Posted on 03/06/2022 1:42:23 PM PST by DallasBiff
Season three of the popular nonfiction series “The Food That Built America” will satisfy viewers’ appetites by sharing the origin stories of a new group of bold pioneers behind America’s most iconic food empires such as Orville Redenbacher, Ettore “Chef” Boiardi, Wally Amos, Debbi Fields, and Tom Carvel among others. Before these brands became household names, they came from brilliant – sometimes ruthless – visionaries who revolutionized food
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
Historically, “the food that built America” was beans, beef, and whiskey.
That’s what ALL the pioneers ingested.
Probably still an excellent diet...
So you’ve never heard of...
Famous Amos cookies?
Little Debbie snacks?
Chef Boiardi? (Chef Boyardee to Americans)
Yeah, I shortchanged coffee and bacon.
“The Kellogg brothers feud would make any other modern soap opera to shame.”
And then some!
I wonder if they died hating each other.
Then there was the Kellogg/CW Post feud. Post stole the recipe for his Grape Nuts from Kellogg and the feud was off and running.
Fortunately Post’s only heir was his daughter Marjorie who became an innovator in food herself.
She toured Clarence Birdseye’s frozen food plant in Minnesota, bought it at whatever price Birdseye named then paid him to run the company.
Between Marjorie Post and Clarence Birdseye they brought the concept of frozen food to the masses.
With Post’s money and marketing savy they GAVE freezers to stores to carry the Birdseye line.
Clarence Birdseye developed the first practical refrigerated boxcar to ship frozen food from the mid west to the east.
Yes, I’ve heard of those brands, but not the people listed, except Orville.
Just curious. Have you heard of Yum Foods (before looking it up)?
I’ve heard of Yum but can’t remember where, when or what I heard of it. One of the older food companies I assume.
Debi Fields made the absolute best oatmeal raisin cookies because she added walnuts. My Mom made fabulous oatmeal cookies by using maraschino cherries and black walnuts. Ooooohh.
Yum isn’t real old but it’s pretty big and operates KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. Often, those three are clustered pretty close together. There’s also The Habit Burger Grill, and WingStreet but I’ve never been to one of those.
Ho-Hos?
Spam is a classic American food.
I remember when Pepsi got into the restaurant business. I remember Pepsi had Pizza Hut and Coke bought Pizza Inn (a better pizza imvho) at some point Coke let the majority of the Pizza Inns die out.
PepsiCo stayed in the fast food biz until they sold their fast food businesses to buy Nabisco.
I remember a Yum foods from a documentary. It had it’s founding back in the 1930’s. What they sold and where I can’t remember.
Talking about food, Campbell’s won the canned soup war here in the US but Heinz kept dominance in Europe. Campbell’s still sells less in Europe than Heinz does.
The Frito Lay company was a post WW2 marketing agreement between Herman Lay and Fritos founder Charles Doolin. They agreed to market the others product beside their own in each territory. That gave Lay access to Doolins western market and Doolin access to Lays eastern market. The two companies had two products; Lays chips and Fritos corn chips. About that time the War Department called Doolin and practically paid him to take possession of tons of powdered cheese from war production. The cheese doodle was born.
AFAIK the Frito Lay company was the only large company to come out of that era by two companies working together. Everything else was dog eat dog.
Great stuff!
Love the history!
Great stuff!
Love the history!
Yum Foods?
Is it KFC stuff?
Plan on making KFC chicken picatta tomorrow for dinner.
I’ve nailed the 11 herbs and spices!
I remember White Castle.
Best memories ever.
Have been making Thanksgiving stuffing out of White Castles burgers for almost a decade.
I’m waiting for the episode about Glenn Bell and Taco Bell.
My father and my uncles owned a grocery store about 1000 feet from the original Taco Bell on Firestone Blvd. in Downey CA. Glenn Bell offered them a chance as franchise operators but like most people those days no one thought selling fast food tacos and bean burritos would ever make it.
The original stand still exists but is located in Irvine CA at their headquarters.
Actually, Debbie Fields started "Mrs. Fields Cookies". She also was an original Oakland A's ball girl back in the Finley days for what it's worth.
Depends on what part of America. In Texas then known as the New Spain from 1570 two hundred years before the British colonials rebelled it was old world cattle brought in 1512 from the Iberian Peninsula that over the next hundred years would become Texas longhorns, European boar also from Iberia, Eastern Turkey , Rio Grande gobblers,Texas bison a distinct subspecies of plains bison and white tail deer. Next door in French Louisiana it was white tail, American alligator, snapping turtle, and too many species of fish to name along with arthropods, cephalopods and bivalves too many species to list. Looking only at the tiny speck of land around Maine to Virginia is a disservice to a continent sized area that was full of people when those Europeans landed in the late 1600s for nearly 200 years other Europeans were here and for 20,000+ years native Americans were here by the tens of millions. The hubris of the little British colonials is comical.
History is a wonderful thing. I love the little guy innovators that shaped our world.
Clarence Birdseye developed his ideas about frozen food while living in Canada. He was living there because his father had destroyed the family business and he was broke.
He noticed that the fish caught by the natives basically “flash froze” when pulled from the water into the -40 atmosphere and tasted like fresh fish when he cooked them days later.
After a couple of years of experiments he had his temperatures down but needed cooling equipment. None existed so he designed and patented some. He designed and patented some of the first grocery store freezers. Store owners didn’t want to put out the cash for the freezers because they considered frozen food a “here today, gone tomorrow” gimmick. Birdseye was on the verge of losing his business.
Enter Marjorie Post, now owner and chairman of CW Post cereals. She bought Birdseye’s company, including the patents, for what people considered an outrageous amount of money and hired Birdseye to run that part of her soon to be empire.
Marjorie Post was an enigma during an age when women were expected to marry, have children and let the men handle business.
She learned business from her doting father who took her everywhere with him. Even company board meetings.
When Marjorie took over from her deceased father at age 27 she promptly told the Board “you work for me now” and meant it.
Whenever Marjorie Post heard about a new and innovative food process, item or idea she would visit the owner to make an assessment of the situation.
She eventually gathered all her acquisitions under the General Foods brand.
Very smart lady.
Very independent too. She married, I believe, four times. Something of a scandal in that day and age.
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