How the Museum of Food and Drink is redefining museums, one bite at a time

Brooklyn's Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) is a first-of-its-kind institution, dedicated to exploring the rich intersections of food, culture and science. According to MOFAD President Nazli Parvizi, the museum’s origins trace back to a pivotal question posed by founder Dave Arnold in 2015: “Why isn’t there a Smithsonian-level institute dedicated to the study of the culture and science behind food?” Arnold decided to do something about it and the result was MOFAD.

The rest, as they say, is history.

In a recent conversation with Salon, Parvizi waxed poetic about the museum’s programs and events, each offering a unique and fascinating perspective on food and its role in our lives.

From exhibits on COVID-19’s impact on taste and smell, to a history of Chinese-American restaurants, to the foodways of Black Americans — curated by the legendary Dr. Jessica B. Harris — MOFAD dives deep into how food shapes and is shaped by, our history and identities.

It’s an essential destination for food lovers and anyone curious about the culture behind what we eat.

The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length. 

Can you talk a bit about the history of the museum?

MOFAD was founded around 2015 by Dave Arnold, who was the founder of the Food Tech Program at the French Culinary Institute. I think for him, it was a simple question of why isn't there a Smithsonian-level institute dedicated to the study of the culture and science behind food.

And with that question, he set about trying to answer it with the creation of MOFAD. Things really took shape with the opening of MOFAD Lab, MOFAD's first space in Williamsburg.  It was meant as a proof of concept space to show what kinds of exhibitions were possible – from a show on the history of cereal to "CHOW," a history of the Chinese-American restaurant in America.

What exactly is the MOFAD Lab?

That is the space in Williamsburg that had opened. We don't use the same name for the current DUMBO space, but I think for us, our spaces have been these sort of experimental, pop-up, proof of concept spaces that we hope to show and prove the value of a food museum to visitors – in the hopes that we will be able to grow into a larger museum where we can have a dedicated kids wing, cultural wing, science wing and be able to offer many exhibitions and programming. We have big dreams for the future of MOFAD and in the meantime, we'll start small and build our way up to them.

What are some of the current exhibits?

Well, we call ourselves a bite-sized museum. We were so lucky to be able to open up again last winter inside the historic Empire Stores building in DUMBO. But we still operate more as a gallery than a museum and show one exhibition at a time. Our current exhibition is called Flavor: the World to Your Brain and it's our meditation on COVID. Many cultural institutions have not figured out how yet to reflect on COVID.

As a food museum, we realized that for the first time, tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of people lost their sense of smell and didn't really understand what was happening in their own bodies. The first half of the show unpacks the sensory systems that leads people to experience flavor in a nanosecond. The second half of the exhibition is really about the history and birth of the flavor industry and how we have decided to categorize what is “natural” and what is “artificial”.

Visitors at the Museum of Food and Drink (Courtesy of MOFAD)

Are there any especially exciting upcoming exhibits or events?

We always have amazing evening programs at MOFAD which really highlight the breadth and depth of what we care about.  This fall, we are hosting our first gala since 2019. We're so thrilled! And the gala is actually loosely themed around our next exhibition, opening in 2025, which will be a history of street carts and street vending in New York City.

We think it's a really timely moment to talk about street vending, especially with the vitriolic language around immigration and migration in the city and in the country – street vending has always been an informal economic ladder up and has helped lift up new Americans and the city’s economy.

Can you tell our readers a bit more about "Flavor: The World To Your Brain"? 

It's a meditation on COVID and really unpacks the sensory experience that leads to flavor. It's a really interactive exhibition — you smell things, you taste things. We have a brainwave machine that charts your brain activity while you're tasting different types of food. We have an incredible smell synth — instead of playing music notes, it plays notes of odor and you can really see how things mix together to form familiar scents and unfamiliar scents. So, it's a really fun, interactive show. 

And everyone walks away knowing not just more about how their bodies work, but also discovering that there's a flavor industry, I think, is really surprising to people. I think it's something most people don't even think about — that there's this entire sector of the food world and food scientists exist and they're responding to climate change, to cultural shifts, to immigration patterns, to trends and foretelling the flavors of the future.

So I always say when I give tours, like you think you like matcha, but you know, 10 years ago there wasn't anything matcha flavored outside of Japan. So it's kind of a "Devil Wears Prada" moment: You think you chose that sweater, but it was probably chosen by 10 food scientists working out of a lab out in Princeton, New Jersey somewhere.

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MOFAD has had some amazing exhibits in recent years. Were there any that especially stood out for you?

