The Alimentarium in Vevey, 2014

Did you know Switzerland is home to the world’s first food museum? The Alimentarium opened in Vevey in 1985. If you’ve never been there before, this weekend will be your last chance until 2016, as it will close for a major renovation. To commemorate its final days before the temporary shutdown, the museum will offer many special activities during its open door celebration and closing festivities on Saturday, August 22 and Sunday, August 23.

I visited the Alimentarium last year with my boys, and it has an impressive collection of food-related tools, retro packaging and other artifacts from throughout history—like a chocolate bar distributed by US Armed Forces in the Philippines in 1942. Given my particular interest in baking, and Bundt cakes in particular, I especially enjoyed seeing the antique gugelhupf pans. While the museum is closed, you can still access many of these items via its eCollection.

Gugelhupf pans at the Alimentarium, 2014

In addition to the Alimentarium’s eCollection, you can also engage with the museum in several other ways during its closure, such as the following (all are available in English):

• Alimentarium Academy: an online learning tool about food and nutrition for children, parents and teachers.
• Games: a total of five games (two for PCs and Macs, and three for smartphones and tablets), such as “Dishes of the World” and “Digestix®.”
• eMagazine: as of August 2015, I found all 4 issues of the Alimentarium Magazine available online with themes like “Let’s Eat,” and “One World, Five Senses.”

The newly remodeled Alimentarium will open again on June 4, 2016. In advance of the re-opening, it will announce new workshops in February 2016.

More information:
The Alimentarium
Questions? During the closure, send an email to: info@alimentarium.ch

Have you been to the Alimentarium before? What did you think? I won’t make it to the museum this weekend, unfortunately, but look forward to seeing its new redesign next year!