In ancient Greece, a “sophist” was a teacher for hire. The word’s literal meaning is “I am wise”, but its usage went beyond that. The reason the term is part of modern English goes back to Socrates and Plato, who didn’t think much of the sophists. The sophists were well educated, but instead of turning their knowledge and ability — particularly in speaking and writing — to benefit the common good, they just enriched themselves by charging high fees for their tutoring services. Sort of the ancient equivalent of consultants, I guess.
Plato and company found this to be self-serving and, worse, enabled the rich to learn how to argue and persuade regular people to, for example, lower the taxes on the rich, not blame the rich for their greed and rapaciousness, and generally convince people to act in ways that benefitted the speaker rather than the audience (sound familiar?). Nowadays, of course, we’re so awash in such people that it almost seems normal. Nevertheless, persuasive speech that’s self-serving, specious, or deceptive is still known as “sophistry.” It’s also known as “politics” and “marketing”, but maybe that’s just due to a campaign by skilled but self-serving communicators to persuade us that it’s all just normal. But remember, originally, “sophist” just meant expert for hire.
To return to ancient Greek for a moment, the word “deipnon” meant dinner. And a person can choose to pay close attention to food, learning to discern subtle tastes and appreciate the nuances of skilled preparation. Although you could call that person a “gourmet,” there’s another word available: “deipnosophist.” The word has been around since at least the 1500s, and was still current in 1845: “Spanish Cookery, a..subject which is well worth the inquiry of any antiquarian deipnosophist.”
“Deipnosophist” is still in use today, in fact. But if you’re going to start tossing it around, take note that its meaning has changed a bit since the 1800s. The above quote (by Richard Ford, in his “Hand-book for Travelers in Spain”) uses the word to mean experts in the art of dining. More recently, though, the word seems to have reverted back to the way it was used in 228 CE, when “Deipnosophistai” was written by Athenaeus. All fifteen volumes of it. It was about a bunch of guys getting together for dinner and everything they talked about. “Deipnosophist” nowadays is more likely to mean skill at dinner conversation, not just at dining.
The word is still extremely obscure, and you shouldn’t feel any real need to use it at all. Even so, you might want to keep all this in mind — it’s just something to chew on.
