A connoisseur of good food is known as a buongustaio in Italian. It is made up of the following three parts:
buon (good) + gustare (to taste / savour) + aio (a suffix used to form agent nouns)
Buongustaio is a masculine noun that takes the following definite and indefinite articles:
- il buongustaio = the gourmet
- un buongustaio = a gourmet
- i buongustai = the gourmets
- dei buongustai = some gourmets
Unlike a mangione (a person who eats a lot) or a golosone (a person who cannot resist eating large quantities of certain kinds of foods), a buongustaio has a deep appreciation and understanding of good food but rarely overeats.
Lasciamo decidere al buongustaio che cosa ordinare.
Let the gourmet decide what to order.
An extended meaning of buongustaio is someone who is an expert judge in matters of taste.
Marco è un buongustaio in fatto di sigari.
Marco really knows his cigars.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
