Every recipe was at one point invented by someone, but whether or not it was intentional is where things get interesting! Curious if any of your favorite foods or dishes were made by accident? I have six well-known dishes that were total accidents, but turned out to be lasting culinary legacies! Let’s start with one that almost everyone has had before…
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Ruth Wakefield is credited with accidentally inventing chocolate chip cookies. In 1930, Ruth was making cookies in her restaurant (called Toll House Inn) when she added a chopped bar of Nestle chocolate into the dough. She thought the chips would melt and swirl into the dough, but we all know that’s not what happened!
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The Toll House Inn became famous for these new “chocolate chip cookies”, and Nestle eventually caught wind of their popularity. Ruth Wakefield’s original recipe was printed on the bars of Nestle chocolate, and the chocolate morsels were made later on. The chocolate chip cookies from her recipe are known as Nestle Toll House Cookies today!
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Chimichangas are a favorite in Mexican cuisine and are made by filling a flour tortilla with ingredients like shredded meat, cheese, and beans and then deep frying or pan frying. There are two different restaurants in Arizona claiming to be the home of the chimichanga…
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One restaurant says the chimichanga was invented by intentionally placing a burrito in a deep fryer, while the other says it was purely an accident, and that the word “chimichanga!” was blurted out as a response to the accident. Whether it was intentional or a happy accident, chimichangas have been here to stay since their invention in the late 40’s-early 50’s.
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While this one isn’t really a “dish”, potato chips are one of the most famous and loved snack foods out there. (You can’t have a summer BBQ without potato chips!) The story about their accidental discovery is pretty funny…
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While there are a few stories out there, the most popular one involves a restaurant on Saratoga Lake in New York. A customer is said to have ordered fried potatoes, but sent them back because they weren’t thin enough. To go over the top with the request, the kitchen worker sliced the potatoes as thinly as he could and deep fried them to a crisp, and the result was well-received.
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The story behind the invention of buffalo wings dates back to 1964, when a bar mistakenly received an order of chicken wings instead of other chicken parts that were ordered. Wings weren’t commonly eaten then, but the bar owner decided to fry them and coat them in sauce. Any guesses on how they got their name?
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Anchor Bar was in Buffalo, New York! Buffalo wings didn’t take off in popularity until several years later, and they were widely served around the country starting in the 1980s.
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Pat Olivieri was a hot dog vendor in Philadelphia credited with creating the Philly Cheesesteak in 1930. Branching out from hot dogs, Olivieri decided to chop up some steak and grill it at his hot dog cart. A passerby noticed and asked for the same thing, and later on cheese was added, giving us the Philly Cheesesteak!
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Tarte Tatin is a French dessert and is essentially an upside-down apple pie. (Apples are caramelized with butter and brown sugar, and the pastry is baked on top instead of the bottom.)
The Tarte Tatin is named after two sisters (the Tatins) who ran a restaurant south of Paris in the late 1800s. One of the sisters was said to have mistakenly put an apple pie in the oven upside-down, making way for the intentional upside-down apple pie known as Tarte Tatin.
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Let’s look at all of these accidental culinary discoveries again:
#1: Chocolate Chip Cookies
#2: Chimichangas
#3: Potato Chips
#4: Buffalo Wings
#5: Philly Cheesesteak
#6: Tarte Tatin
Which one of these happy mistakes are you most grateful for? Let me know in the comments! (My favorite is the chocolate chip cookie!)
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