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Food as Characterization - TV Tropes

️Sun Jul 12 2020

Even before we get deep into the story, or sometimes afterwards, an early clue about a character can be presented by how they like their food or drink. Sometimes, the food choice is symbolic, representing something about their personality, affiliation, or true nature. Other times, it's simply a character tic that makes the person more memorable.

Sub-tropes:

Age-Stereotypical Food: Certain foods are associated with certain ages. Adults liking kiddy foods means they're childish, and a precocious kid will like adult foods.
The Alcoholic: A character who drinks to excess or can't stop.
Asians Love Tea: Asian people are avid tea drinkers.
Big Eater: A character (heroic or otherwise) who eats in large quantities.
Bizarre Taste in Food: A character who likes foods in strange combinations.
Brits Love Tea: British people are obsessed with tea.
City People Eat Sushi: Eating sushi means you're a sophisticated yuppie.
Does Not Like Spam: A character has a strong dislike or outright loathes certain food.
Dog Food Diet: A character is forced to eat dog food out of desperation.
Drink-Based Characterization: What drink a character prefers says something about them as a person.
Eat Dirt, Cheap: A character eats rocks, highlighting their non-humanity and Bizarre Alien Biology.
Eating Lunch Alone: Loners, introverts and new kids eat lunch alone at school while sociable people eat with others.
Empty Fridge, Empty Life: An empty fridge (implying the person eats out a lot or eats poorly) indicates that the character is weird and socially inept, and is single, an artist, or other type of weirdo.
Evil Vegetarian: An evil character's vegetarianism complements or contrasts with their villainy.
Exotic Entree: An evil character eats food that's immoral just to prepare.
Extreme Omni-Goat: Goats are often portrayed as having an appetite for pretty much anything they can chew on.
Extreme Omnivore: A character who will eat anything, usually indicating their weirdness or lack of humanity.
Fast-Food Nation: Americans only eat fast food, highlighting their boorishness.
Forgets to Eat: A character who doesn't think about food, often an Absent-Minded Professor or workaholic.
French Cuisine Is Haughty: People who eat or prepare French food are snobs.
Frozen Dinner of Loneliness: Eating a frozen dinner as a signal of loneliness.
Genius Sweet Tooth: Geniuses love sweets.
Girls Love Chocolate: All women love chocolate, especially if they're a Girly Girl.
A Glass of Chianti: Wicked Cultured villains drink red wine, often while lounging evilly.
Grapes of Luxury: A character is hand-fed treats to show off their wealth and power.
Hates Common Food: An upper-class person refuses to eat "commoner" food.
Haute Cuisine Is Weird: Rich people eat very strange things.
Healthy Eating Fanatic: A character obsessed with healthy eating habits.
High-Class Cannibal: Rich people eat human flesh.
I Do Not Drink Wine: A seemingly normal character has unusual food tastes, hinting that they are actually an alien or supernatural being.
The Incomparable Bliss of Low Cuisine: Cheap, widely available food like burgers and cookies is treated as the greatest culinary experience you could ask for, often to the astonishment of the rich and powerful.
Instant Taste Addiction: Trying a new food and instantly developing an addiction to it.
Kids Hate Vegetables: Kids have a childish disgust for vegetables.
Luxurious Liquor: A character drinks expensive alcohol to signal their wealth.
Masochist's Meal: Food that is either ridiculously spicy, foul-smelling, dangerous, or just gross. Only a person who is very tough would dare to eat it.
Mascots Love Sugar: Critters have a massive Sweet Tooth.
Metal Muncher: A creature that eats metal is usually a very alien and dangerous creature.
A Mouse Named "Mozzarella": Animals named after foods they are stereotypically known to eat.
Must Have Caffeine: A character who can't live without caffeine.
Nondescript, Nasty, Nutritious: Soldiers and prisoners eat tasteless but filling food.
Obsessed with Food: A character who is always thinking about food.
One-Track-Minded Hunger: A character for whom food comes above all else.
Overcomplicated Menu Order: A character orders something really complicated at a restaurant or cafe, showing that they're pretentious or fussy.
Paste Eater: A character eats paste because they are childish or a Cloudcuckoolander.
Plain Palate: A character who prefers bland foods.
Picky Eater: An immature person or The Finicky One will only eat a few things.
Poverty Food: A character's diet shows they're poor.
Prefers Raw Meat: A character likes their food raw because they're wild, a Beast Man, or a badass.
Raw Eggs Make You Stronger: A character eats raw eggs because they are a body-builder strongman (or wants to be one).
Real Men Eat Meat: Manly men love meat.
Real Men Hate Sugar: Manly men don't eat desserts or anything too sweet.
Real Men Take It Black: Manly men prefer their coffee black without cream.
Roadkill for Dinner: Usually attributed to hillbillies and rednecks.
Sinister Sweet Tooth: Villains identified by their taste for the sweeter things.
Snooty Haute Cuisine: Expensive food used to identify a character as rich and/or a snob.
Soup of Poverty: Poor people survive on soup.
Stock Animal Diet: Different animals like particular foods.
Stock "Yuck!": Certain foods that are stereotyped as disgusting or distasteful.
Sweet Tooth: Love of sweets as a distinguishing character trait.
Tea Is Classy: Characters who drink tea are sophisticated or wealthy.
The Teetotaler: A character who doesn't drink alcohol.
Toast of Tardiness: Anime characters who are Late for School always eat toast as they run.
Trademark Favorite Food: A character is defined by or strongly associated with a particular food.
Unaffected by Spice: A character eats extremely spicy food without discomfort.
Villainous Glutton: A character's gluttony highlights their evil nature.
Villain Raises a Toast: Raising a glass shows character's villainy.
Virtuous Vegetarianism: A character is made vegetarian as a symbol of their inner goodness or purity.
Wacky Cravings: A character suddenly develops a Bizarre Taste in Food because she's pregnant.
Wine Is Classy: Characters who drink wine are sophisticated or wealthy.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Delicious in Dungeon: Laios's Establishing Character Moment is when he reveals his lifelong fascination with monsters to his party members, including and especially wanting to know what they taste like. Conversely, the fact that Senshi has lived off the plants and monsters of the titular dungeon for over a decade, and can cook them into surprisingly delicious meals, is an early sign of how in tune with the dungeon's ecosystem he is.

