epicure

epicure \EP-ih-kyur\, noun:

1. a person who enjoys eating and drinking and who is very particular in choosing fine foods and beverages; gourmet
2. a person who is fond of luxury and pleasure

The journalists, bloggers, chefs and others who make up the Fat Pack combine an epicure's appreciation for skillful cooking with a glutton's bottomless-pit approach.
-- Kim Severson, The Fat Pack Wonders if the Party's Over, New York Times, March 18, 2004

While taking courses at City College in the late 1930's, he became active in its Young Communist League, where he stood out as the only black person, as a talented organizer and as an epicure who introduced his comrades to good wines, cheeses and pates.
-- Alan Brinkley, One Was a Multitude, New York Times, March 1, 1993

As a confirmed epicure, I have eaten just about every meat acceptable in the Western world.
-- Robert V. Camuto, My Verona, Washington Post, May 3, 2004

c.1380, "follower of Epicurus," from Latin Epicurus, from Greek Epicouros (341-270 B.C.E.), the Athenian philosopher who taught that pleasure is the highest good and identified virtue as the greatest pleasure; the first lesson recalled, the second forgotten, and the name used pejoratively for "one who gives himself up to sensual pleasure" (1641), especially "glutton, sybarite" (1774). Epicurus's school opposed by Stoics, who first gave his name a reproachful sense.