3^rd Grade and Up

Why is there no ham in hamburgers? How did we make ice cream before we could make ice? How did hot dogs get their name?

From the origins of pizza to the invention of chicken fingers, this book has all the ingredients for an entertaining read about the origins of some of America’s most popular foods.

Have you ever thought about the history behind your favorite foods? Well, you should.

Each chapter gives a full overview of the vast history of 10 different foods written in a way that is easy to digest. At the end of each chapter, there is nutritional information, additional small facts, and recipes for each food.

My favorite parts of the book were the informative sidebars full of snippets on related history. The most intriguing sidebars I found were: Why Chips Get Stale, The Mystery of Pepperoni, Plain Old Vanilla, Peanut Allergies, and Fortified Cereals.

You’ll recognize all the franchises, like McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, KFC, Nestle, etc.

I was surprised by how the 1904 World’s Fair popularized many different foods.

I had so much fun reading this book, and I’m happy to say that I enjoyed it all the way through and didn’t get bored once. I recommend reading this book aloud so the whole family can learn and enjoy it. I read it to my family, and we had so much fun talking about each section. Some readers might have trouble pronouncing certain words. I had the hardest time saying words like ‘hydrogenation,’ ‘cacahuatl,’ and ‘dyspepsia.’

Be sure to read the Author’s Note at the beginning of the book. I wish the author had talked about how she decided which foods to feature or if she had a set number of foods to discuss. I Googled ‘popular American foods,’ and all 10 featured foods came up as well as cheese and soda. Now I want to learn the history of soda.