Think American food, and French fries, burgers and hot dogs immediately spring to mind. But there's so much more to American cuisine, and these dishes loved around the world are the delicious proof. Yes, here we're celebrating the American classics that are famous worldwide – counting down to the most iconic of all.
Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the American dishes that have conquered the globe. Which one is your favourite?
We've based our ranking on how world-conquering each food is, and on the opinions of our well-travelled (and well-fed) team. The list is unavoidably subjective.
It’s not an urban myth; the Waldorf salad of apples, celery, walnuts and mayo on a bed of lettuce really is named after the famous hotel in New York. It was apparently first served for a charity ball in 1896 (minus the nuts; they were added later), with the maître d'hôtel Oscar Tschirky credited for its invention.
Its birthplace may be Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire or Pennsylvania, and it’s variously regarded as a cake, a cookie or a pie. It's even got different names throughout the country, including gob, bob, black moon, black-and-white and Big Fat Oreo. Yet while there is clearly some confusion surrounding this generous sweet treat, it’s hard not to love a dessert called a whoopie.
Food historians aren't sure where clam chowder was first conceived. Fish chowder is likely to have been a poor man’s dish from Europe that made its way to the US, with a recipe printed in a Boston newspaper in 1751. By the 1850s, clams and shellfish were being added due to their abundance and affordability. New England clam chowder is perhaps the most famous version of the dish, enjoyed by diners in restaurants around the world.
A sandwich as synonymous with NYC as the Statue of Liberty, pastrami sandwiches became a hit in the late 1880s when a kosher butcher was given the recipe by a Romanian friend. Another great American sandwich is the Reuben, which consists of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and dressing on rye.
The banana split might have been born in 1904 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, or it might have first cropped up in 1907 in Wilmington, Ohio. But it seems inarguable that the delectable dessert rose to fame in the 1920s after a branch of Walgreens in Chicago claimed the banana split as its signature dessert. It's still a diner classic and a hard-to-resist treat full of nostalgic charm.
While fish and seafood patties are centuries old, American versions started to appear in the 19th century. The term ‘crab cake’ popped up in 1939 when it was used to describe Baltimore crab cakes – perhaps the most famous incarnation of the dish. They’re traditionally attributed to America’s East Coast and the Pacific Northwest, where there is a sizable crabbing industry.
Think Thanksgiving dessert, and most Americans will think of pumpkin pie. Though the vegetable is native to North America, the first recipes are European and didn’t feature in Thanksgiving feasts until the early 19th century. The dish is so popular now that it even gets mentioned in popular Christmas songs such as 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree'.
You can tell the fortune cookie is a Western invention because the only country where you can't find these Chinese treats is in China. They were likely created in California at the turn of the 20th century and stand alongside General Tso’s chicken and Mongolian beef as exceptional American-born Chinese food. The satisfying crunch of the cookie is now a must-have around (most of) the world.
Burritos are firmly Mexican, of course, but the breakfast burrito is most probably Tex-Mex. The story goes that they were conceived by a Mexican café in Santa Fe in 1975, before going on to dominate the globe. You know a dish has hit the big time when fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Taco Bell serve up their own versions.
You’d be forgiven for thinking this is an ancient Roman creation; but actually, an Italian American is behind the world’s most famous salad. In 1924, after a busy service in one of Caesar Cardini’s restaurants, the salad was resourcefully cobbled together from lettuce, croutons and Parmesan and covered with a dressing that included egg yolk, garlic, anchovy sauce, mustard, lemon juice and oil. The rest is culinary history.
There’s some dispute over who invented these deep-fried chicken wings smothered in a hot sauce. It’s generally accepted that they first appeared in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, though a breaded version was on the menu at John Young’s Wings ‘n Things (also in Buffalo) around the same time. Whoever gave the world wings is immaterial – the dish is so popular that 29 July is now National Chicken Wing Day in the US.
Cherry pie is associated with North America even though the first cherry pie was apparently baked for Queen Elizabeth I in England. We don't know what she thought about it, but this pie is now eaten all year round Stateside – spiking in popularity in July. That's when the cherry harvest falls and when the pie is traditionally served for Canada Day (1 July) and Independence Day (4 July).
Super sweet and bad for your teeth, but a taste of heaven, cotton candy (candy floss in the UK) is spun sugar that's indelibly linked to fairs. Though its origins are European or Middle Eastern, it only became available to the mass market when a confectioner teamed up with a Tennessee dentist (yes, really) called William James Morrison to create the first cotton candy machine. It inevitably went down a storm at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.
The club sandwich is older than you’d think – it appeared on menus from the late 19th century, including at the Union Club of New York City.
A sandwich with chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo, the substantial modern version has not two but three pieces of bread held together by a cocktail stick.
Pecans are native to the southern United States, so it's safe to say we have America to thank for the perfection that is pecan pie. Texas has certainly embraced the dish, with pecan pie being its official state dessert and locals celebrating National Pecan Pie Day every 26 November. The pie rose in popularity in the 1930s and is now a staple of the Thanksgiving table.
A Creole dish of mixed rice with meat (usually sausage), vegetables and sometimes tomatoes, jambalaya is wholly Louisianan with roots in West African and European cuisines. It's thought that the influences of dishes such as jollof rice and paella came together in the Colonial era to eventually bring us the glory of jambalaya.
The classic sundae is a heady combination of ice cream, sweet sauce, whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. No less than four cities – Ithaca, New York, Two Rivers, Wisconsin, Evanston, Illinois, and Plainfield, Illinois – have vied to be crowned the dessert’s birthplace since the 1880s. It was a big hit in 1950s American diners, and it remains a nostalgic treat today.
The name is Spanish and the origins Mexican, but chilli is so loved in the States that the country has made it its own. Texas has even gone one step further and named it the state’s official dish. Cincinnati has its own take on chilli, too, and chilli parlours, a concept that dates back to the early 20th century, can still be found throughout the country.
Hollywood hasn’t just given the world a golden age of film. It also gave us the Cobb salad, a cornucopia of egg, avocado, tomato, chicken, onion, bacon and blue cheese. Named after Robert Cobb, who owned the fashionable Brown Derby restaurant in LA, it was thought to have been first served in 1937, though some sources say it was made as early as 1929.
No prizes for guessing where this delightful dessert comes from. Made from Key limes (from the Florida Keys), sweet condensed milk and a biscuit base, the original recipe doesn’t require any cooking, though updated versions include baked meringue on top. It's thought that the recipe cemented its place in the American consciousness in the 1930s.
American through and through, this wildly popular dressing was created on a ranch (naturally) in Alaska in the 1950s by husband-and-wife team the Hensons. They manufactured the dressing – a mix of buttermilk, herbs, spices and mayo – after it was a hit with their guests, and now it's a ubiquitous condiment all over the country.
Fans of the sitcom Friends will know that the meatball sub was the preferred food of the character Joey Tribbiani (played by Matt LeBlanc). The sub (supposedly so named because the bread roll resembles a submarine) is a sandwich made popular around the turn of the 19th century by Italian Americans. A good sub is filled with meatballs, marinara sauce and melted cheese.
The history of popcorn is lengthy, but popcorn as we know it appears to have first been sold in the US in the 1820s, gaining popularity by the middle of the century. During the Great Depression, its affordability made it one of the few ‘luxury’ foods that increased in sales. It remains a popular treat in movie theatres, fairs and at home.
Roasting marshmallows on a campfire is nothing new. However, in the 1920s, a recipe for a Graham Cracker Sandwich appeared in a campfire cookbook, which suggested that the treat was already a favourite among Girl and Boy Scouts. The term 's'mores' didn't come until later, gaining in popularity in the 1950s. These days, it would almost be rude to start a fire and not make some s'mores!
This deliciously rich dish of poached eggs on English muffins topped with bacon or ham and hollandaise sauce is a brunch classic. Eggs Benedict is probably an adaptation of a rustic French dish, though the version we know today was invented in an American restaurant. Whether it was born in the 1860s at Delmonico's or the 1890s at the Waldorf Hotel depends on the story you believe.
Smoked meat is as old as the hills, but the American way of cooking smoked brisket has legions of faithful followers. Why? It’s all about the wood (usually hickory) the meat is smoked with and the rub (usually a closely guarded secret) applied before cooking. Texans will argue they do it best, but many states have their own regional favourites.
Fajitas is classic Tex-Mex food, born on the ranges around the Rio Grande with cowboys working their magic around campfires. The dish rose in popularity relatively recently, when Sonny Falcon turned up at rodeos in Texas with fajita and taco stands from 1969 onwards. Texans never looked back after that, and fajitas began popping up on menus throughout the state – before taking over the world.
Cake-cookie cross brownies and their fairer cousins, blondies, became popular in late 19th-century America and Canada. The Palmer House Hotel in Chicago claims to have invented the brownie in 1893 for the Columbian Exposition World’s Fair, and the restaurant is still using the same recipe today. Blondies tend to contain brown sugar or molasses and little or no milk chocolate.
Chefs Manashita Ichiro and Mashita Ichiro get most of the credit for inventing the California roll at the Tokyo Kaikan in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. The idea was to create an 'inside-out' sushi roll that would appeal to Americans who might otherwise be put off by traditional seaweed-wrapped sushi. It's fair to say it was a hit and was part of the reason why sushi became so popular in the US during the 1980s.
