Following the exhibition on the Hungarian goulash soup, another temporary exhibition is opening at the HNMPCC Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism, which will focus on a different hungarikum (a uniquely Hungarian product): the salami.

To this day, salami production is still one of the leading sectors of the Hungarian food industry, yet we know little about its true origins.

So, where does salami come from? The beginnings of Hungarian industrial-scale salami production and the technologies used at the time can be traced back to Italian families who settled in Hungary. This was the birth of a new industry, based on local raw materials, which provided employment opportunities not only for hundreds of Italian (mainly Friulian) salami makers but also for Hungarian workers. At the same time, Hungarian salami gained acceptance and popularity among consumers, becoming not only a staple of the domestic market but also a globally recognized product.

The exhibition focuses on the Vidoni Salami Factory in Debrecen, founded in 1886 by the Vidoni brothers, a family originating from Friuli. Other factories established by Friulian artisans are also featured, such as Del Medico and Dozzi in Budapest, Forgiarini in Szeged, and Boschetti in Debrecen, as well as the major non-Friulian-founded factories that employed Italians, such as Pick and Herz. Additionally, the exhibition showcases one of today’s most significant food industry companies in Hungary, the Italian-owned KOMETA 99 Food Industry Ltd., which is also active in salami production.

The academic foundation of the exhibition is the publication Salamucci! by Dr. Barbara Katalin Blaskó, which is available for purchase at the Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism.