The Food That Built America

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Coffee’s quality and popularity wane by the 1960s, until a handful of visionaries turn the industry on its head. First, three college friends create an iconic brand of revolutionary gourmet coffee. Then, this now-iconic chain creates an entirely new category of restaurant. All the while, a coffee and donut titan fights to keep his massive franchise empire from becoming irrelevant in a new era of gourmet coffee. These two icons will compete for America’s coffee drinkers and forever change a worldwide, multi-billion-dollar industry.

A cereal executive’s bold idea to finance the “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” movie will kick-off a candy revolution that produces some of the most iconic, imaginative confections in history.

Before chicken wings were America’s favorite Sunday football snack, they were considered an undesirable cut of meat. Until two restaurateurs in Buffalo, New York, reinvent the way wings are cooked. And as new wing-focused restaurant chains take the recipe out of Buffalo, they must find a way to cleverly market the new “Buffalo wings” to turn their restaurants into national icons, and chicken wings into a global phenomenon.

The top selling candy days of the year revolve around Easter, Valentine’s Day and Halloween. And it all started with a few bold pioneers.

Two heavy hitting cereal rivals duke it out for breakfast dominance. Competition heats up when an idea is stolen, beaten to the market, and is a runaway success. The ensuing battle transforms the breakfast landscape from a labor intensive meal at the table, to a meal of convenience on the go.