Mustard — From Monasteries to Mad Money
By Elevate on Unsplash

I regularly drive down to one of adjacent towns near the west side of Madison whenever my wife and I are craving Chinese food. There’s a wonderful place run by a Chinese painter and restaurateur, and I’m always excited to chat with her about the latest and greatest in her artistic life.

After I give her my order, I like to walk outside and look around the little plaza with all its cute shops and interesting cafes.

But one thing always stands out to me on these take-out excursions.

Just across the street is a mustard museum.

The National Mustard Museum.

Really.

Mustard and the Red Sox

The National Mustard Museum is the brain child of former Assistant Attorney General of Wisconsin, Barry Levenson. The inspiration for the museum came after a World Series loss by the Red Sox in ’86, which left Levenson in tears. Like many of us, he went on a grocery run to find solace. While pushing his cart aimlessly through the aisles, he saw it — his newfound inspiration — an endless wall full of mustard jars. He decided he needed a new hobby, and after purchasing several of the more obscure brands of mustards, he set out to collect all the mustards of the world.

By Fancycrave at Unsplash

By 1987, Levenson’s new hobby became so consuming that he once saw a new variety of mustard laying out on a leftover tray in the hotel hallway. He was on his way to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court, and didn’t have enough time to return to his room, so he stowed the unopened jar in his pants.

He won the case and may be the only lawyer to have done so with a jar of mustard in his pocket. It was clear that he needed to make the career move to full-time mustard aficionado.

Today, the museum features over 6,090 mustards from around the world with 5,624 jars of prepared mustard on display. On the first Saturday of August, the museum celebrates National Mustard Day every year with fundraising efforts and community activities. And in collaboration with the Madison Area Technical College, the museum also hosts the prestigious World-Wide Mustard Competition, where hundreds of mustards from around the world are entered and judged by chefs, food writers, and other food professionals in 16 categories. Three awards are given to the best of each category and a Grand Champion award is reserved for the best of the best.

The competition is held annually as well and is currently in its 25th year.
['Bryan Quoc Le']
['Business', 'Food', 'Science', 'Technology', 'History']