Food Innovator Trivia Quiz

Answer: John and Will Kellogg

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943) and his brother Will Keith Kellogg (1860-1951) accidentally left some cooked wheat unattended. When they tried to salvage the material, it became flakes which they then toasted. The Kelloggs made flakes of several different grains.

Dr. Kellogg operated the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, and believed in a strict, bland, vegetarian diet in order to combat illness and immoral urges.

Answer: Trenton

John Taylor (1836-1909) created "Taylor's Prepared Ham" in 1856, but it didn't quite fit the definition of "ham" in the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, so the name was changed to both "Taylor's Pork Roll" and "Trenton Pork Roll". Taylor had plenty of competitors, however, and a 1910 legal decision ruled that "pork roll" cannot be trademarked.

"Pork roll" is a common food item in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The term "Taylor Ham" is still used in North Jersey, while "pork roll" is more common in the other areas.

Answer: Rye

The origins of the Reuben sandwich are disputed. Either it was created by Arnold Reuben (1883-1970) in New York City in the 1910s, 20s, or 30s (accounts differ), or by Chef Bernard Schimmel for Reuben Kulakofsky (1875-1960) during a poker game at the Blackstone Hotel in Omaha Nebraska in the 1920s.

In 1956, a cook at the Blackstone Hotel, Fern Snider, entered the Reuben into the first National Sandwich Idea Contest and won. The winning recipe was for bulk production and made 48 sandwiches.

Answer: Coca-Cola

Wounded in the Battle of Columbus, Georgia, Confederate Colonel John Pemberton (1831-1888) was a pharmacist who tried to create opiate-free alternatives in order to overcome his morphine addiction. His first attempt was "Dr. Tuggle's Compound Syrup of Globe Flower".

Most likely inspired by the popularity of "Vin Mariani", a French tonic wine containing cocaine containing coca leaves, Pemberton created "Pemberton's French Wine Coca". When local temperance laws went into effect in 1886, Pemberton developed a non-alcoholic version, which became Coca-Cola. The cocaine content of Coca-Cola vanished in 1904, when the company started using coca leaves that have had the cocaine removed.

Answer: Buffalo, New York

The most popular claim of creating the Buffalo wings belongs to Teressa Bellissimo of the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY. Her wings were split in half at the joint, unbreaded, and coated in a cayenne hot sauce. Frank's RedHot claims to be the main ingredient in that sauce.

Another claim is from John Young, also of Buffalo, NY. His wings were whole, breaded, and served with "mambo sauce".

Both claims date to the mid 1960s, but it is unclear who was first.

Answer: Canada

Sam Panopoulos created the Hawaiian pizza in 1962 at his Satellite Restaurant, located in Chatham, Ontario, Canada.

Hawaiian pizza is very popular in Australia. It is not that popular in the US, not even in Hawaii, where pizza toppings tend to be more "conservative". While there are people (like me) who enjoy a Hawaiian pizza, they are a minority.

Answer: Created at a restaurant owned by Cesare Cardini

The Caesar salad was created at Cesare Cardini's Tijuana restaurant in the 1920s. Cardini (1896-1956) used different spellings of his first name, such as the more common "Caesar" for his different businesses. He operated the restaurant in Mexico in order to avoid the Prohibition restrictions in the United States. Although Cardini has gotten the credit for the salad, several of his staff have claimed the recipe as their invention.

Caesar salad contains romaine lettuce, croutons, and parmesan cheese, with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and black pepper.

While some recipes include anchovies, Cardini himself did not use anchovies in his salad. The original recipe also includes tossing the salad at the table for a more dramatic presentation.

Answer: Toll House Inn

Ruth Wakefield (1903-1977) owned the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, and was a cookbook author; the 1938 edition of her "Toll House Tried and True Recipes" included a recipe for a "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie". Bags of Nestlé chocolate chips usually include some variation of this recipe.

While there is a story that the chocolate chip cookie was invented by accident, either when Wakefield expected the chocolate chips in her batter to melt or when pieces of chocolate accidentally fell into the batter, this is unlikely. Wakefield was a chef and cookbook author, and probably knew what she was doing in the kitchen. She also claims to have purposefully tried to create an alternative to the butterscotch nut cookie she was currently serving.

Answer: his ice cream truck had a flat tire

When his ice cream truck had a flat tire on Memorial Day weekend in 1934, Tom Carvel (1906-1990) had no choice but to sell off his inventory. The fortunate accident convinced Carvel to open a storefront selling soft ice cream in Hartsdale, New York in 1936. Tom Carvel himself provided the voice over for television and radio commercials for the company, promoting their "Cookie Puss" and "Fudgie the Whale" cakes and other products.

Dairy Queen states that John Freemont McCullough and his son Alex invented soft serve in Illinois, but that claim only goes back to 1938.

Answer: Australian opera singer

French chef Auguste Escoffer (1846-1935) named four dishes after Nellie Melba, the stage name of Helen Porter Mitchell (1861-1931).

In addition to "Peach Melba", there is "Melba sauce", the raspberry and red currant purée used in a Peach Melba, "Melba toast", thin, twice-baked toast, and "Melba Garniture", tomatoes stuffed with chicken, truffles, and mushrooms with velouté sauce.