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ALIMENTARIUM - FOOD MUSEUM - VEVEY
Nestlé Foundation on Lake Geneva
The
Alimentarium Food Museum in Vevey, on the shoreline promenade of Lake
Geneva has celebrated
over 25 Years. As much museum about the process
of nourishment as abstract social art. You know you’re at the food
museum because of the giant fork sticking mysteriously from the waters
of the lake like some giant has just left the dining table to answer
the phone. The alimentary canal digestion system in a living organism
is basically what goes in one end and comes out the other, and the Alimentarium
Food Museum pretty much covers it, in a fun modern and exploratory way.
The
museum exhibit was first opened in 1985 as a heritage foundation by
the Nestle
Company
in the neoclassic historic mansion which served
as a headquarters for the brand since 1921. French born entrepreneur
Henri Nestlé, first discovered condensing milk intended for baby
formula, then joined with local inventor Daniel Peter creating the process
to make milk chocolate, and began what would become a worldwide empire
of food products. The current Nestlé Company headquarters is a
mile or two away on the outskirts of Vevey, but the original oval wood
paneled office 
where the Nestle and Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company
was run by August Roussy, the
grandson of an investor who bought the company and the Nestlé's
name in 1875, remains as it was. Draped windows look out on the lake
past one of the original brass chocolate
making pressure vessel cookers, with a display of logos and historic
marketing campaigns on the walls. The Nestle owned Cailler Chocolate
Factory is
a train ride
away in Broc, Gruyeres (see The
Chocolate Train and Maison
Cailler Chocolate Factory Tour), so the Food Museum in Vevey
is not about the history of Nestle, but the story of food and our everyday
relation to it.
The
Food Museum exhibits are spread over two floors, in four theme sections
of Cooking, Eating,
Purchasing and Digestion, presented in an interactive
and stylistic format. The Cooking room is an actual working kitchen where
chefs called "animators" (but real actual people) demonstrate cooking
techniques, with static exhibits on food preparation and processing,
and utensils
from stoves to microwaves. The Eating section presents exhibits on table
manners, food in the media, dining in restaurants and lets you play with
the food pyramid of diet balance.
Upstairs,
the Purchasing section is set up like a modern market, with bins representing
agriculture, marketing,
food product manufacturing and distribution and interactive computer
display stations in mini-shopping carts. Explore of the journey of
food from the field to the factory to store shelves. The Digesting
room covers metabolism and the effects of food on the body, a track
calorie burn
in the walking wheel, learn
about exercise, the senses, food behavior like over-eating,
and
lastly a 3D movie takes you on a journey through the body’s digestive
process from mouth to molecules. The Media Center in the eating section
allows computer station access to online references and workshops in
the kitchen allow visitors to learn cooking tips and techniques. There
is a kid's junior section with cooking workshops and activities, but
only in French. The workshops require a reservation.
Visiting the Nestle Foundation Food Museum
The
Alimentaium Food Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm, closed
Mondays.
Entrance
cost is
10 CHF for Adults, 8 CHF for Students and Seniors, free
for children under 16, and free with a Swiss Pass. And just for 2010,
anyone who turns 25 gets in free, (though sorry, no birthday presents).
If all the food displays and the aromas make you hungry, the museum café serves
a varied daily menu with items cooked up by the chefs in the museum kitchen.
The museum is located just to the east of the Place du Marche on the
Quai Perdonnet, very near the symbolic statue of Vevey’s most famous
movie star resident Charlie Chaplin and can be easily combined with the
Camera Museum (see Swiss
Camera Museum Vevey) and the Vevey History Museum with its
history of the 25 year wine festival (see Vevey
History Museum). © Bargain
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Alimentarium
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SEE
ALSO:
MUSEE D' L’ELYSEE - PHOTOGRAPHY MUSEUM
HOTEL BARON TAVERNIER - LE DECK - CHEXBRES
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