Reportedly, the wives of some American soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan in Eagle Pass, Texas arrived at a restaurant in Piedras Negras, Mexico after hours and asked for some food. Thinking on his feet, maitre d’ Ignacio 'Nacho' Anaya created a tasty meal out of bits from the kitchen and labelled the resulting dish nachos especiales. The world has been thanking him ever since.
The British may love a tin of baked beans more than anybody else, but Heinz first launched the product in the US in 1895. The American version is sweeter than its British counterpart, and it’s traditionally enjoyed with barbecue food rather than on toast. No matter how you serve them, the best baked beans are home-baked and simmered for hours to deliver maximum flavour.
Pancakes have been around for centuries, but it’s Americans who took buttermilk pancakes to their hearts and made them their own. Pancakes in the US are thick, fluffy and unashamedly indulgent, and are often served with fruit, a side of bacon and a drizzle of maple syrup. There's arguably no better stackable food.
The US can’t lay claim to the invention of barbecue, though this cooking method’s origin lies close by in the Caribbean. Yet ribs are mostly associated with the American South and Midwest, with various regional recipes, dry rubs and sauces all competing for the best barbecue title. Pulled pork, however, is believed to have come from the Deep South.
Many have laid claim to the doughnut. In the 18th century, Dutch settlers brought over the similar oliekoek, while in 1847, sailor Hanson Gregory took credit for the doughnut hole. An English cookbook written around 1800 also included a ‘dow nuts’ recipe of deep-fried dough cut into ‘nuts’. Whoever invented them, though, they’re now seen as resolutely American – and it’s estimated that 10 billion doughnuts are made in the US annually.
The general consensus is that the US made battered or breaded deep-fried onion rings famous, although it may not be the dish's birthplace. British food writer John Mollard is likely the inventor, as his 1802 book, The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined, featured a familiar onion ring recipe. The American press started printing recipes in the early 20th century, and the world has since fully embraced these crispy side snacks.
Though small cakes are European, cupcakes are an American invention, featuring in Amelia Simmons’ book American Cookery as far back as 1796 as “a light cake to be baked in small cups”. Quick and easy to bake, cupcakes are almost an art form these days. The red velvet variety, also thought to be an American creation, is particularly liked.
The Aztecs first ate a kind of peanut butter, but the US put this spreadable wonder on the culinary map. The National Peanut Board claims inventions patented by the Canadian Marcellus Gilmore Edson and Americans John Harvey Kellogg and Ambrose Straub around the turn of the 20th century heralded the creation of modern peanut butter. The versatile product is so revered that it’s used in sweet and savoury dishes, often at the same time if you're partial to PB&J sandwiches.
Don't get us wrong: macaroni is Italian. There's no doubt about that, and we're not going to try to convince you otherwise. But macaroni cheese is actually believed to have gained popularity in Britain, before being brought to the United States and Canada in the early 19th century. Since then, no other country has run with this cheesy pasta dish as much as the US. One of America’s most lusted-after comfort foods is now a global phenomenon, served in kitchens and restaurants all over the world.
Few treats are so widely eaten as the chocolate chip cookie, which Ruth Wakefield conjured up in the late 1930s while running the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts. Called the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie, the recipe is continually tweaked, but we owe the first one to Wakefield. The US consumes around 7 billion cookies every year.
The phrase ‘as American as apple pie’ is used to describe something quintessentially American, but it’s actually a misnomer – apple pies have been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The first recorded recipe was even featured in a 14th-century English cookbook. Still, the dessert has become an emblem of the American way of life, and we can't think of a more delicious dish to celebrate the US of A.
Hot dogs are probably America’s most famous street food export. German-style sausages, which are steamed or grilled and placed in buns to eat as finger food, started appearing in the 1870s and 1880s. There are now myriad versions and seemingly every state has its own take, including New York–style dogs, Chicago dogs, Coney Island dogs, Sonoran dogs and many, many more.
Fried chicken has been feeding people around the world for centuries, but the soul food variety of highly seasoned breaded chicken that’s universally adored today most likely came to America in the 1700s. It has a dark history in the country, as it's inexorably linked with the slave trade in the southern states. Still, the popularity of fried chicken spread after the abolition of slavery and slowly became a staple dish nationwide. Fast food later embraced the brilliance of fried chicken, and now we don't know where we'd be without it.
The story goes that Native American chef George Crum invented potato chips almost by accident at the Moon Lake Lodge in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1853. Reacting to a customer who didn't like thick French fries, Crum sliced his potatoes so comically thin that he essentially served the diner crisps before they were even a thing. Lay’s Potato Chips later brought the snack to the nation, and the rest of the world followed suit.
There's no doubt that German immigrants originally brought hamburgers to the US. But there are at least four claims on who decided, in the 1880s, to put the patties between buns and create the product we know and love today. Regardless of origin, the world's love affair with burgers, sliders and sloppy joes endures and 50 billion burgers are eaten each year in the US alone.