The Food That Built America

Bold visionaries take big risks to bring Mexican food to all Americans, by creating the best-selling condiment on the planet, two of the most famous snack chip brands of all time and innovating the iconic pairing of chips and salsa.

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.

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.

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.

Early American malls have no food court, until a cinnamon bun, a pretzel, and a panda all move in to create three of the world's most iconic food brands and transform the American Mall.

Jim Folger discovers a new way to bring coffee to the masses. Then another famous coffee brand gets its big break at the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville. Plus, the creation of the iconic coffee machines that help make coffee a billion-dollar industry.

Stephen Whitman introduces Americans to chocolate candy in a sampler box, Russell Stover builds a competing company, and both iconic brands help turn chocolate from an unknown import to a boxed American staple given as a gift of love to this day.

A German immigrant looks to revolutionize the American beer industry when he's handed a struggling brewery.

A down-on-his-luck Japanese businessman and a Chinese immigrant and her son change the American palette when they introduce instant noodles in a cup, Peking Duck, and the biggest Chinese restaurant chain in the nation.

A farmhand named Jack Daniel and a distiller in Tennessee look to bring their quality bootleg whiskey out of the shadows and into a larger market.