Borza Tibor (szerk.): A Magyar Kereskedelmi és Vendéglátóipari Múzeum évkönyve 1982 (Budapest, Magyar Kereskedelmi és Vendéglátóipari Múzeum, 1982)

Borza Tibor: A Magyar Vendéglátóipari Múzeum megalapítása

Tibor Borza HOW A MUSEUM OF THE CATERING ARTS CAME INTO BEING The first proposal for the establishment of such a museum had been made during the 1906—1907 school-year of vocational secondary-school of the catering industry. The idea had primarily received the keen support of the teachers in the profession. In 1910, 1912 and again later in 1924 great efforts had been made for the collection of historical data in the field of the catering industry, as well as documents, equipment, work-tods and bills of fare. These naturally proved useful in the course of practical teaching. At the same time the private collection of the founder of this special field of training, Mr. Frigyes Glück, hotelier and restaurateur, was considered as basic material for the museum to be. Strangely enough, it was the cooks and chefs who had kept alive the the desire toward the establishment of a museum, in the twenties and thirties of this century. Between the two world-wars, on the other hand, it was particularly the need for adequate replacements, the love of the trade, the promotion of selfconscious men which had contributed to a private collection, as it were, a private museum set up in the premises of this Trade Union. After the liberation of the country in 1945 it was the Ministry for Home Trade which had fostered the idea towards the establishment of a museum to embody the history of the trade. The material collected in this terrain was embraced by the Museum of Contemporary History. The drive towards the establishment of a special museum of the catering industry was in the meantime kept alive by the KPVDSZ (Trade Union of Workers in Commerce, Catering etc.) the Ministry for Home Trade and the Catering Trust of Budapest. It was in October, 1965 that the Hungarian Ministry for Home Trade issued a special decree to provide for the establishment of a museum for the Hungarian catering industry. Appointment was made for a director, two research workers and several social collaborators, beginning with January 1st, 1966 and housed in an old historical building on Coronation Hill, under 4, Fortuna Street, Budapest I. The collection of old experts of the profession, as well as those of reliable firms had been taken over. The first permanent exhibition of the Museum was opened on August 19th, 1966, under the title of "Selections from the History of the Catering Trade in Hungary". Provisions for the establishment and upkeep of the Museum were published jointly by the Ministers of the Hungarian Home Trade and Culture. Simultaneously a board opened its wings: sponsors of the Museum. In 1968 an exhibition opened in the field of foreign trade,, another in 1970 to illustrate the Hungarian cookery trade in the course of our historical development and the Museum's first Year Book was widely acclaimed by the 20