| Zusammenfassung: | Culinary Tourism On-Site. Early Event Gastronomy in Colonial and World Exhibitions.Food played a central role in World Fairs, as well as in Colonial and Trade Exhibitions, which has not yet been sufficiently recognized in (historical) research. Attracting the masses, restaurants and pubs on the exhibition grounds functioned as the fair's main meeting points. Food products and drinks also formed a substantial part of the exhibited objects. Moreover, cooking and eating practices of Non-Europeans, who had been recruited for the ethnological divisions of the exhibitions, played an intrinsic role in the spectacle of 'the other'. These three dimensions will be discussed on the basis of source material from two exhibitions in Germany, namely the Berlin Trade Exhibition of 1896 and the Saxon-Thuringian Industrial and Trade Exhibition in Leipzig in 1897. Food has long been considered a central aspect of one's culture and was thus used in the exhibitions to construct and perform colonial, national, as well as regional identities. Food, particularly those which are unfamiliar, can evoke strong feelings spanning across a spectrum from delight to disgust. Visiting the exhibitions not only meant that one could see 'the world', but that is was also possible to smell and taste it. The sensual act of exposing oneself through eating unknown foods may have functioned to confirm Eurocentric world ordering of the exhibition, but the experience may also have brought established social and cultural boundaries into question.
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