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.
- 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 person, artist, or other weirdo.
- Evil Vegetarian: An evil character's vegetarianism compliments or contrasts with their villainy.
- Exotic Entree: An evil character eats food that's immoral just to prepare.
- 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.
- Haute Cuisine Is Weird: Rich people eat very strange things.
- I Do Not Drink Wine: A seemingly-normal character has unusual food tastes, hinting that they are actually an alien or supernatural being.
- 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.
- Metal Muncher: A creature that eats metal is usually a very alien and dangerous creature.
- 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 for 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 want 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.
- Satiating Sandwich: Love of sandwiches as a distinguishing character trait.
- 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.
- Stock Animal Diet: Different animals like particular foods.
- Stock "Yuck!": A character (kid or adult) is squeamish to the taste of vegetables.
- 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.
- 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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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.
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
- 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 the 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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 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.
