Miscellaneous

11 Popular Foods That Were Invented by Accident

Sometimes, culinary mistakes can be a good thing.

Image source: Lil' Luna

As painter Bob Ross famously said, “happy accidents” will happen every now and again. And by some stroke of luck, these can create dishes that no one saw coming. Today, we will be looking at 11 dishes that were not created by culinary geniuses, but by people who didn’t mean to create anything of the sort.

French Dip Sandwich

Kicking off this list is a California food staple that was invented because of a butterfingered food vendor. In 1918, Phillipe Matthieu, owner of Phillipe's restaurant, dropped a beef sandwich into a pan full of juices. Rather than making a new one, Matthieu served it to the customer anyway. The next day, that customer returned and asked for another one. Thus, a new dish was created.

Dippin' Dots

Ice cream has been around for a long time. But it wasn’t until 1988 that it was sold after being frozen with liquid nitrogen. Cryogenics specialist Curt Jones originally flash-froze cattle feed at -212°C (-350°F). But then he got the idea to do that to ice cream. The result was, in his own words, "ice cream beads," which could be described as melt-in-your-mouth pellets of ice cream that would go on to become a multimillion-dollar business.

Ice Cream Cones

Speaking of ice cream, cones didn't become a thing right away, either. The exact origins of the ice cream cone are disputed, but what is most widely accepted is this: at the 1904 World's Fair, a Syrian immigrant named Ernest Hamwi was making zalabia, a waffle-like dessert, next to an ice cream stand. The ice cream stand ran out of bowls, so Hamwi took one of his waffles and rolled it into a cone-like shape, then gave it to the ice cream vendor to serve the ice cream in. This idea caught on, and in 1910, Hamwi founded the Missouri Cone Company, all thanks to a quickly thought fix at the fair.

Nachos

You might be surprised to find one of your favorite Mexican dishes on this list, but there is a story why it's here. In 1943, a restaurant in Piedras Negras, Mexico called the Victory Club was closing for the night when a group of US Army wives came in from the Fort Duncan Army base, across the border. Chef Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya was unable to find the head chef and decided to make something for the group out of whatever was left over. He took a plate of tortilla chips, covered them with grated cheese, melted them on a grill, and topped it with some jalapeños for good measure. He served them this concoction, and the nacho was born, named after its creator's nickname.

Chimichangas

A Tex-Mex dish, these were invented in Tucson, Arizona in 1922 by a restaurant owner named Monica Flin at El Charro Cafe. After dropping a burrito into a deep-frying pan, she almost swore because of the hot oil that splattered everywhere. But since her young nieces and nephews were around, she had to stop herself from that. Instead of an expletive, she yelled out "chimichanga!" instead. And that's where this dish gets its name.

Popsicles

Another California food staple, these were invented by an 11-year-old, believe it or not. It's 1905 in San Francisco, California, and Frank Epperson mixed a sugary soda powder in a cup and left it out overnight. That night was so cold that the mixture froze. The next day, Epperson tasted the now frozen mix. He liked it and decided to call it an "Epsicle." Almost 20 years later, in 1924, Epperson patented the recipe and it was renamed the "popsicle" after his children referring to it as "pop's 'sicle," short for icicle.

Corn Flakes

Founders John and Will Kellogg were trying to make granola. By accident, they flaked wheat berry and then began experimenting with flaking corn. Before long, they realized they were onto something. After some refinement of the recipe, Kellogg's Corn Flakes eventually sold as a breakfast cereal.

Nashville Hot Chicken

This spicy chicken dish hails from Tennessee, and it was invented as a "punishment" of sorts. In the 1930s, Thornton Prince was caught cheating on his girlfriend. In response, she made a fried chicken dish that was doused in very hot pepper. This, however, didn't go as expected for her, as Prince liked the dish. He liked it so much that he opened Prince's Hot Chicken restaurant in Nashville.

Buffalo Wings

On a slightly less spicy side, the origins of these fried chicken wings can be traced back to the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. In 1964, owner Teresa Bellissimo meant to order chicken necks for the restaurant's spaghetti sauce but received a batch of wings instead. Refusing to waste the wings, she came up with a new recipe for them. And that's how buffalo wings came to be.

Worcestershire Sauce

Pronounced "Worss-ter-sher," this one was made by two men named John Lea and William Perrins, who asked one of the British governors of India to recreate a sauce that they tasted while in India. They tried to recreate it, but it tasted terrible. They then put it in a cellar and then forgot about it for two years. During that time, the sauce fermented, and when the sauce was discovered, it smelled and tasted good, leading the sauce to become one of the most popular sauces in the world.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

And now, we've saved the tastiest and most iconic of these foods for last. Ruth Graves Wakefield was the owner of Toll House Inn, located in Whitman, Massachusetts. In the 1930s, Wakefield was making cookies when she ran out of baker's chocolate. In response, she broke up some Nestle chocolate bars and mixed the chunks into the batter in the hope that the chocolate chunks would melt when the cookies were baking. But the chunks stayed the same, leading to what can only be described as the most popular cookie there is.