The term nerd has been through a lot over the years. From its humble beginnings in the Rome of Emperor Nerdius Maximus* nerd has been the word to identify those who are capable of fixating on things that most people are too busy making wardrobe choices and bothering the neighbors to fret about. Back when I was in chess club nerd still meant something. It meant that I was in a club that no one else wanted to be in and that made it mine. It made it ours. We could read about computer science and astrophysics in peace.
These days any non-wit who can put down their Big Gulp Slurpee long enough to say "'puter" is a self-proclaimed nerd. Thanks to pop culture mall rats like
Patton Oswalt and
Kevin Smith "Fan Boy" and "Nerd" have spawned some incestuous abomination of a label that any idiot can call their own. Don't get me wrong, I get the grandma who considers herself a "Knitting Nerd" because even I don't give a flinging shite about knitting. However, calling yourself a "Film Nerd" in your
eHarmony profile because of that Saturday when you overdosed on
Renee Zelwegger ... um, no. Go watch
Michael Powell's Peeping Tom and get back to me when you're tired of scratching your head and wetting yourself.
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And so, when we say "food nerd" or "culinary nerd" we don't mean ... well,
just about everyone on the planet Earth by the current definition. No, we mean people like Martin Lersch, author of
Khymos. You don't know
Khymos? Well, my friend you don't know food nerd. What's that? You know
Alton Brown? Well, here's the memo, A.B. is a cool cook but
Good Eats was only a primer on food science. Martin Lersch has a PhD in organometallic chemistry and writes a blog about
molecular gastronomy on the side. Stick that in your Transformers collection and Caturday pictures.
Nerds, dorks, sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads, and regular Joes should all give
Khymos a look. You might even learn something.
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* Of course it's true. May I turn your gold into cash?
