The BEST episodes of The Food That Built America
Every episode of The Food That Built America ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Food That Built America!
For generations of Americans, food titans like Henry Heinz, Milton Hershey, John and Will Kellogg, C.W. Post and the McDonald brothers have literally been household names, but you don't know their stories. Before they were brand names, they were brilliant, sometimes ruthless, visionaries who revolutionized food and changed the landscape of America forever. This series event will tell the fascinating stories of the people behind the food that built America – those who used brains, muscle, blood, sweat and tears to get to America's heart through its stomach, and along the way built cities, invented new technologies and helped win wars.
#1 - Breakfast That Pops
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/19/2023
Two heavy-hitting cereal rivals duke it out for breakfast dominance; competition heats up when an idea is stolen; the ensuing battle transforms the breakfast landscape from a labor intensive meal at the table, to a meal of convenience on the go.
#2 - The TV Dinner
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/11/2021
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.
#3 - Pizza Wars
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/9/2021
In the 1950's, two brothers from Wichita, Kan., aim to build their restaurant, Pizza Hut, by introducing America to Italian dish-pizza; Americans soon fall in love with their pizza, but rival, Domino's, threatens to derail their success.
#5 - Pasta Party
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/15/2022
Hector and Mario Boiardi open an Italian restaurant in Cleveland in 1924 and soon introduce Italian food to Americans; the brothers eventually find themselves in competition with James Kraft and his newest offering, macaroni and cheese.
#6 - Burgers, Burritos, & the Battle for Fast Food
Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 6/21/2026
An upstart chain innovates iconic menu items and fast food staples including a value menu and free refills, while fending off a new competitor to bring Mexican inspired fast food to the masses. Until the world's top burger chain enters the fray and turns fast food on its head.
#7 - When the Chips Are Down
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 6/6/2021
As C.E. Doolin and Herman Lay try to control the chips business in the 1950s, their success inspires one of the biggest companies in the world to design a strong, saddle-shaped chip and a revolutionary container to ship them in.
#8 - When Food Freezes Over
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/2/2023
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.
#9 - The Spoils of War
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/13/2019
As the Great Depression hits, the titans of food push the envelope of innovation to feed a hungry nation. Then WWII sees competing industrial empires joining the war effort in a united front to fuel the forces fighting for freedom abroad. And in Post-War America, visionaries like Harland Sanders, the McDonald brothers and Ray Kroc battle to revolutionize the restaurant industry, and pave the way for the golden age of the American dream.
#10 - Cheesecake Chronicles
Season 7 - Episode 7 - Aired 6/7/2026
A struggling cheesemaker, a New York restaurateur, a small-time baker, and a determined mother-son duo transform a humble cheese pie into a decadent American dessert–turning cheesecake into a grocery staple and the star of a restaurant empire.
#11 - Submarine Warfare
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/27/2022
High School friends see an alternative to fast food with the "submarine" sandwich. But they are quickly met with the fierce competition of a new submarine joint, started by a physicist, that is trying to perfect the art of the franchise, and will go on to be the biggest restaurant chain in the world.
#12 - The Best Thing Since…
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/27/2022
In a quest to dominate the growing commercial bread industry, Lee Marshall bets on a new kind of white loaf, unwittingly inspiring a homemaker named Margaret Rudkin to come up with a healthier alternative.
#13 - Do or Donut
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/13/2022
When a commercial caterer realises his two best selling items are doughnuts and coffee, he joins forces with his brother-in-law to create a revolutionary doughnut chain. Soon a rivalry starts with a beloved Southern-based doughnut shop.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#14 - Lines in the Sand
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 8/11/2019
In the wake of the Civil War, a revolution is taking place on the backs of visionary entrepreneurs of industry. Before they become brand names, budding innovators like Henry Heinz, John and Will Kellogg, and C.W. Post push the limits of ingenuity to launch businesses that will revolutionize industry, and change the landscape of the nation forever.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#15 - Godfathers of Fast Food
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/4/2021
A short order chef invents the hamburger bun and engineers a new way of making a burger faster than ever before; Nathan Handwerker invests his life savings into a hot dog stand at Coney Island.
#16 - The Chocolate Rush
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/14/2021
In 1919, Milton Hershey is king of the chocolate, but everything changes when sugar prices drop in the new post-WWI era; competitors spring up, including Hershey's former employee HB Reese, who goes on to create one of the bestselling candies ever.
#17 - The Beef is On
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/10/2022
When Col. Sanders sells his company to investors in 1964, the new owners identify a rising star within the organization: Dave Thomas.
#18 - Soup of the Century
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/28/2021
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. It also attracts the attention of Henry Heinz, who becomes a bitter competitor.
#19 - Pop Stars
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/17/2022
Small town farmer Orville Redenbacher has a lifelong dream of creating the perfect popcorn kernel, leading to the first significant development of popcorn in thousands of years which he sells nationwide, eventually pitting him against industry rivals for supremacy of America’s oldest snack.
#20 - Gum Slingers
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 6/20/2021
William Wrigley stumbles upon a new product that kickstarts a revolution across industries and sparks a life-long rivalry.
#21 - Cookie Fortunes
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/3/2022
Hollywood agent Wally Amos transforms his professional life when he decides to make and sell his own gourmet chocolate chip cookies, and opens America's first cookie store; housewife Debbi Fields opens her homestyle cookie shop in a mall.
#22 - American Cheese
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/28/2021
At the turn of the 20th century, James Kraft challenges centuries of cheese-making tradition and forever alters the dairy industry with his new cheese innovation. Meanwhile, the Pabst brothers are desperate to keep their successful beer empire solvent through Prohibition.
#23 - The Kings of Burgers
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/21/2021
In the 1950s, Ray Kroc franchises McDonald's nationwide, but right behind Kroc, a wave of other entrepreneurs try to cash in on the fast-food restaurant craze. Two Florida visionaries start up what will become Kroc's biggest rival, by re-inventing their kitchen's equipment into the pioneering "flame broiler."
#24 - Let Them Eat Snack Cakes
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 5/8/2022
Martha Entenmann takes the reins of her late husband's baking company and grows it into a national powerhouse; a married couple bankrupt one bakery, but succeed their second time around with a revolutionary way to sell snack cakes.
#25 - Candy Revolution
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/12/2023
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.