Of French origin, the word “gourmet” is defined as having a characteristic that involves purporting high-quality or exotic ingredients and skilled preparation. It also relates to those who are elaborately equipped for the preparation of fancy, specialized or exotic meals, such as having a gourmet kitchen.

Gourmet may also describe a class of restaurant, cuisine, meal or ingredient of high quality, of special presentation or high sophistication. In the United States, a 1980s gourmet food movement evolved from a long-term division between elitist (also referred to as gourmet) tastes and a populist aversion to fancy foods. Gourmet is an industry classification for high-quality premium foods in the United States.

Since the turn of the new millennium there has been an accelerating increase in the American gourmet market, due in part to rising income, globalization of taste and health and nutrition concerns. Individual food and beverage categories are often divided between a standard and a “gourmet” sub-market.

Gourmet can also refer to recipes that call for ingredients that are conventional and commodity-produced, but used in creative ways. Thus, gourmet does not imply that the ingredients are always expensive. There are plenty of interesting and creative things that foodies do with vegetables, for instance, that are inexpensive and would be considered gourmet.

A can of tuna and some potato chips made for a casserole in the 1960s. But in 2014, foodies would be much more prone to take a nice fresh tuna steak, some fingerling potatoes, specialty tomatoes and heirloom garlic and toss them with some pasta to create a true gourmet dish.

It is particularly nice that home cooks can now purchase the ingredients at supermarkets and prepare dishes at home for a much lower price than a high-quality expensive restaurant would charge. With home cooking continuing to be a popular and growing hobby and pastime, the availability of these items is especially important.

There is also a growing demand for what are considered exotic tropical and ethnic vegetables and fruits, which fit into the gourmet category. One needs only to look at the tropical section in produce departments to witness the nearly endless items. The colorful and uniquely shaped section of produce departments is enough to incite salivation.

But savvy foodservice chefs intend to stay a step ahead of consumers by continually searching out even more exotic and unique items to entice patrons. Restaurants are giving their menus boomer-friendly makeovers. They’ve turned to ethnic ingredients and spices to deliver novelty, along with a jolt to their taste buds.

This is why specialty items like chili peppers are getting a market boost these days. Other bold Latin American and pan-Asian flavors are also creeping onto restaurant and ultimately to mainstream American menus.

To support — and certainly also to whet — the gourmet appetite, gourmet retail stores have surfaced across the country in recent decades. Stores like Town Gourmet Fruit and Vegetables in Hewlett, NY; Exofruits, a fine food store, in Côte-des-Neiges in Montreal; Virginia Gourmet in Williamsburg, VA; and Balducci’s and Eataly, only two of the dozens of gourmet and specialty stores in New York City. Even major retail chains like Publix, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have jumped on the opportunity to offer their customers the gourmet fruits and vegetables that foodies’ appetites now demand.

Chefs and consumers alike are also taking full advantage of the locally grown trend to help fulfill their demand for gourmet specialty foods. Some say there are few things that are as gourmet as those first out-of-the-field New Jersey tomatoes. Even so, American consumers have spent the past five decades or more getting used to having what they want and when they want it. And if that means they want gourmet blueberries in December, they’re getting them from offshore. We simply aren’t ready to give up our now over-developed gourmet palates regardless of the time of year. And, we’re strongly drawn to media venues that portrait indulgence.

Who could forget that fabulous meal in the movie, “Babette’s Feast?” According to Epicurious.com, almost a quarter-century after the film’s release, the culminating scene of this quietly urgent Danish drama still stands as the most beautifully rendered depiction of a lavish meal ever committed to celluloid. But it’s not just spectacle for spectacle’s sake. The triumphant banquet sequence also communicates volumes about the movie’s central theme, the eternal tug-of-war between self-denial and sensual gratification.

Or “Like Water for Chocolate,” an enchanting magical realist drama about the power of food and how it makes every guest at a wedding act out bizarre behaviors.

And then there was “Eat Drink Man Woman,” a story about an emotionally repressed Taipei family whose only real means of communicating between the head of the household and his three headstrong daughters is via the elaborate Sunday dinner he cooks for them every week.

The classic “Big Night” from 1996 featured a failing Italian restaurant run by two brothers who gamble on one special night to try to save the business.

And least we not forget “Ratatouille,” an animated film about a rat, who can also cook, and makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker at a famous restaurant.

“Now There’s Love,” the English title for “Io sono l’amore,” was released in theaters in 2009. This tragic love story is set around fabulous gourmet food, proving that there is, apparently, little that we would not do to satiate our demand for gourmet specialty foods.