Musée de l’Alimentation
A giant fork stuck into Lake Geneva (pictured at left) marks the location of the Alimentarium, part of the Nestlé Foundation (its formal address is Quai Perdonnet, Vevey, Switzerland). Opened in 1985, the food museum is a multi-media discovery center about nutrition. In addition to interactive displays, the museum maintains an active publication schedule. Among the diverse offerings in its shop are six programs on biotechnology and food (on two CDs in four languages!), The Saga of the Soup Tureen (about the various meanings of this simple everyday object) and Food in the year 1000 (in case you wondered what was on the menu that year). The Museum Garden, facing the lake, shows a selection of the main food plants according to the season, interspersed with picnic areas. There’s always a vegetable patch and a garden of aromatic plants, but the garden is specially planted up for particular exhibition themes. The permanent exhibition starts with purchasing, continues through 
cooking and eating, and finishes up in digestion. Now, there’s a topic generally overlooked by foodies! This section explains how digestion occurs, what the role of metabolism is and posits different types of “eaters”. Here the visitor is the centerpiece, with his or her own body becoming both the subject and the object of the exhibition! The Alimentarium definitely on my list to visit the next time I’m in the country! It’s open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oh — the sculptor for la Fourchette is Jean-Pierre Zaugg.
