For me, elelgant and gourmet means that you have taken the time and effort to make the food the best that it can be, and present it in a fisually exciting manner. Chicken broth can be either rustic, that is, country style, heaty, and filling, with great flavor, or elegant, a consume made to wet the appetite and excite the taste buds, served in an attractive bowl, with a sprinkling of freshly chopped chives or parsley on top.
Another example: Mashed potatoes - rustic, farmhouse style potatoes are boiled until tender, seasoned with a minimum of S & P, mashed, sometimes leaving little lumps of unmashed potato, with milk and butter. Other ingredients can be folded in, bits, chives, garlic, etc., all placed as a simple mound on the plated, an served with butter and/or gravy.
The gourmet, or elegant versi9n is to boil Yukon Gold and russets in a 50/50 ratio until cooked through, peeling and then cutting into same sized cubes to make sure they are alldone to the same degree. You would then rice them, and fold in half & half, and butter, stirring until they are completely blended. You would never use a mixer, or food processor on these potatoes as that would make them gummy instead of light and fluffy. The potatoes would then be placed into a piping bag with a star tip, and piped onto the plate in an attractive design, agai served with good butter, and a veloute thickened with a blonde roux. A sprinkling of chives would be placed on top of the plated potatoes.
And inside round can be a rustic, home-cooked meal, or a gourmet meal as well. For the former, season it with S & P, throw it into a slow cooker, pressure cooker, or covered roasting pan and cook until it is well done, and super tender. Make sure to have fresh onion thrown into the pot for flavor. Or cut it up and make it into a stew. The gourmet versions would be to do the same thing, adding a red wine to the roast. Or you could roast to medium rare, slice very thin, and serve with au jus.
Boiled green beans are ordinary. Steamed green beans that maintain a little crunch, as served with a proper French sauce, such as Hollander, or something similar, plated nicely is gourmet.
Gourmet and elegant means that you have put forth the effort to prepare and serve food in the best form that is possible. It includes atmosphere, what the food looks like, how it tastes, the texture uand type of food. Nealy any food can be gourmet, or ordinary, from eggs to pancakes, french toast to a classic Italian sandwich, soups to bisque, fish, fowl, meat, veggies, sauces, etc. If you want to make gourmet, learn the mother sauces, and their daughter sauces. Then learn about the other sauces of the world as well. Learn how to pair foods that will compliment each other Learn .the many different seasonings, spices, herbs, how such things as bacon, or chicken skin cracklings, or even shavings of extra sharp cheddar can enhance, without hiding the natural goodness of the food it is used on/with.
Of course this extends to deserts as well, from gelatine to cakes, to pes and pastries, cookies, tortes, mouse, pastry cream, candies, chocolates, etc.
Too make the differences clear, let me give you my explanations, fir what they are worth:
Farm/country food - hearty, well made and tasty, fills the belly.
Fast Food - edible, fills the belly, quick.
Gourmet or Elegant - a celebration of the food, with the goal of best flavor, presentation, and use of the food, with sauces and seasonings to enhance, not hid the natural fod flavors.
Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
