The Food That Built America

In the 1950's, two brothers from Wichita, Kan., aim to build their restaurant, Pizza Hut, by introducing America to Italian dish-pizza; Americans soon fall in love with their pizza, but rival, Domino's, threatens to derail their success.

In 1919, Milton Hershey is king of the chocolate, but everything changes when sugar prices drop in the new post-WWI era; competitors spring up, including Hershey's former employee HB Reese, who goes on to create one of the bestselling candies ever.

In the 1950s, Ray Kroc franchises McDonald's nationwide, but right behind Kroc, a wave of other entrepreneurs try to cash in on the fast-food restaurant craze. Two Florida visionaries start up what will become Kroc's biggest rival, by re-inventing their kitchen's equipment into the pioneering "flame broiler."

At the turn of the 20th century, James Kraft challenges centuries of cheese-making tradition and forever alters the dairy industry with his new cheese innovation. Meanwhile, the Pabst brothers are desperate to keep their successful beer empire solvent through Prohibition.

In the 1970s, one major cola brand launches a blind taste-test marketing plan that takes direct aim at their biggest competitor.

Herman Lay takes regional and small-time chips business to a national scale with his cutting-edge sales techniques and world-changing packaging technology, while a rival innovator invents a new kind of snack chip that will challenge Lay's crown.

A business partnership gone wrong leads Adolphus Green to create one of the most iconic cookie and cracker companies in history, and it revolutionizes packaging.

When a chemist begins working at the Joseph A. Campbell preserve company, he invents a condensed soup that brings this rare luxury to the nation for the first time. It also attracts the attention of Henry Heinz, who becomes a bitter competitor.

A short order chef invents the hamburger bun and engineers a new way of making a burger faster than ever before; Nathan Handwerker invests his life savings into a hot dog stand at Coney Island.

Gilbert Swanson inherits his father's frozen turkey company and partners with a food chemist to innovate a revolutionary dinner that Americans can heat up at home.

A young boy accidentally discovers a frozen treat on a stick; a candy store owner reinvents ice cream and launches the first ever ice cream truck; when two men own a patent on the same thing, a battle erupts.

In the 1970’s, Ray Kroc is far ahead of the competition. But when a burger chain claiming to be king poaches his third-highest ranking executive, Don Smith, it’s war. Smith re-engineers the emerging rival, using the best ideas of his former franchise to modernize the brand. In an unprecedented move, Ray Kroc brings on a world renowned chef to develop the chicken nugget, breakfast, and try to crush the would-be king once and for all.

As C.E. Doolin and Herman Lay try to control the chips business in the 1950s, their success inspires one of the biggest companies in the world to design a strong, saddle-shaped chip and a revolutionary container to ship them in.

Candy company president Charles Guth buys a bankrupt cola company and goes to war with the supplier who wronged him and its new CEO, maverick businessman Robert Woodruff.

William Wrigley stumbles upon a new product that kickstarts a revolution across industries and sparks a life-long rivalry.

Dr. John Kellogg and his brother start a revolution in breakfast, while rival C.W. Post takes direct aim at an empire of his own.