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 - American Spirits
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/23/2023
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 and create two of the most popular brands in the country.
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#3 - 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.
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#6 - 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.
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#9 - 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.
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#10 - 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.
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#11 - Peanut Butter Battle
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/16/2023
When an entrepreneur creates shelf-stable peanut butter out of his garage, it leads to the birth of an iconic sandwich; as competition heats up to be America's favorite peanut butter, three famous brands battle it out to be number one.
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#12 - Thanksgiving Dinner
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/9/2023
A look at some staples of Thanksgiving dinner that weren't around until a few brands used technological advances to reinvent turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and more; food innovators made each part of the meal accessible.
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#13 - 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.
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#17 - Flight of the Buffalo Wing
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/5/2023
As new wing-focused restaurant chains take the recipe out of Buffalo, N.Y., restaurateurs 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.
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#19 - 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.
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#20 - 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.
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#21 - 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.
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#22 - 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.
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#23 - 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.
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#24 - 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.
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#25 - 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.
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