The Food That Built America

Two pizza juggernauts expand their empires as a hungry new contender turns the fight into a three-way race to become America's biggest pizza chain.

Rival cereal giants race to invent the next must-have bowl, sparking a sugary arms race.

A struggling candy maker's botched experiment leads to the world's first bubble gum, its distinctive color, and a decades-long bubble gum war fueled by colorful mascots, comic strips, baseball cards, and novelty flavors — transforming gum into a pop culture powerhouse and reshaping the candy aisle.

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.

A chemist unlocks a chocolate syrup that transforms milk into a magic sensation, a scrappy soda shop owner cracks the code to bottling liquid chocolate for the masses, and a dairy innovator turns wartime surplus into instant cocoa gold.

A century ago, the cookie industry didn't exist, until a wave of innovators turn it into a $15 billion powerhouse.

Through a series of accidents and unexpected innovations, 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.

A keen-eyed immigrant, a candy mogul, and two pasta-making brothers reinvent rice for America's kitchens by making it faster, easier, and impossible to resist. But it'll take a massive global conflict, and a battle of innovations, to turn rice into riches.

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.

From the first ice cream bar in history to the creation of soft serve and the iconic ice cream cake, to the invention of classic flavors like cookie dough, a century of bold innovators transforms ice cream from a rare indulgence into a $100 billion American industry.

A beverage giant is challenged for dominance by two upstart companies from Brooklyn to revolutionize the beverage market and transform iced tea from a regional drink to a multi-billion-dollar American staple.

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.

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.

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.