A presenter and teacher for many years, Tom Hughes has been exploring food history since the mid-1970’s, when he founded The Potato Museum in Brussels, Belgium with his students at the International School. Tom has worked on two major exhibitions about food, one for the Smithsonian and one for the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, Ontario with his collaborator, Meredith Sayles Hughes. Several years ago they initiated The FOOD Museum and online at www.foodmuseum.com, a virtual exploration of the world’s foods and food issues.

Tom has presented a wide range of public programs, lectures, workshops, and school presentations. He is a veteran of two national school assembly and media tours. Thanks to a grant from the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities, in 2005 Tom is presenting the program “Chocolate, Chiles, Corn and More: Foods of the Americas” at schools and regional museums around New Mexico.

Tom earned a Masters in Early Childhood Education from City College, New York, and holds a multi-subject California Teaching License. He won a Klingenstein Fellowship Award as Independent School Teacher of the Year.

With Meredith Hughes, Tom authored The Great Potato Book, Macmillan Publishing, as well as Buried Treasure: Roots and Tubers, published by Lerner. The Hughes’ newest venture is a guide to the food–related museums/sites/and shrines of France, the mother country of the food-preoccupied. Published by Bunker Hill Publishing in October 2005, Gastronomie! Food Museums and Heritage Sites of France includes mini food travel itineraries, as well as recipes from top regional chefs. The book is intended to be the first in a series on global food sites. Next up: the USA.

In 2004 Tom created and launched The FOOD Museum’s Global Food Heritage Project. The Food Museum is inviting selected schools to become School Partners in the project.

Finally, Tom is an especially effective motivational speaker who helps all who hear him understand the consequences of their food choices.