it's the subcultures that provide the modernday minefield.

Are you a hipster foodie, reading Swedish foodieodicals and attending food raves? Or a Barbara-from-The-Good-Life allotment-digging foodie?

How about an all-tweeting, all-blogging tech foodie? Or a misguided foodie? You know, the ones who go on MasterChef and then throw together prawns and strawberries. Shudder.

In truth, most of us are guilty of a little gastronomic giddiness these days. Cookery book sales have never been better, hovering around the £100 million mark; there are entire TV channels devoted to all things food and drink (GoodFood +1, anyone?); and there are more pictures of people's dinners on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr than there are people's cats. Which is saying something.

But for some, this is small fry. This is Foodie 101. Theirs is a passion, a fixation, a fetish, on a totally different level.

"All of my holidays are planned around where we eat and I make restaurant reservations before the flights are even booked," says our very own Emily Bridgewater, the editor of Weekend and self-confessed "food ponce".

"I like to eat at places which offer a new experience or cuisine, not necessarily just somewhere with Michelin stars. If I'm somewhere specific, I like to find the best local dishes. If I'm in Naples, for example, I'll hunt out the finest pizza and gelato and am willing to queue for hours for

a taste. I love everything from street food to posh nosh as long as it's good. The best meal I ever had was at a road side café in Thailand that cost about 80p. It was just a simple chicken and cashew dish but it was incredible.

"I think I've been a foodie for about 12 years, ever since I got together with my boyfriend, Ste. We found a joint interest in all things food and, when we moved in together, I wanted to make different dinners every night. He's pretty adventurous and we both agreed that we'd spur each other on to try new things. We spend most of our disposable income on eating out or on unusual ingredients to eat-in and entertain.

"I have about 100 cookbooks and my favourite authors are Bill Granger, Yotam Ottolenghi and Nigel Slater. I also read lots of food novels by people like Giles Coren and Stefan Gates. And I only watch food programmes on TV. I also love food markets and specialist food shops and will research and factor visiting these into my travels and weekend plans. I love to pick up unusual ingredients and my kitchen has tons of gadgets including an ice cream maker, pasta machine, food mixers, food processors, blenders and loads of baking paraphernalia. I love cooking exotic food especially Moroccan, Lebanese, Indian and Thai. Luckily, living in Birmingham city centre, we're exposed to lots of readily-available authentic ingredients."

Ah yes, the all-important ingredients. These are what get a true foodie's heart beating.

"I went to the greengrocers the other day and got really excited about the Jersey Royals," says 35-year-old Henry, whose passion for food and drink will see him open his own deli and dining space this summer at Ludlow's Deli on the Square site.

"I always get excited by the changing seasons. After the rotten winter we've just had, it's great to see things sprouting up through the earth and the lambs in the field. The current fad for small plates and ingredients-led cooking is something I'm really enjoying too. It's great that restaurants are finally realising that people don't have as much money any more.

"I think fine dining has maybe had its day as a result: eating out is just so expensive now, it's considered a real treat as the cost is so restrictive for so many people, myself included. But I don't really get excited about eating at a two Michelin star restaurant – unless someone else is paying – I'd rather eat somewhere smaller and authentic. I went to East London recently and had the best meal in what looked like an otherwise normal kebab shop but it was brilliant. There was no menu, they just brought us what was good.

"That's why I do so much cooking at home, why would I go out and pay £80 for an ordinary meal when I could stay in and have something better for a fraction of the cost? And, obviously, I really love cooking. I wouldn't go to the effort of setting up my own food business if I didn't. Even though I work in food, it's still the way I relax. I still love to cook at home and am something of a kitchen Nazi. Cooking allows me to pretend to my wife that I'm doing something useful, when, what would actually be useful, is looking after our two daughters. It helps me unwind.

"Although, having said that, I do have a wishlist of places I want to dine at and I read all of the weekend papers and keep a mental checklist."

For Henry, his love for food is in the blood as his parents helped set up the ever-popular Ludlow Food Festival. His mum, Lesley Mackley is also a respected food writer.

"It sounds corny but I have memories of being a small boy and standing on a chair in the kitchen making cakes with my mum," he says. "It's just something that stayed with me throughout childhood and then really flourished when I moved to London for uni. That's when I realised food was A. an essential B. cheaper to make yourself and C. a great way to meet girls.

"That's also when someone bought me some cookery books for a birthday present – I think they were Nigel Slater – and that really got me into cooking even more. We had all these really exciting food shops too, it was the East End before it became so painfully trendy and there were little Jewish shops and old-fashioned bakeries on every corner. There were fabulous ingredients every where you turned, things from the Bengali and Turkish communities. Shopping like that, on a very local level, has stayed with me ever since."

But how does he explain the foodie phenomenon in general? Why has food become the new rock 'n' roll, with the one-time indie kids now getting their kicks over soba noodles and monkfish liver instead of being sorted for Es and whizz?

"There is a new interest due to a general lack of money and a return to that Make Do & Mend spirit. Ever since 2006/07 there has been a boom, which is when everything else went bust. It's ironic that the foodie revolution has come in the recession and people are going gaga for allotments and biodynamic free range chickens but I think it's great - the more people who know about good quality, healthy food, the better."

Wise words indeed, but, just in case you were in any doubt of Henry's foodie credentials, he holds the true badge of honour.

"Yes I was on MasterChef," he groans. "Twice actually in 2005 and 2006. I got knocked out in the round before the quarter-finals and it was terrifying to cook for John and Gregg but at least I can say 'been there, done that, got the apron'."

Can you compete with our Em? Check out her foodie credentials:

• Travelling to California to eat at The French Laundry (10 bread rolls that night)

• Getting up at 4am to visit the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo

• Learning to make pasta while being shouted at byAldo Zilli

• Spending an afternoon eating cheese with Alex James in his home ‘foodio’

• Eating a whole chicken from inside out at a restaurant in Tokyo

• Queueing for two hours for the best pizza in Naples, and for Michelin star dim sum for a tenner in Hong Kong

• Eating my way around Cornwall from Rick Stein’s to Jamie’s with cream teas and fish and chips in between

• Savouring crocodile and kangaroo canapés in the shadow of Ayres Rock

• Eating whale and puffin in Iceland and live prawns at Noma

• Travelling half the way across the country to Whitby just for a fish supper

• Eating bacon and egg ice cream and the famous snail porridge at The Fat Duck

• Eating a pongy Durian fruit in Thailand

By Elizabeth Joyce