Lunch Break at the Pirelli Foundation
The Pirelli Foundation has contributed to the Pirelli Health, Safety, Environment (HSE) week for employees with an installation entitled Lunch Break: A Hundred Years of Italy at Table, at Home and at Work on the subject of nutrition and health, focusing on the history of the company’s canteens, holiday camps, and company food stores.
With documents from the Historical Archive, the exhibition tells a whole range of stories, from that of the first refectory set up in 1915 in the Pirelli factory in Milano Bicocca to the construction of the canteen for employees in the Milan factory in 1924, through to the first self-service diner designed for the Bicocca plant in 1956.
The visitors are greeted by a very special table “set” with anecdotes about the changing habits of the Italians, from food and drink to their tastes in music and cinema, television and graphics, household appliances and furnishings, which have all evolved over the years, together with Italian families.
The “menu” starts with tripe in sauce, the signature dish of the canteen in the 1940s, through to the risotto with champagne, a symbol of the culinary euphoria of the 1980s.
The Pirelli Foundation has contributed to the Pirelli Health, Safety, Environment (HSE) week for employees with an installation entitled Lunch Break: A Hundred Years of Italy at Table, at Home and at Work on the subject of nutrition and health, focusing on the history of the company’s canteens, holiday camps, and company food stores.
With documents from the Historical Archive, the exhibition tells a whole range of stories, from that of the first refectory set up in 1915 in the Pirelli factory in Milano Bicocca to the construction of the canteen for employees in the Milan factory in 1924, through to the first self-service diner designed for the Bicocca plant in 1956.
The visitors are greeted by a very special table “set” with anecdotes about the changing habits of the Italians, from food and drink to their tastes in music and cinema, television and graphics, household appliances and furnishings, which have all evolved over the years, together with Italian families.
The “menu” starts with tripe in sauce, the signature dish of the canteen in the 1940s, through to the risotto with champagne, a symbol of the culinary euphoria of the 1980s.