With a growing awareness of where our food comes from and how it is made, the Alimentarium—has introduced its new annual theme focused on the people involved in food preparation. Whether a small artisan producer, a large multi-national company or parents cooking for their family, the museum plans to highlight “The Faces Behind Food” until December 2019.

The Alimentarium: World’s First-Ever Food-Themed Museum

Nestlé founded the Alimentarium in 1985. Located in Vevey, Switzerand, its the world’s first-ever museum devoted to food. Since its reopening in 2016 after a major renovation project, the museum has selected an annual theme each year to guide its programming. For the museum’s first theme, it considered food in terms of “Vice or Virtue.” This theme explored the labels of “good” or “bad” applied to specific foods, like sugar, superfoods, GMOs and artificial flavors. Now in its second year, its new theme discusses the people who produce our food—their emotions, experience and knowledge. It will present this theme through various means, such as exhibitions, workshops, events, presentations and digital content.

The museum itself has three individual sectors. They include Food, Body and Society, which all have new installations connected to this year’s theme. In the Society Sector, there’s a 1950s kitchen, complete with the gadgets of the era. In the Food Sector, you can take a Mystery Object quiz. It will help you determine the function of various tools used to prepare food. The Body Sector has information about two lesser-known professions from the food industry, sensory analyst and a flavorist.

The Schedule of Events

The Alimentarium will feature professionals working in five food industry sectors throughout the year, including:

• Dairy products: May 2018
• Confectionery: June-July 2018
• Fruit & vegetables: August-September 2018
• Meat: October-December 2018
• Bakery: Beginning of 2019 through March 2019

While the Alimentarium has an international focus, you will certainly find some elements of the new theme specific to Swiss food. For example, the museum has put a special press on display. It was used to make the prototype of the Maggi bouillon cube, invented in Switzerland by Julius Maggi. The Society Sector also includes professionals from various food-related trades in Switzerland talking about their jobs in video testimonies. In addition, existing workshops at the Alimentarium, such as “La cuisine des artisans” (Local produce, gastronomic delights)—which I have attended, fit well with its new theme. This workshop takes you into the streets of Vevey to meet with local producers. They supply you with the ingredients for a meal prepared back at the museum’s kitchen.

Alimentarium, Quai Perdonnet 25 – 1800 Vevey, +41 (0)21 924 41 11.

Updated: January 8, 2023