The Food That Built America

A devout Georgia diner owner stumbles into the chicken game when he develops a unique fried chicken sandwich with a batch of cast-off filets. The unique sandwich he creates will become the menu centerpiece at one of the most popular fast food chains in the world. Meanwhile, in New Orleans, a flamboyant former donut-shop owner takes a very different path to fried chicken supremacy when he innovates a spicy Cajun-style fried chicken. Eventually challenging America’s burger joint heavyweights, these two future fast-food kingpins find themselves on a collision course in an all-out chicken sandwich war that is still raging to this day.

Four intrepid food entrepreneurs race to harness emerging technologies like the home freezer and microwave, to bring revolutionary frozen snack icons to a waiting world, and forever change what we eat, when we eat, and how we eat.

Thanksgiving is the one night a year Americans celebrate by eating the same meal across the country. But 100 years ago, the spread varied from region to region, and some of the biggest staples of Thanksgiving Dinner weren’t around…until a few iconic brands used technological advances and brilliant innovation to reinvent turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and more. These food innovators made each part of the meal accessible to all and helped create the quintessential American meal.

When an entrepreneur creates the first of its kind shelf-stable peanut butter out of his garage, it leads to the birth of an iconic sandwich known worldwide. And as competition heats up to be America’s favorite peanut butter, three famous brands battle it out to be number one.

Two entrepreneurs rise from the ashes of Prohibition by staking everything on two liquors–a bitter, bottom-shelf whisky, and a flavorless foreign moonshine–and go on to save an industry, transform cocktail culture, and ultimately create two of the most popular brands in the country.

Lighting up the backyard grill is an American summer tradition like no other. But 100 years ago, cooking outside was not nearly as popular or accessible. Most backyard grilling essentials hadn’t been invented yet, and many people didn’t even have backyards, while the hot dogs we know, and love were still relatively unknown in the marketplace. It would take industry titan Henry Ford, one relentless tinkerer named Kingsford, and a passionate butcher from the Oscar Mayer family to create the most iconic brands of the Summer and change the face of American backyards forever.

Before juice was everywhere, these innovators used brilliant ingenuity to create the most nostalgic drink products and thirst quenchers of the last century, leading the charge on a new billion dollar beverage industry.

At the turn of the 20th century, Bernard Kroger and another upstart grocer come up with genius innovations that help invent the modern supermarket.

A young upstart named Oscar Mayer creates one of the most iconic meat brands on the planet. While pioneer Jay Hormel invents a meat product sold the world over, which becomes part of a 20-billion-dollar food empire.

At a time when dog food is a rarity and cat food is almost nonexistent, it will take visionary innovators to invent the first dog treat, the first dry dog food, the first cat food, and many more innovations that will carve out the billion-dollar pet food industry, and solidify dogs and cats as part of the American family.

At a time when U.S. beer is dominated by the same lager style, one Milwaukee company experiments with something new. What starts as an unappealing low-calorie beer will become the number one beer in America, and a battle between two all-time titans to be the king of light beer.