Food history

The Food History Collection is the largest collection on culinary heritage in the Netherlands and provides insight into the history of cooking, eating and drinking from the late 16th century to the present. With more than twenty thousand books, the collection contains virtually all key Dutch cookery books, as well as a large number of foreign cookery books, recipe manuscripts and books and brochures on drinks, nutrition, diets, home economics, etiquette and countless other subjects. There is also an extensive collection of menus and a number of archives of cookbook writers and chefs.

The collection came about through purchases, loans and donations, from, among others, the Gastronomic Library Foundation (containing collections of culinary journalists Johannes van Dam, Joop Witteveen and Bart Cuperus), the former Culinary Museum Amersfoort, the Food Information Office, Willem and Coby Heijting and culinary journalist Wina Born. The collection mainly covers the Netherlands, but also areas that have influenced Dutch food habits, such as France, the Dutch East Indies, Suriname and more.
 

• Dutch cookbooks from 1593 to the present day
• Dutch-Indonesian and Surinamese cookery books
• Etiquette books
• Publications on food and health (books, brochures)
• Menus of restaurants, airline and shipping companies and private establishments

All books, brochures and most manuscripts in the Food History Collection can be found through the online Catalogue. Menu cards and archives can be found in ArchivesSpace. Literature on these topics can be found through the online Catalogue.

Journals, reference works, bibliographies and printed catalogues of manuscripts and printed books can be found in the Reading Room’s reference library. If you are unable to request materials or have another question, please use the contact form.

For UvA students or staff members: Click here

For people not affiliated with the UvA: Click here

• Katell Lavéant
  Curator of printed collections
  Send an e-mail: k.v.m.p.laveant@uva.nl 
  UvA profile: To the UvA staff page