However, only a very few people know that Anton Mosimann possesses a unique cookbook library. The more than 6,000 items in his collection allow us to learn a great deal about culinary history over the last five centuries. The collection includes two editions (1516 and 1530) of the first printed gastronomic text, which was written by Platina, the Vatican librarian; and a work on the preparation of jam by Nostradamus, an astrologist and personal physician. But also in the collection are the first cookbook printed in German, the Küchenmeisterey, in an edition from 1516; and Alessio Piemontese’s 16th century work known as The Book of Secrets, which was translated into German by Hanns Jacob Wecker from Basle. His wife, Anna Wecker, was the first woman to publish a cookbook.

Historic and royal menu cards, such as the menu for King George V’s coronation in 1911, and contemporary Christmas greeting cards from Mosimann’s club in London, make this a highly interesting exhibition. It is the first time that items from Anton Mosimann’s collection are being put on public display. In addition to the 120 objects from Mosimann’s collection, 25 children’s cookbooks will be exhibited. There will also be small, sumptuous and sensuous sculptures and painted plates by the Swiss artist Kathryn Zellweger-Staehelin.