The Month Ahead: Exhibits

What to read, watch and listen to in December

A MATTER OF TASTE
The American Museum of Natural History gets cooking

Do you know where your food comes from? If not, a visit to “Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture” at New York’s American Museum of Natural History might be in order. The exhibit examines trends in food production, trade and cooking over several millennia. Displays include a full spread of Olympian Michael Phelps’ breakfast and a sculpture made from the food wasted in a year by an average American. And if you’d like to kick the takeout habit, here are a few techniques you can learn while you’re there:

How to pick a pepper: The exhibit’s “Growing” section is stocked with models of different chili types, set along a heat scale.

How to poach an egg: An interactive cooking table allows visitors to virtually chop, mix and cook such dishes as poached eggs with hollandaise sauce and South African peanut soup.

How to cook a squirrel: A floor-to-ceiling display of cookbooks includes an early edition of The Joy of Cooking, complete with instructions for roasting your favorite garden pest. NOW OPEN