Gastronomy Sub-Collection

History of the Sub-Collection

According to the current collecting policy of the National Museum of Agriculture, the newly created sub-collection dedicated to gastronomy should in a sense function as an umbrella collection over all the other sub-collections. This pyramid structure rests on the foundation of primary sources, i.e. the raw materials included, for instance, in sub-collections dedicated to botany, fruit and vegetable growing, and fishing and fish farming. The following level, i.e. the stage where these sources are further utilised and processed, is covered for instance in the sub-collection dedicated to food processing, which focuses on the industrial processing of raw materials produced by a cultural landscape. The gastronomy sub-collection then represents the last stage, that is, the phase where pre-processed (or directly ‘gathered’) materials are processed in the kitchen, served, and consumed. This is clearly apparent also in the way this sub-collection is presented in the museum exhibition. This stage in a sense ‘crowns’ the entire complex process of agricultural production.

This newly created sub-collection to a large extent rests and relies on existing collections of the National Museum of Agriculture.