Perhaps more than ever, we enjoy experiencing the world via our dinner plates. A new exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum digs down into our love of eating to explore and explain the path of food, from farm to fork.
MPM dishes up "Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture," a traveling exhibition organized by New York’s American Museum of Natural History, on Friday, March 3. Museum members get a sneak peek on Saturday, Feb. 25.
Ever wondered how a cuisine reflects and influences culture and identity, or how what we eat affects the planet, or why food diversity is important or about the role of human ingenuity in food? This exhibition, which boasts a working kitchen, attempts to answer these questions and more.
The show has themed sections called "Grow," "Trade and Transport" – including a recreated Aztec market – "Cook," "Taste" (with a working kitchen, details below), "Eat," "Celebrate" and "Future of Food."
When "Our Global Kitchen" opened at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., in 2014, The Washingtonian called it "one of the most exciting culinary exhibits to arrive in Washington."
One of the main features of the exhibit – curated by the Museum of Natural History’s Dr. Eleanor Sterling, chief conservation scientist, and Dr. Mark Norell, chair of the museum’s division of paleontology – is the demonstration kitchen, which will offer cooking demos, tasty samples and more.
The kitchen plates up a full menu of themes – which change every other week – during the exhibition’s run, through July 9 (descriptions provided by Milwaukee Public Museum):
- March 3-16: Colorful Eating. Find out from where fruits and vegetables get their colors.
- March 17-30: Food Preservation. Learn how freezing, drying, curing and canning are used to preserve food.
- March 31-April 13: Herbs & Spices. Learn about the flavor profiles of various seasonings and how they are used globally.
- April 14-27: Breads & Grains. Learn about the variety of breads and grains around the world.
- April 28-May 11: Chocolate. Learn about local and global cultural traditions involving chocolate.
- May 12-25: Coffee & Tea. Learn about the rituals associated with drinking coffee or tea.
- May 26-June 8: Wisconsin Spring Fruits & Vegetables. Learn about the seasonal availability of edible spring plants in Wisconsin.
- June 9-22: Fermentation. Learn about fermentation and the historical, cultural and scientific reasons behind the process.
- June 23-July 9: Dairy. Learn why Wisconsin is known as "America’s Dairyland."
The Milwaukee Public Museum will also host a slate of other special events, including the intriguing "How Milwaukee Fed America" event with John Gurda and Kyle Cherek at Karl Ratzch restaurant on Wednesday, April 26.
Details on that event and the others being prepped for "Global Kitchen" can be found here.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
