The Food That Built America

Herman Lay takes regional and small-time chips business to a national scale with his cutting-edge sales techniques and world-changing packaging technology, while a rival innovator invents a new kind of snack chip that will challenge Lay’s crown. And when the empires meet, they will have to strike a deal…or go to war.

A business partnership gone wrong leads Adolphus Green to create one of the most iconic cookie and cracker companies in history, and revolutionize packaging. But when his former partners strike back with their signature invention, the chocolate sandwich cookie, Green retaliates with the help of milk chocolate titan Milton Hershey, and rolls out the biggest selling cookie of all time.

When a chemist begins working at the Joseph A. Campbell preserve company, he invents a condensed soup that brings this rare luxury to the nation for the first time. But as they try to get the word out to Americans who aren’t yet accustomed to soup, it also attracts the attention of Henry Heinz, who becomes a bitter competitor in a race for revolutionary innovation and nationwide soup sales dominance.

A short order chef invents the hamburger bun and engineers a new way of making a burger faster than ever before. Meanwhile, Nathan Handwerker invests his life savings into a hot dog stand at Coney Island. Both restaurants help bring hot dogs and hamburgers to the nation, and set the stage for every fast food restaurant to follow.

Gilbert Swanson inherits his father’s frozen turkey company and partners with a food chemist to innovate a revolutionary dinner that Americans can heat up at home… they call it the TV Dinner. And when a restauranteur named Vernon Stouffer tries to bring his frozen meals to market, he’s blown out of the water by the TV Dinner… until he harnesses a new technology called…the microwave.

A young boy accidentally discovers a frozen treat on a stick, and grows up to bring an endearing classic to the world. Plus, a candy store owner radically re-invents ice cream and launches the first ever ice cream truck. But when both men own a patent on the same thing, the resulting battle will destroy one man, and cement the other’s fortune.

In the 1970’s, Ray Kroc is far ahead of the competition. But when a burger chain claiming to be king poaches his third-highest ranking executive, Don Smith, it’s war. Smith re-engineers the emerging rival, using the best ideas of his former franchise to modernize the brand. In an unprecedented move, Ray Kroc brings on a world renowned chef to develop the chicken nugget, breakfast, and try to crush the would-be king once and for all.

As C.E. Doolin and Herman Lay are out to prove the potential of the chips business in the 1950’s, their success inspires one of the biggest companies in the world to enter the chip market. When a chemist begins work on a secret project, designing a strong, saddle-shaped chip and a revolutionary container to ship them in, the companies go head to head for market dominance.

When candy company president Charles Guth gets shafted by a Cola salesman, he decides to buy a bankrupt rival company and go to war with the supplier who wronged him and its new CEO, the maverick businessman Robert Woodruff. The battle will help shape the world of soda for decades to come.

William Wrigley stumbles upon a new product that will kickstart a revolution across industries, but not before sparking a life-long rivalry.

Dr. John Kellogg and his brother start a revolution in breakfast, while rival C.W. Post takes direct aim at an empire of his own. And the creation of an iconic food comes at a cost, as the brothers’ relationship reaches a boiling point under the weight of their success.