the food museum

The Ramen Museum, Yokohama, Japan

Via the website--

Alimentarium, Vevey, Switzerland--Begun by the Nestle Foundation, this all-food museum examines, cooking, purchasing, eating and digesting, and also features a review of Nestle's history. It is not purely a public relations exercise at all, however, for its reach is well beyond Nestle.

Museum der Brotkultur, Ulm, Germany ---This museum about bread ..." is dedicated to the 6,000-year history of bread as an indispensable basis of human culture and civilisation. It owes its creation and growth to the decades-long personal commitment of Willy Eiselen (1896-1981) and his son Hermann Eiselen (born 1926). Both dealt in the manufacture and sale of bakery ingredients and were among the leading suppliers to the bakery trade. The two entrepreneurs founded the museum as the German Bread Museum in 1955 as an association. "

The Museum of English Rural Life, Reading, England

"The Museum of English Rural Life houses the most comprehensive national collection of objects, books and archives relating to the history of food, farming and the countryside." 

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A cook without tools cannot cook, eh? The volunteers behind the creation of this fulsome "utensil" museum won a silver medal for tourism in 2010. Visit the site here.

Muzeum Gastronomie, Prague, Czech Republic

Pizza Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Gelato Museum, Carpigiani, Italy

American Diner Museum, Providence, Rhode Island

Vidalia Onion Museum, Vidalia, Georgia

National Museum of Agriculture, Prague, Czech Republic

Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, Budapest, Hungary

Georgia Museum of Agriculture , Tifton, GA

Scottish Fisheries Museum, Anstruther, Fife, Scotland

The World Carrot Museum, UK    

François Boucher: Boy Holding A Carrot, 1738, Via World Carrot Museum

 Vidalia Onion Museum

"During the tough days of the Great Depression, farmers had high hopes of a new cash crop. These hard-working men had grown everything from corn to cotton in Georgia’s sandy soil, and onions seemed to hold some promise of better profits.

Imagine their surprise and concern when what grew was not an instant money-maker but a strange onion that wasn’t hot!" Via Vidalia Onion Museum

Sweet onions are Vidalia's most famous crop, and now the town has a museum explaining all.

The Farmers' Museum, Cooperstown, NY  

"As one of the oldest rural life museums in the country, The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, New York, provides visitors with a unique opportunity to experience 19th-century rural and village life firsthand through demonstrations and interpretive exhibits. The museum, founded in 1943, comprises a working farmstead, a recreated historic village, a Country Fair featuring The Empire State Carousel, and a Colonial Revival stone barn listed on the National Register for Historic Places, The museum preserves important examples of upstate New York architecture, early agricultural tools and equipment, and heritage livestock."

The American Diner Museum, (On-Line), Providence, RI

"Since 1996, the American Diner Museum has been focused on celebrating and preserving the cultural and historical significance of the American diner, a unique American institution. The museum also hopes to recognize and share the importance of diners nationally and internationally."

Southern Food and Beverage Museum, New Orleans, LA

"While based in New Orleans, the Museum examines and celebrates all the cultures that have come together through the centuries to create the South’s unique culinary heritage. It brings all races and ethnicities to the table to tell the tale, from the farmer and the homemaker to the line cook and the celebrity chef. And it is be fun, with tastings and other food-centered events that capture the essence of Southern foodways."

Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University,Providence, RI 

"Through exhibitions and special events, the museum strives to interpret the evolution of food preparation and presentation, the development of culinary equipment and technology, the diverse menus offered, and the places where people partake of food.'

The National Mustard Museum, Middleton, WI

The former Mount Horeb Mustard Museum, founded in 1986, is awash in mustards, as well as mustardabilia.

"A crate of vintage French’s… entertaining mustard ads from yesteryear… ornate and dazzling mustard jars… The Great Wall of Mustard… and so it goes. The National Mustard Museum receives mustards and items of historical significance from all over the globe. Recently, a friend brought us three handsome mustards from Bolivia."

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So many choco museums, so little time!  

Chocolate Museum, Koln, Germany  

"The Chocolate Museum is located in a glass and metal building constructed to look like a ship on the Rheinau harbour peninsula right next to the Old Town and near the Cologne cathedral. In medieval Cologne, the harbour served as an anchoring and reloading point for boats and ships on the Rhine. Today when you cross the historical swing bridge, you enter a new section of the city. The museum is located at the northern tip of this area. Walking through the three exhibition levels is like taking a tour through the 3,000 year history of chocolate - from the Aztec ambrosia - "food of the gods" - to modern industrial products."

Founded in 1993 by Hans Imhoff, who grew up sniffing the chocolate aromas from the nearby Stollwerck Chocolate factory, the collection began when Imhoff came across masses of materials ready to be thrown out, among them rusted vending machines and 1600 glass plates relating to chocolate.

Choco-Story, The Chocolate Museum, Bruges, Belgium

Chocolate Wrappers Museum, (On-Line), Prague, Czech Republic

Martin Mihal collects wrappers--you can view them on line--but also, he has attempted to compile a list of the world's chocolate museums. Among them is a choc museum in St Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, part of the oldest Canadian family-owned candy company. The list--a few links down-- is still a terrific resource for the choco-fan.