From natural history to national kitchen: Food in the museums of Singapore, 2006­-2017

Taking museum exhibitions, publications, and restaurants as a focus, this essay explores how food is used and represented in museums in Singapore, revealing a wider story about nationalism and identity. It traces the transition of food from an element of exhibitions, to a focus of exhibitions, to its current position as an appendage to exhibition. The National Museum is a key site for national meaning making and we examine the colonial natural history drawings of William Farquhar in several iterations; how food shortages during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore during World War II have been used for nation-building; and hawker food as iconography and focus of culinary design objects. Issues of national identity within a multi-ethnic society are then highlighted in the context of the National Kitchen restaurant at the National Gallery of Singapore.