In 2025 Amsterdam is celebrating its 750th anniversary. The Allard Pierson is taking part in the festivities with a mouth-watering exhibition devoted to cooking and eating in Amsterdam. In a journey through 750 years of food culture, visitors discover what has been on Amsterdammers’ plates over the centuries. Cookbooks, menus, archaeological finds, manuscripts and other sources highlight the city’s culinary traditions up to the present. It seems that Amsterdam’s residents have always had a ‘curious stomach’.

Dishes
Dishes take central stage in the exhibition on Amsterdam’s food culture; from everyday fare to gourmet delights, from delicacies to medicaments. Beginning with herring, eaten in the Middle Ages by both rich and poor, even for breakfast. The last dish is nasi goreng, which symbolises the melting pot of tastes in the post-WWII city. Other dishes on offer are: oyster pie, seasoned with exclusive spices that also played a role in health regimens; the oliebol (a type of beignet), already a popular delicacy in the 17th century; roast game, a centrepiece on sumptuous tables in 18th-century canal mansions. Also steak, a favourite in Amsterdam restaurants, or traditional winter food like stamppot (potatoes mashed with vegetables). Then there are pickles, so closely connected with the Jewish community in Amsterdam, and the croquette sandwich, an important element of post-WWII food culture. Each dish spotlights a cookbook from the Allard Pierson collection, together with other cookbooks, objects and recipes. There are unique items, including the only known copy of the oldest Amsterdam cookbook dating from 1617 and a Portuguese-Jewish recipe manuscript compiled around 1800.
Iconic for Amsterdam
The exhibition not only highlights what was eaten but also by whom, when and where. Prints, paintings, drawings and photographs indicate how Amsterdam’s food culture functions both as a mirror of the city and a motor for urban development. Old maps show the city’s markets and restaurants, such as inns in the historical centre, as well as country estates where the elite grew vegetables, and the canal district’s stately townhouses, each with their own kitchen staff. The 19th-century middle-class and working-class neighbourhoods had a totally different food culture. In the 18th century, Amsterdam was receptive to many influences from France, and a century later elegant restaurants appeared that were modelled on the Parisian culinary scene. Different kinds of migrant kitchens began to emerge and sandwich shops and snack bars came to define the streetscape. Amsterdam has always been a hotspot for new types of food, sometimes leading to lengthy queues outside.


Trends
The exhibition also considers the role of nutrition and food (and food habits) in Amsterdam today as well as challenges in the future. Chefs and other experts have been invited to comment on various dishes and themes, each from their own field of expertise. It turns out that new trends like seasonal food, vegetarianism and exchanging recipes are anything but novelties.
Amsterdammers eating together
In collaboration with seven ambassadors from all Amsterdam’s boroughs, the Allard Pierson is developing a presentation on the diversity of food cultures in the city. Hosted by visual artist Malou Sumah, the participants share their personal stories about favourite dishes, table customs and traditions around the dinner table. These stories will be integrated into a collective textile work. The ‘dinner table’ conversations with the seven ambassadors are shown on film. Visitors, too, can contribute to the tablecloth that is being created. And so the exhibition ends with a tangible icon of the diversity of food cultures among today’s Amsterdammers.
Amsterdam Eats was made possible with support from Zadelhoff Cultuurfonds, VSB fonds, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and het Cultuurfonds.




Word Gastronomische Vriend
En draag bij aan het behoud en de uitbreiding van een van de grootste gastronomische collecties van Europa.
