From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmavenma‧ven /ˈmeɪvən/ noun [countable] American EnglishINTELLIGENT someone who knows a lot about a particular subjectfood/fashion/sports etc maven A food maven could also be called a gourmet.
Examples from the Corpus
maven• Thus, the cash registers, not fashion mavens, choose the hues of the season.• Recipes will be judged on originality and compatibility with the wine by a panel of chefs and Bay Area food mavens.• What do film industry mavens make of this situation?• But now, with more-affordable computer equipment and software available, any would-be market maven can analyze a universe of stocks.• Media mavens contend that the visual comparison of the two men side by side is half the battle.• The most free-spending hired guns are all well-known by political mavens inside the Beltway.• Brown tapped veteran social maven Charlotte Mailliard Swig to her former post as protocol chief.food/fashion/sports etc maven• Recipes will be judged on originality and compatibility with the wine by a panel of chefs and Bay Area food mavens.• Thus, the cash registers, not fashion mavens, choose the hues of the season.From Longman Business Dictionarymavenma‧ven /ˈmeɪvən/ noun [countable] American English someone who knows a lot about a particular subjectSYNEXPERTStockmarket mavens say such a pattern usually signals more gains ahead.Origin maven (1900-2000) Yiddish meyvn, from Hebrew l'havin “to understand” 