A museum dedicated to the evolution, history and science of food is set to open its doors in London next month, where visitors will be able to watch what happens to food once it enters the body and learn about the importance of butterflies in food production.
Those are just a few of the exhibits at the British Museum of Food (BMO), billed as a cultural institution centred on the importance of food.
Curated by food and drink studio Bompas and Parr, the museum will be located near Borough Market – one of the oldest food markets in London – until a permanent space is found.
Its story is not unlike the ambitious plans hatched across the pond, where a group of food scientists and chefs in the US has been working on opening what they’ve also been pitching as the world’s first Museum of Food and Drink (Mofad) for the past few years.
It’s a tight race: the British museum has scheduled their opening date for October 23, five days before Mofad is set to open the doors to their first brick-and-mortar food lab in Brooklyn.
The US exhibit looks at the evolution of artificial flavours in the food industry.
Both are billed as a world first, but both exhibits are likewise temporary. Neither has found a permanent home for their ambitious plans yet.
Mofad founder and food scientist Dave Arnold, for instance, is looking for a 2,790 sq m venue in New York to house a food museum akin in scope to the Smithsonian or Natural History Museum.
Meanwhile, other exhibits in the London museum will include food-related artworks, an archive of British menus through the ages, as well as an audio soundscape of chocolate.
Bompas and Parr rose to fame in 2008 after hosting an Architectural Jelly Banquet that invited jelly lovers to create buildings and landmarks with the wobbly stuff.
The British Museum of Food opens October 23.
