Fill Up on Utah Food Fest at the Natural History Museum of Utah 

On May 16 and 17, the weekend-long festival will celebrate Utah’s food culture and history  

SALT LAKE CITY, April 20 — On Saturday, May 16, and Sunday, May 17, foodies and culinary experts will gather at the Natural History Museum of Utah to celebrate the state’s rich food history and contemporary food culture at the third-annual Utah Food Festival.  

Included with museum admission, the festival will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. It will feature a delicious market showing off Utah’s best food makers, all offering delectable samples and products for purchase, both sweet and savory. Food workshops and informative talks will also allow guests to further refine their palettes and learn about food history in Utah.  

The market will be full of delicious flavors from Caputo’s Market & Deli, AmsterDam Delicious, Beehive Cheese Company, Cache Toffee, Café Ibis Coffee, Frog Bench Farms, La Case de la Empanada SLC, Salsa Del Diablo and The Salted Roots, just to name a few.  

In the expert-led workshops, guests can craft custom seasonings, learn to steep the perfect cup of tea, dip a perfect caramel apple or whip up weeds into delicious meals. Workshops will be led by JulieAnn Caramels, The Salted Roots, Mountain Born Creamery and others.  

“Food has always been an incredible unifier, bringing people together even before Utah became a state, and it’s still a delicious way to gather together community,” said Jason Cryan, NHMU’s Sarah B. George Executive Director. “Yet this festival is about more than contemporary flavors and guests will have the opportunity to learn about the region’s rich history of food cultivation dating back to first peoples.”

Guests will have the opportunity to engage with the archaeological studies happening at the museum and the Range Creek Field Station, where Shannon Arnold Boomgarden, Ph.D., the field station’s director, spends each summer teaching students about ancient techniques for farming, gathering and storing food.  

The Range Creek staff have created a survival game exclusively for festival goers who choose to play. Players will have to adapt to changing conditions to achieve caloric success, as early inhabitants of Range Creek once did, and the game will show off specimens and artifacts rarely displayed outside of museum collections.  

“The basis of this challenge is rooted in behavioral ecology, which is the theoretical foundation for most of the archaeology department at the University of Utah and NHMU,” said Boomgarden.

The Utah Food Festival is a popular event, so guests are encouraged to prebook admission and workshops in advance. The festival is included with a regular ticket to the museum. If purchasing a workshop, admission to the festival is included in the workshop fee. Visit nhmu.utah.edu/FoodFest to learn more about the event, browse workshops, and register.  

Thank you to our 2026 Utah Food Festival Partners:

• AmsterDam Delicious
• Artigliano Group
• Bad Boy Burger Co.
• Beehive Cheese Company BLLC
• Cache Toffee
• Caffe Ibis Coffee Roasters
• Caputo's Market & Deli
• Chunky Cookies, LLC
• Drift Chocolates
• Grandma Sandino's
• The Farmhouse at Saccos LLC
• Frog Bench Farms
• Fry Me to the Moon
• Han's Kombucha
• JulieAnn Caramels
• Kimmie's Kandies
• La Casa de la Empanada SLC
• Must Be Nuts
• Raw Eddy's Superfood Snacks
• Salsa Del Diablo
• The Salted Roots
• Tea Grotto
• Wasatch Organics/White Lake Farms Honey
• Zoque LLC

About the Natural History Museum of Utah

The Natural History Museum of Utah is one of the leading scientific research and cultural institutions in the country. NHMU is Utah’s official state museum of natural history located at the University of Utah, and serves residents statewide through education programs, exhibitions, scientific research, and more. Established in 1963, the museum’s 10 permanent exhibitions are anchored by its state-of-the-art collections and research facilities containing more than 2 million objects. These collections are used in studies on geological, biological, and cultural diversity, and the history of living systems and human cultures within the Utah region. The museum hosts approximately 300,000 general visitors a year and provides one of the most spectacular private event settings in the Salt Lake City area. NHMU also broadens the reach of its mission through a variety of science-based outreach programs to communities and schools throughout Utah, reaching every school district in the state every other year.