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 - Penny Candy Craze
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/31/2024
In the early 1900s, an underestimated confectioner creates the first wrapped penny candy--the Tootsie Roll. Meanwhile, an unemployed salesman transforms medicinal hard candy into a fruit flavored, multipack designed purely for fun with Tropical Charms. The two go on to kickstart an entire industry of nationally branded candies and transform the lollipop into a global icon.
#2 - Baking Chocolate Chip History
Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/9/2025
A teacher turned restaurateur invents America's most popular cookie which leads to a battle of food giants, and one of the most iconic packaged cookies in history.
#3 - Movie Theater Munchies
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/2/2025
A struggling chocolate maker and a young theater assistant create the movie theater concession stand and launch the world's most iconic movie candies.
#4 - Tortilla Takeover
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/23/2025
Bold visionaries risk bringing Mexican food to Americans, creating the top-selling condiment, famous snack chip brands and pairing chips and salsa.
#5 - Burger Empire: The Ray Kroc Story
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 7/28/2024
In the 1950s, middle-aged salesman Ray Kroc is drowning in debt when he's inspired by a roadside burger stand he wants to spread nationwide--McDonald's. To buy out the business, he creates the modern model of franchising and ignites a fast-food gold rush. Over three decades, Kroc's innovation produces icons like the Big Mac and Chicken McNugget, crushing the competition to make McDonald's the biggest fast-food chain in the world.
#6 - The Colonel
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 7/14/2024
It's 1935 and a hot-headed Kentucky gas station owner named Harland Sanders develops a new method for making fried chicken, drawing customers from far and wide. Soon, tough times force him to take his secret recipe on the road, as he works to establishes franchises across the country. Over time, he builds a national fast-food brand, becoming a cultural icon. But when his company is sold to a food conglomerate who changes his recipe for cost cutting measures, he goes to war against his own chicken empire--and wins.
#7 - Lunchbox Legends
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 7/7/2024
Lunchtime is one of the most enjoyable meals of every kid's day, but before the 1960s it was just another meal. Then, three very different food visionaries take matters into their own hands to create lunch time favorites loved by children everywhere, from sandwiches, to fruit snacks, and a build-it-yourself pre-packaged lunch that has become a supermarket staple.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#8 - Planet Mars
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/21/2024
After being kicked out of the family business by his father, Forrest Mars scratches and claws his way back to create a multi-sector global empire, Mars Inc. Today that empire is worth over $47 billion dollars and a family dynasty that is the third wealthiest in America, worth nearly $100 billion.
#9 - Citrus Soda Stars
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 7/21/2024
In an early 20th century America where soda is synonymous with cola, small-time St. Louis soda maker Charles Leiper Grigg dares to take on corporate giants Coke and Pepsi by introducing something entirely new–a clear, lemon-lime soda he calls “7-Up.” Little does he know that at the same time, two brothers in Tennessee, Ali and Barney Hartman, have concocted an almost identical soda. What started out as their personal lemon lime cocktail mixer will put them on a collision course with 7-Up when they release it to the public as “Mountain Dew.” Both will evolve into something entirely different than what they began as, but together they’ll crack the industry wide open.
#10 - Champions of Breakfast
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/14/2024
Will Kellogg is on top of the cereal industry after beating out post, but now, the king of cereal has met his match with a young flour mill executive; a decades long war for dominance ensues as Kellogg's and General Mills battle it out.
#11 - Sunshine in a Glass
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/17/2024
A scientist and businessman team up to develop a Vitamin C rich war ration for the troops fighting in World War 2, which unexpectedly leads to the development of a frozen concentrated orange juice that tastes great and allows for the widespread distribution of OJ for the first time in history. Soon after, a fruit salesman develops a process of flash pasteurizing fresh orange juice that turns the fledgling industry on its head. The two companies will go on to battle it out for domination.
#12 - Empire of Convenience
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/16/2025
The first convenience store is born, and with new innovations like late hours, to-go coffee, and America's most beloved slushy drink, it rises into an iconic chain with more locations than any other store or restaurant in the world.
#13 - Let Them Bake Cake
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/24/2024
During the mid-20th century, two unlikely characters find themselves in competition to simplify the lives of homemakers across the country by creating a tasty but easy boxed cake-mix. America's sweetheart and the original foodie go head-to-head to make baking easy.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#14 - Soda Rising: Birth of Pop
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/10/2024
In the late 1800s, two pharmacists 1500 miles apart race to create healthy, non-alcoholic beverage options, kickstarting the entire soda industry with their breakout hits: Hires Root Beer and Dr. Pepper.
#15 - Ice Cream Revolution
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/3/2024
A cab driver turned ice cream entrepreneur comes up with the idea to mix name brand candy into high quality ice cream to create new novel flavors. After opening an ice cream shop to share his mix-in creations, his concept skyrockets.
#16 - All American Marinara
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/25/2024
Imagine a world where marinara sauce isn't part of the American palate. That was true nearly sixty years ago, when food conglomerate Campbells kickstarts what will become an Italian American food staple.
#17 - Beer Run
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 7/23/2023
At a time when U.S. beer is dominated by the same lager style, one Milwaukee company experiments with something new.
#18 - Dog Eat Dog
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 7/16/2023
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, dry food, the first cat food, and many more innovations that will carve out the billion-dollar pet food industry.
#19 - Bring Home the Bacon
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 7/9/2023
A young upstart named Oscar® Mayer creates one of the most iconic meat brands on the planet; pioneer Jay Hormel invents a meat product sold the world over, which becomes part of a $20 billion food empire.
#20 - Supermarket Sweep
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 6/25/2023
At the turn of the 20th century, Bernard Kroger and another upstart grocer come up with genius innovations that help invent the modern supermarket.
#21 - Where There's Smoke
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 6/11/2023
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.
#22 - Drive-Thru Burger Revolution
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/10/2026
Three burger operators race to serve a new generation on wheels, and a primitive intercom and sliding window evolve into the drive-thru, revolutionizing fast food and kicking off an industry arms race.
#23 - Say Yes to the Dressing
Season 7 - Episode 14 - Aired 7/26/2026
When German immigrant Richard Hellmann bottles his deli's mayonnaise, he launches America's condiment revolution. But the real battle begins when a struggling restaurateur invents Italian dressing to save his Kansas City eatery, going head-to-head with an industry giant—just as an Alaskan camp cook creates a humble buttermilk sauce destined to take the crown: ranch.
#24 - Cereal Sensations
Season 7 - Episode 13 - Aired 7/19/2026
Through happy accidents and breakthrough flavor innovations, cereal pioneers battle for control of America's breakfast table-using iconic mascots, unforgettable commercials, and bold new ideas to build a billion-dollar industry.
#25 - Let's Get Crackering
Season 7 - Episode 12 - Aired 7/12/2026
As two baking powerhouses collide, scrappy upstarts and mom-and-pop players help turn crackers into a snack aisle staple. From innovations like shredded wheat, to the first mass-produced flavored cracker, these grocery store icons transform crackers into a global, multi-billion-dollar category.