Fan Works

Dungeon Keeper Ami: Goblins like to eat insects, as their crunchiness goes well with chicken, but also because they're not very civilized, living through banditry, with other species appearing to make civilization.
Project Shadow: In the opening montage, Shadow and Maria are eating in a cafeteria. Maria has a sandwich that is made with lettuce and a specialty grain bread, showing her as an ill girl who requires a strict diet just to live on the ARK. Meanwhile, Shadow grabs and subsequently scarfs down several slices of pizza without issue, showing how, as the Ultimate Lifeform, he wouldn't feel the ill effects of eating that much junk food that quickly.

Films — Animation

In Moshi Monsters, the movie has Diavlo, who likes his sausages burnt "into oblivion", which ties into the fact that he's a Diavlo and has fire powers.

Films — Live-Action

Probably one of the greatest examples is the lunch scene from The Breakfast Club. Each lunch symbolizes the character and their relationship with their parents.
- Andy has a giant lunch made by his parents. It's also not particularly healthy despite being an athlete. It's lunch his parents clearly made for him to maintain his weight, but the high sugar content (cookies and a 6 pack of content) shows they don't really care about his actual wellness, only for him to maintain appearances. Andy also seems unaware of all that's in his lunch, symbolizing his lack of control in his own life.
- Claire has sashimi (which she identifies as sushi). A fancy lunch (especially for the time), to showing her parents' wealth and desire to show off that wealth.
- Bryan has PB and J, with the crusts cut off. Showing his parent's smothering nature and the fact they still perceive him as a child.
- Allison disassembles her lunch to make a sandwich of Captain Crunch and pixie sticks. Symbolizing her rebellious nature and her general weirdness which she does to draw attention.
- Bender's parents are neglectful, he therefore has no lunch.
Parasite (2019): The Parks are Sheltered Aristocrats who keep expensive, premium-quality Hanwoo beef^* sirloin in the fridge but thoughtlessly mix it in with instant noodles.

Literature

The Sword of Truth: Richard can't stomach meat because of all the killing he has to do in his job as a war wizard.
In The Witch In The Cherry Tree, the titular witch prefers her cupcakes burnt. This is apparently a trait among witches because normal people refer to the burnt cupcakes as "witch cakes".
The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden is a Blue-Collar Warlock with little disposable income whose tastes run in two directions - a magical Truce Zone pub with top-notch steak sandwiches and phenomenal beer, and fast food. In Changes, he insists on meeting The Don Johnny Marcone at a Burger King. Even after he has a more stable income, he still loves to order from the extremely cheap Pizza 'Spress, precisely because it's terrible pizza that was all he could afford in his younger days, and thus it satisfies a deep nostalgia.
The Kingkiller Chronicle: Kvothe's Orphan's Ordeal and subsequent money troubles left him fond of Mundane Luxuries like snacking on fresh apples (rather than scrounging for discarded cores) and treating his friends to dinner at a nice (but not fancy) restaurant.
The Raven Tower: When the heir to the throne, Mawat, suffers his first major setback, he locks himself in his room and leaves his meals outside to spoil. It's an early sign of how he takes his rank and its privileges for granted, and of how his Hair-Trigger Temper often works against him.
Servant: If he doesn't come out in an hour or two you should just drink the milk, because it will go bad. I don't know why Cook even sent it. We hardly get any fresh milk, and it's wasted on this.
Eolo: He likes milk. He likes it a little sour. [the servant rolls her eyes]
The Kingston Cycle by C.L. Polk: Grace's relationship with Avia is always underscored by the fact that Grace is a tremendously wealthy noblewoman and Avia went from Riches to Rags. It rises to the surface when Grace's servants serve them a Simple, yet Opulent breakfast, including candied oranges, while outside, much of the country is being pushed towards starvation by a brutal winter.
The uniqueness of the various Athena Club girls is emphasized by their dietary preferences. Mary Forgets to Eat; Diana eats enough for three women, mostly sweets; Catherine consumes only meat, fish, and dairy; Justine is a staunch vegetarian; and Beatrice subsists on steeped vegetation.

