Isabelle Hausmann08.08.2024Alcohol has been a companion to humankind since the year dot: as an enjoyable beverage and addictive substance, but also as a hygienic alternative to water and even as a remedy for intestinal worms. A short cultural history of an everyday toxic substance.
Michael van Orsouw24.08.2023Sisi, the famous Empress Elisabeth, was a much more frequent visitor to Switzerland than previously known. She visited the Bernese Oberland in 1892, where she very much enjoyed a local product normally used as pig feed...
Thomas Weibel23.12.2022"Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel": in the 1973 Czech-German fantasy film, three enchanted hazelnuts make all the heroine’s dreams come true. But even without any magic, the hazelnut is a remarkable fruit.
Dominik Landwehr05.12.2022The process of industrialisation witnessed its first peak in Switzerland between 1850 and 1900. This upheaval also transformed the way food was produced and what people ate.
Andrej Abplanalp28.11.2022Maestro Martino left his Ticino mountain village, and became the first celebrity chef in history. He built his reputation in the kitchens of the powerful and rich in the 15th century, and is one of the co-founders of Italian cuisine!
Nemo Krüger24.06.2022With the fall of the beer cartel, Switzerland’s breweries entered a new era. The way was clear for foreign corporations, alternative business models and smaller competitors. This phenomenon reflects the history of an entire national economy.
Michael van Orsouw27.05.2022Born in a mountain valley in Ticino, Carlo Gatti moved on to Paris and later to London. He was the first street vendor of ice cream in London, eventually earning a reputation as the uncrowned “Ice Cream King” of Victorian England.
