Its extensive, prestigious, decades-old collection honors cooking’s most spectacular catastrophes.
In its gallery, singed, scalded and seared food is an art of accident; a curious memento to look at and tell stories about; a whimsical treatise on the inevitable imperfections of humanity.
“People think burnt food is a negative thing. But it’s really important, before you claim failure, to stop and take a look at what you’ve done and find the beauty in it,’’ said the museum’s “curator,’’ Deborah Henson-Conant, a professional harpist when she isn’t appraising burned relics.
