From 5 to 7 April , appointment at Garum - Library and Museum of Cuisine, with the exhibition " A WORLD OF MENU: the great history at the table ", with over 400 historical and contemporary menus , some of which are true rare pearls never made visible to the public , coming from the major private collections in Italy and beyond. The inauguration is scheduled for 5pm on Thursday 4 April.
The exhibition seals the collaboration between " Menu Associati - international association of historical menus " (www.menuassociati.eu) and Garum - Library and Museum of Cuisine of the Rossano Boscolo Sesillo Foundation, a collaboration that the Presidency of the Republic wanted to honor by participating in the exhibition with a panel that recalls, through the menus, all the Presidents of the Italian Republic and the relationships with other Nations.
The exhibition is divided into 18 monothematic panels and concludes with an additional panel that aims to anticipate the commitment of Menu Associati and the cultural association CheftoChef emiliaromagnacuochi in support of the candidacy of Italian Cuisine as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Accompanying the exhibition is an impressive catalog (464 pages), an unmissable knowledge tool for professionals in the sector, for gourmets and curious enthusiasts, who by leafing through it will find many episodes (and dishes!) perhaps forgotten or in any case worth remembering. The preface of the catalog is signed by Prof. Alberto Capatti , while the texts are by Maurizio Campiverdi , Franco Chiarini , Giulio Fano , Matteo Ghirighini and Roberto Liberi , all members of Menù Associati.
Many of the menus will be displayed for the first time in the world , starting from the oldest known printed menu (1803) up to contemporary menus such as the one for the lunch offered by Casa Artusi to President Napolitano on 7 January 2011 or the one relating to the trip of Pope Francis in Cuba , to meet Patriarch Kirill.
Collaborating in the exhibition, as lenders or by providing specific texts and essays, among others: Maurizio Campiverdi , owner of the largest known collection of menus and President of Menu Associati, Academia Barilla , Istituto Luigi Sturzo , MAV Fondazione Modena Arti Visive , Casa Artusi, Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichschafen and, exceptionally, the Historical Archive of the Presidency of the Republic .
In the vision proposed by the exhibition, the menu, as well as an artefact often of fine and artistic workmanship and an eyewitness to the history of gastronomy, represents a credible chronicler of contemporary economics, social and political sciences and everyday life. In fact, the menus displayed, and extensively described in the analytical catalogue, are linked to historical events and particular situations such as, for example: the celebrations for the Albertine Statute (1848), Garibaldi's controversial visit to London (1864) , the Breccia di Porta Pia and the two World Wars , up to the diplomatic relations after the Second World War as in the case of the breakfast menu offered by President Cossiga to Mikhail Gorbachev after the fall of the Berlin Wall . They are accompanied by menus that tell us about the last hours of the Titanic , the great exploits of Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh , Umberto Nobile and Francesco De Pinedo . From the first lunch of Hitler and Mussolini (1934 ) and those of Castro and Kennedy related to the period of Cuban nationalizations, to those linked to the celebrations for the wedding of Charles and Diana, William and Kate , passing through the coronations of Elizabeth II and Nicholas II, the last Tsar .
But also menus linked to the celebrations and inaugurations of the Panama Canal and the Eiffel Tower ; menus printed on special supports such as silk and porcelain often prepared by great artists such as Alphonse Mucha; the menus of the great Expos , extraordinary opportunities for meeting and exchange for the peoples of the Earth: from the Crystal Palace expo of 1851 to Milan 2015, passing through the great Parisian Expo of 1900. And again: celebratory menus of the great sporting events , from the first Tours de France to the Italian Touring Club, from the 1936 Olympics to the First Tour of Italy.
The Secretary of Menu Associati, Giulio Fano, who together with the coordinator Roberto Liberi participated in the planning of this exhibition, are convinced that « this event will be the driving force for many other initiatives that will contribute to achieving the objective of having Italian Cuisine recognized by part of UNESCO as a gastronomic heritage, as already proposed by the current government together with various other cultural realities ". And they underline " the peculiarity of this exhibition is the use of individual menus as pieces of a mosaic to tell our history, the achievements of our civilization and, of course, the history of cuisine in the last two centuries ".
Maurizio Campiverd , the founder and President of Menu Associati and the world's largest collector of menus and restaurant cards, recalls that « Rossano Boscolo, president of Garum, and its Director Matteo Ghirighini were crucial for the creation of this exhibition in the belief that their Museum della Cucina will become an important center for studies and collection of historical menus also at the service of those international realities, French in the first place, which are re-evaluating this fundamental gastronomic tool to rewrite the many stories of many different cuisines ".
The exhibition will be open from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th April from 10am to 6pm continuously. Free entry.
