Food
6 Ways Coffee Helped Transform the World
More than five centuries ago, when coffee was a localized crop in the East African territories of Ethiopia and Yemen, Arab Sufi monks used the beverage for a similar purpose that people drink it today—to get a boost to stay awake. Their goal back then? To reach divine ...read more
How 19th-Century German Immigrants Revolutionized America's Beer Industry
How did lager beer become America’s most popular libation, sold everywhere from convenience stores to luxury hotels? It began in the mid-19th century when throngs of German immigrants brewed the light, pale, effervescent alcoholic beverage in their kitchens for a taste of home. ...read more
Who Invented Chicken Nuggets?
Chicken nuggets are a quintessentially American food: easily mass-produced and a quick, convenient protein source that can be eaten on the go. A staple of fast food restaurants and grocery freezer aisles for decades, they weren’t always on America’s dinner plates and children’s ...read more
Who Invented the TV Dinner?
TV dinners—those frozen, pre-cooked and pre-portioned meals that can be reheated and ready to eat in minutes—became an American culinary staple in the mid 20th century. But the true origin of this quarter-trillion-dollar industry may never be fully unwrapped. TV dinners may not ...read more
The Surprising Origins of the Fortune Cookie
Where did fortune cookies come from—and how did they become so ubiquitous? It’s customary in many restaurants for diners to receive a small treat with their check: mints, hard candy, sometimes even chocolate. But at many Chinese restaurants around the United States, patrons get ...read more
15 of America's Most Historic Restaurants
How does a restaurant become “historic”? For most American eateries, it’s a feat to survive even a few years—much less decades or centuries. In the brutally competitive industry, statistics suggest that 60 percent of eateries don’t make it past their first year; 80 percent close ...read more
Who Invented the Potato Chip?
The credit for America’s greatest inventions is often a matter of controversy. The telephone: Alexander Graham Bell or Elisha Gray? The radio: Guglielmo Marconi or Nicola Tesla? The airplane: Gustave Whitehead or the Wright Brothers? Add to that illustrious list: the potato ...read more
Why Ice Cream Soared in Popularity During Prohibition
When Congress passed the Volstead Act in 1920, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States, the law nearly decimated the alcohol industry. But it helped give the nascent ice cream business a sweet boost. Between 1919 and 1929, federal tax ...read more
Chocolate’s Sweet History: From Elite Treat to Food for the Masses
Mankind’s love affair with chocolate stretches back more than five millennia. Produced from the seeds of tropical cacao trees native to the rainforests of Central and South America, chocolate was long considered the “food of the gods,” and later, a delicacy for the elite. But for ...read more
Why the Candy Bar Market Exploded After World War I
Candy bars may seem quintessentially American, but they have origins in the World War I chocolate rations given to European soldiers. The American military followed suit, helping its doughboys develop a sweet tooth they would bring home after the war. Throughout the 1920s, ...read more
Andy Warhol’s Soup Can Paintings: What They Mean and Why They Became a Sensation
On July 9, 1962, a little-known artist named Andy Warhol opened a small show at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. His head-scratching subject: Campbell’s Soup. Each of his 32 paintings portrayed a different flavor in the lineup, from Tomato to Pepper Pot and Cream of Celery. For ...read more
How Coffee Fueled Revolutions—and Changed History
Sultan Murad IV decreed death to coffee drinkers in the Ottoman Empire. King Charles II dispatched spies to infiltrate London’s coffeehouses, which he saw as the original source of “false news.” During the Enlightenment, Voltaire, Rousseau and Isaac Newton could all be found ...read more
How an Accidental Invention Changed What Americans Eat for Breakfast
As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, Americans woke up to a new kind of breakfast. Poured from a box into a bowl and doused with milk, cold cereals like Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes, Grape-Nuts and Shredded Wheat were not only lighter and easier to digest than more ...read more
Dr. John Kellogg Invented Cereal. Some of His Other Wellness Ideas Were Much Weirder
Battle Creek Sanitarium, America’s most popular medical spa of the early 20th century, may be best known as the birthplace of the cornflake. But some might say that the biggest flake to come out of Battle Creek was the man in charge: John Harvey Kellogg, the dapper doctor who ...read more
How the 'Blood Feud' Between Coke and Pepsi Escalated During the 1980s Cola Wars
The great Cola Wars of the 1980s were a battle between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo for dominance. The disastrous introduction of “New Coke” in 1985 appeared to set Coca-Cola back. Yet by the end of the year, it was clear the “mistake” had actually helped Coca-Cola’s sales, allowing ...read more
Meet a Long-Lost Father of New York City Pizza
How did pizza, a saucy dish originating in a southwestern region of Italy, become so dominant in the United States? Legend has long recognized Gennaro Lombardi as the founder of the country’s first pizzeria. He supposedly received his business license for it in 1905, in Lower ...read more
How America’s Iconic Brewers Survived Prohibition
January 17, 1920, marked a dark day for American brewers. At the stroke of midnight, America became a dry country under Prohibition, with over a thousand producers swiftly banned from selling their chief commodity: alcohol. Prohibition forced brewing companies to adapt or ...read more
How the US Ended Up With Warehouses Full of 'Government Cheese'
If you’ve ever tasted what’s known as “government cheese,” you won’t soon forget it. Its flavor was described as somewhere between Velveeta and American cheese and smacked of humiliation or gratitude for the people who couldn’t afford not to eat it. Its color, a pale orange, was ...read more
Hershey’s Once Violently Suppressed a Strike by Chocolate Workers
A bar of Hershey’s chocolate is a simple pleasure—milky flavor, iconic brown-and-silver wrapper, traditional American roots. But though Hershey’s is among the most beloved and recognized brands in the U.S., the company’s history isn’t as simple as its flavors—like the time when ...read more
How Inuits Inspired The Modern Frozen Food Industry
From packages of waffles to bags of peas, the myriad items found in the frozen-food section of grocery stores today owe their existence, in part, to Clarence Birdseye, who in the 1920s developed a quick-freezing process that launched the modern frozen-food industry. Between 1912 ...read more
8 Things You May Not Know About the Real Colonel Sanders
Before it became the world's second-largest fast-food chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken was the brainchild of a man named Harland Sanders, who cooked up simple country dishes at a roadside gas station. Even after his death in 1980, Sanders is still the instantly recognizable face of ...read more
The Juicy 4,000-Year History of Pickles
Cleopatra swore by them. So did Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte. Pickles got their start more than 4,000 years ago, when ancient Mesopotamians began soaking cucumbers in acidic brine, as a way to preserve them. Since then, they have been a staple in cultures around the ...read more
How McDonald's Beat Its Early Competition and Became an Icon of Fast Food
New Hampshire brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the very first McDonald's on April 15, 1955, in San Bernardino, California. Their tiny drive-in bore little resemblance to today’s ubiquitous “golden arches,” but it would eventually come to epitomize the fast-food ...read more
The New Coke Flop
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The time-tested adage appears to be the lesson from Coca-Cola’s disastrous introduction of “New Coke." Except in 1985, Coca-Cola indeed thought its signature brand was broken. Although Coca-Cola remained the world’s best-selling soft drink, rival ...read more