A food museum is a type of museum that specialises in specific ingredients and dishes, as well as broader foodways. They may remain in place or travel as a mobile exhibition. Some restaurants have a restaurant on site, with selections that relate to the exhibitions on show at the museum. Living history museums can serve as food museums, displaying several aspects of food in a historical place and time, including the production of ingredients, their processing, and finally their preparation and consumption.
The politics of food in museums has been analysed from an intersectional perspective. From that perspective, food exhibitions in the museums of the 19th century served a colonial purpose. By sorting and displaying the food of other cultures of the audience and curators, cultures could be established as Other. As of the late 2010s, food museums were far more prominent than they had been historically. This trend could be observed in China, where the number of food museums had grown from very few at the start of the century, to 143 by 2018. One analysis credited this to a response by museums to broader interest in food media, and to food offering particular insights into the past, allowing visitors to relate to historical subjects.
