Tom Parker Bowles disapproves of the term “foodie”

The butlers at Clarence House had better take cover. Prince Charles’s stepson, Tom Parker Bowles, told the Soho Literary Festival yesterday he thinks the term “foodie”, invented by Paul Levy in the Eighties, is worse than any swear word.

“It’s crap,” he said, debating whether foodies have taken the fun out of restaurants with Matthew Fort, James Pembroke and Russell Norman. “It’s bollocks. Any restaurateur who claims to be a foodie should be taken out and shot. It’s an elitist thing. It’s a term of abuse.”