MOFAD really has had some amazing exhibits in recent years, but the one that especially stands out for me was African/American: Making the Nation's Table.  In college, I did a research project focusing on Black women in Harlem and their relationship to soul food.

So I've always been interested in both African foodways and Afro Caribbean foodways. Dr. Jessica B. Harris, who was our guest curator for the exhibition, was one of the few sources that I had. You know, 25 years ago, when I was conducting my research, there were almost no scholars writing about and talking about Black food.

And so to be able to, all these years later, have an exhibit on Black food and have it be so rich and so documented and just to see the canon of Black food, especially cookbooks, but scholars as well, to see it grow so much since that time, you know, 25, 26 years ago, when I was trying to do research was really special.

I also think it was incredible because I got to see the impact of the exhibition on both Black and non-Black audiences. I think for Black audiences, there was such immense pride. Every single one of our stories, whether about rice agriculture, whiskey distilling, fine dining or the Civil Rights Movement was rooted in the immense pain and violence of enslavement. But I think that it was really special to see that the basis of agriculture, the basis of fine dining, really just the foundation of what we know as American food was born out of practices, skills and teachings of African American farmers, cooks, scholars and craftspeople – whether those contributions were forced or freely given.

And then I think for non-Black audiences, just to get the full breadth and depth of what we mean by Black food and what we mean when we say it’s the foundation of American food and how so much of what we know today, whether it’s food like ice cream or French fries, farming practices and tools or distilling methods – to reveal those stories, I think was really eye opening for folks.

The legacy of it and, to this day, who benefits from that labor and who doesn't, I think we have to continue to reckon, acknowledge and try to correct the inequities that have been built into the food system — as they've been built into so many other systems.

But again, I think we showed it in a way that was really enlightening. And of educated people in a way that was very approachable and very joyful without hiding the dark past behind any of those stories.

What kind of other programs do the museum offer?

MOFAD offers other kinds of programs. Of course, we offer school tours, so we love to welcome, for this exhibit, grades four all the way through college and grad school students.  We love to welcome them into the space and give them guided tours. We also offer evening programs, again through a various range of topics.

Just last week, we had an incredible program. There were many ancient artifacts of Mayan and Aztec origin that were used in chocolate making that are being repatriated back to the National Museum  of Mexico and the objects were displayed at MOFAD on their way over. We had chocolate experts and historians talk about the artifacts, what they could have been used for. We had incredible chocolate makers provide chocolates and hot chocolate for us. So a lot of our programs, as true to our name, both educate, inspire and feed you. We also offer morning programs and book programs for children and adults alike.

How can people in New York City and surrounding areas get involved with MOFAD?

There are a lot of ways of getting involved with MOFAD. We are always in search of volunteers and docents, whether it's program volunteers or during the day when we're open for the exhibition. We love having docents who can help guide visitors through our space. Then of course, if folks want to get involved in larger ways, we're always looking for creative partners to help us activate MOFAD or partner with us in interesting ways.

There have been so many closures of small museums and museums have to think about how to operate in different ways while still staying true to their missions. But I think it also opens the door for really fun collaborations. And when you run a food and drink museum, there's really interesting and fun ways of partnering with different brands.

Visitors at the Museum of Food and Drink (Courtesy of MOFAD)

Can you talk a bit about the MOFAD Fall Gala, which was held at Essex Market?

Comedian Wyatt Cenac was the host, we had toasts from Assemblyperson/Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, activist/author/influencer and angel investor Hannah Bronfman, actress/comedian/community organizer/host of Shop Cats Michelladonna, Street Vendor Project president Mohamed Attia, Found of MOFAD, author and bar genius Dave Arnold and Osteida Oyster Vodka maker Manya Rubenstein.

We had the king of burgers George Motz on deck spinning records, Night Kitchen catered an incredible meal and treats from Dhamaka, Baby's Buns, Solid Wiggles, Karl's Balls, Via Carota and Lady Wong. The gala was a dedication the the Russ family and Mark Russ Federman, Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper all made beautiful speeches full of fascinating stories about Russ & Daughters! (Did you know R&D had a tinned fish speakeasy during WWII?) 

We broke bread, exchanged stories, spoke to the importance of telling food stories of all walks of life and raised a ton of money to continue our efforts to continue to amplify the voices that spread hope and kindness and lift up the scholars, food workers, chefs and writers who use the power of food to learn how to create a more thoughtful, equitable and delicious future.

This is Part 1 of Salon's interview with MOFAD president Nazli Parvizi; Part 2 will run later this week. 

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect that the MOFAD FallGala has now taken place.