Live-Action TV

Forever: Used regularly.
- Henry drinks cognac "the older the better" or orders whiskey by name and year, showing his vast knowledge and sophistication, as well as making coffee or tea at home through more elaborate processes instead of drip/instant or tea bags, a holdover from his earlier days when such conveniences weren't available. He's shown at least once enjoying a full English breakfast, complete with tomato and beans.
- Jo, meanwhile, orders "whiskey, whatever's well" and pigs out on a gyro that nauseates Henry. She's known for eating most of her meals at her desk, showing that she has little life outside of work since her husband died.
- Abe cooks, a lot, using food to show love by making Henry's favorites after unpleasant deaths and making him a soup "guaranteed to cure colds and bullet wounds" after he's been shot. His cooking skills clearly came down from his mother, showing how close they were, and how much she is still missed when he makes dishes she used to make.
Hannibal: Hannibal Lecter is a Man of Wealth and Taste and a Supreme Chef whose meals are always meticulously crafted Food Porn. Unfortunately, to match his love of being a Devil in Plain Sight, they usually have a secret ingredient.
The Last of Us (2023): The first sign that Bill is more than just a Crazy Survivalist is when he grudgingly allows Frank to stay for lunch, then comes out with an exquisitely cooked meal and wine pairing. Frank is stunned silent, and by the end of the day, they're in a relationship.
Frank: A man who knows to pair rabbit with a beaujolais!
Bill: I know I don't seem like the type.
Frank: No, you do.
In The Office (US), Michael's preference for chain restaurants is a sign of his immaturity and lack of sophistication; for example, when he goes to New York City on a business trip, he gets a "New York Slice" from Sbarro, and uses the local Chili's both when he has a meeting with a potential major client, and when hosting the annual Dundie awards.
Poirot: The titular Belgian detective is effete, sophisticated, and as fastidious about his food as about everything else. He seeks out skilled continental chefs; places highly specific orders, once refusing to eat eggs of unequal sizes; and calls English cuisine nothing more than food, to the bemusement of his English friends. Nonetheless, when Hastings takes him out for midnight fish and chips after a case, he digs in with a secret grin.
Supernatural: The Winchester brothers are blue-collar monster-hunters who live on the road, so they tend towards simple restaurant fare and fast food. Dean loves burgers so much that one angel tries to bribe him with a platter from his favourite restaurant, while Sam, the more conscientious and forward-thinking of the pair, tries to balance out the heart-stopper meals with salads.
You: Love believes in this very heavily. She insists on taking Joe to restaurants all around Los Angeles to find his "perfect bite", analyzing him all the way through. In the end, the dinner she makes for him encompasses not only what he likes in a meal, but his personality and interests in general—old fashioned, done right, not gimmicky, but real.

Video Games

In Bravely Default, the main characters are given an opportunity to order food on the Grandship. The suave Ringabel gets spiced meat dishes, the cute and naïve Edea gets a fluffy omelet and a sweet parfait, country boy Tiz gets big filling meat dishes and humble Agnès orders a small vegetarian meal.

Webcomics

Unsounded: The two-toe Lizard Folk cultivate certain beetles for food. It's an ordinary part of their diet, but children mock them for "eating roaches", and they face much worse Fantastic Racism from adults in the story.

Western Animation

In Justice League Unlimited, Fat Bastard Steven Mandragora is eating a massive amount of raw oysters as he's interrogated by Agent Faraday. While making suggestive comments to Black Canary, he mentions to Green Arrow that he likes his oysters "young and sweet."
In the The Loud House episode "Project Loud House", each of Lincoln's sisters likes her eggs cooked differently (except the twins, who both like theirs hard-boiled). Some of these preferences don't say anything about their personalities, but two do, namely Luan who likes hers in a cube shape (or "funny side-up") which ties into her quirky personality, and Lucy who likes hers burnt because she's a goth and therefore likes fire and the colour black.