How has it taken so long? Anyway, this news will, we reckon, make some sweet-toothed readers melt with excitement.
Called Scoop: The Wonderful World of Ice Cream, there’s a new pop-up alongside the canal in King’s Cross that’s unbelievably the first ever exhibition of its kind in the country. It’s also – fact fans – the inaugural exhibition of the new British Museum of Food (of which more later).
The celebratory show will attempt to, um, churn over the past, present and future of ice cream in what they’re calling a “total sensory immersion” – one where you can “savour the taste of centuries”.
It features highlights from the world’s largest collection of ice cream paraphernalia, from moulds to an Andy Warhol print, drawn from 14,000 items collected over 40 years by Robin and Caroline Weir (the authors of an award-winning book Ice Creams Sorbets and Gelati The Definitive Guide)
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The exhibition also coincides with the 300th anniversary of Mary Eales’ Receipts (1718), the first printed volume to feature ice cream in an English publication. Eales claims to have sold confectionary at the court of Queen Anne. Trivia fans will also thrill in the knowledge that it’s the 399th anniversary of the first ice house built in Britain (to make ice cream) in Greenwich Park by order of James 1.
What else? Visitors will get to know one Agnes B. Marshall, whose nickname in her Victorian heyday was the Queen of Ices. Far ahead of her time, Marshall wrote several successful cook books, patented an ice cream machine, and even suggested using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream as early as the late 1800s. You’ll even be able to ‘meet’ Agnes as part of an immersive and interactive theatre performance. (Incidentally Heston Blumenthal, recipient of multiple Michelin stars, called Marshall “one of the greatest culinary pioneers this country has ever seen”).
The peeps behind all this frozen fun are a duo called Bompas & Parr, experts in “multi-sensory experience design”, hence the emphasis on all things experiential; although there will, of course, be elements of a traditional museum and historical display too, as well as curated galleries, and a programme of talks and events. Demonstrations and workshops will further bring the concept to life, including real icebergs, “ice cream weather” (what on earth is that?) and glow-in-the-dark ice cream.
But hang on, what’s the British Museum of Food all about? Well, it’s a dream for Bompas & Parr’s directors, Sam Bompas and Harry Parr, who’ve long been puzzled with the range of food museums established, and their niche focus on – say – noodles, herrings, absinthe and or Spam. “None sought to tell the story of food in more general terms,” they reckon.
With that in mind, the duo are leading a fundraising campaign and are close to securing a permanent site in central London for their beloved British Museum of Food.
In the meantime, float down to Scoop for a taster. And don’t forget to grab a refreshment at the onsite cafe, called – what else? – Conehenge. Groan.
Main photo: PR
