The Gourmet Museum and Library () is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

dedicated to the

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

gastronomy Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between Human food, food and culture, the art of preparing and serving rich or delicate and appetizing food, the cooking styles of particular regions, and the science of good eating. One who is well ver ...

, located in

Hermalle-sous-Huy Hermalle-sous-Huy (, ) is a district of the municipality of Engis, located in the province of Liège in Wallonia, Belgium. During the Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from t ...

, province of Liège,

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Overview

Library

It is the most important collection of

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

and

drink A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothie ...

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

s in

and one of the twenty largest in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The books, mainly old, are about

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

s of the table and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, mainly in Europe and particularly in Belgium. They are classified by subjects:

biographies A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish (food), dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main r ...

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

cookery Cooking, also known as cookery or professionally as the culinary arts, is the art, science and craft of using heat to make food more palatable, digestible, nutritious, or safe. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling ...

child A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

ren’s cookery,

dietetics A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of ...

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

veganism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a vega ...

home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences (often shortened to FCS or FACS), is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and f ...

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

food chemistry Food chemistry is the study of chemical processes and interactions of all biological and non-biological components of foods. The biological substances include such items as meat, poultry, lettuce, beer, milk as examples. It is similar to biochemi ...

, publicities,

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, etc. The data-processing encoding is modern. An outline of the catalogue is reproduced on the website. This library has the only specimen of the ''Cuisinier anglais''. The library also has other specialities: * Art History and

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

and

choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

* Local and dialectal Archives * History of the

Post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

and of the

script Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

(funds created in 2004 with the Museum “Postes restantes” located in the same building). The works are consultable on written request and appointment, given the

voluntary Voluntary may refer to: * Voluntary (music) * Voluntary or volunteer, person participating via volunteering/volunteerism * Voluntary muscle contraction See also * Voluntary action * Voluntariness, in law and philosophy * Voluntaryism Volunt ...

help of the librarians.

Museum

Authentic objects of gastronomy, original

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

furniture Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...

masterpiece A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

s and objects of

curiosity Curiosity (from Latin , from "careful, diligent, curious", akin to "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals. Curiosity helps Developmental psyc ...

, etc. are laid out in

vaulted In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

rooms of the 17th

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

. The visits are always guided: the visitors are accompanied by a

guide A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom. Travel and recreation Exp ...

which explains, in an attractive and humorous way, the history of the

by taking its interlocutors into account. The children, the elderly, the

disabled Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physica ...

person find here an adapted reception. The association received the Belgium price CAP48 2009 for this policy

Exhibitions

Library and museum also organize in situ temporary

exhibitions An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

; they take part in cultural big events (like Made in Belgium in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

), and collaborate with other museums or institutions for

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

Further activities

From 2002, the NPO founder organizes guided

walk Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of terrestrial locomotion among legged animals. Walking is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined as an "inverted pendulum" gait in which the body vaults over ...

s for the discovery of a particular gastronomic

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...

: the

edible An edible item is any item that is safe for humans to eat. "Edible" is differentiated from " eatable" because it does not indicate how an item tastes, only whether it is fit to be eaten. Nonpoisonous items found in nature – such as some mushroo ...

wild plants. In addition, the tavern of the museums proposes dishes according to recipes from the library ; it thus allows the public to taste an old and

regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

cooking.

Sites of activity

Library and museum are installed in the “ Ferme castrale of Hermalle-sous-Huy” (in the administrative entity of

Engis Engis (; ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On 1 January 2006 Engis had a total population of 5,686. The total area is 27.74 km2 which gives a population density of 205 inhabitants per km2. As of 2 ...

), old farm of the contiguous castle. The buildings, which date from 17th and 18th centuries, can be the subject of a guided visit for groups. In addition to diary and tourist information in English, the website offers, in its French part, feature articles on particular subjects of gastronomy.

Notes

Sources

* ''Le Patrimoine monumental de la Belgique, Wallonie, T. 16/1'', Mardaga, Liège, 1992, d/1991/0024/10 * ''Brochure des journées du Patrimoine en Wallonie'', 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 * ''Hermalle-sous-Huy Un village du val mosan'', D/2004/8066/2 – * ''Nos recettes anciennes et belges'', D/2002/8066/1 – * ''Guide des musées Wallonie-Bruxelles'', D/2007/3606/1 * ''A... Musées vous !'', ISSN 0033-1872, 02/2006 * ''Châteaux de la Meuse'', Ed. FTPL - VVV Zuid-Limburg - Toerisme Limburg - FTPN, 2006 * ''Fiche du Patrimoine (Hermalle-sous-Huy, Ferme)'', Ed. DGATLP, Ministère de la Région wallonne * ''Carnet du Patrimoine : Verstraeten J., Moreau Cl. et CX. Ménage, la Ferme castrale d'Hermalle-sous-Huy in Le Patrimoine rural du Pays d'Amay'', Ed. Ministère de la Région wallonne, 1996 * Lemonnier A. & Marlaire Cl., ''Le Pont de Hermalle-sous-Huy - la Ferme castrale d'Hermalle-sous-Huy in Ponts d'hier et d'aujourd'hui'' - Le Pays hutois, Ed. MET, 1999 * Portugaels, Lily, ''La « Rawète » d'Internet'', in La Libre Belgique-La Gazette de Liège, 2002, February 11 * Lemaire, Guy, ''Le musée de la gourmandise, Unique en Belgique'', in Ambiance, 2003, May 21 * Duchateau, Catherine, ''Al Rawète devient La rawète'', in Vers l'Avenir, 2003, May 16 * Lemaire, Guy, ''Keenan Vranckx – Cuisine pour Harry Potter - Taxidermie culinaire'', in Spectacles, 2004, March 3

External links

*
Website about Hermalle-sous-Huy
{{Authority control Libraries in Belgium Drink-related museums Museums in Liège Province Food and drink museums Literary museums in Belgium