For foodies, a guided tour of culinary history

The collection, called "History of the First Stomach," contains memorabilia from US presidents, including a "cook wanted" ad placed by President Washington; letters from presidents thanking supporters for gifts of wild turkeys, ducks, and apples; and White House dinner invitations. We also learn that Dwight Eisenhower is the only president to have cooked in the White House. (He made pancakes and beef stew.)

The Culinary Archives & Museum started as a library in 1979 and evolved into a museum upon the receipt of 400,000 items from Chicago chef Louis Szathmary in 1989. (The late Chef Louis was talented outside the kitchen, too; his matchbook and cork collages and paper money portraits are fun to look at.) What you won't see is the collection of more than 50,000 cookbooks, 100,000 menus, culinary pamphlets, and artworks that are available for advanced scholarship and research.

Barbara Kuck, executive director, led my informative one-hour-plus tour of the museum, but capable Johnson & Wales students are trained to conduct tours, too. You are free to roam around on your own after a guided tour. (Don't skip the tour, because many items are not labeled.)

Hardly a visitor will not be touched by something within the museum's walls. A diner stool might recall the first taste of coconut custard pie; a white enameled range may resemble your grandmother's. An English cookbook from 1758, "The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy," sounds eerily like what we would purchase today. Butter churns, iceboxes, cast-iron stoves, and hollow glass rolling pins (filled with ice to roll out pie dough in summer) will predate most visitors, but it's not so long ago that hand-turned egg beaters and coffee grinders were used in the average kitchen.

Hundreds of charming old prints and drawings depict the overburdened lot of bygone chefs, who labored without the conveniences taken for granted today. We can only be impressed by, and thankful for, the inventiveness of those before us.

Lisa Zwirn is a freelance writer based in Natick.