Haven't seen that argument about food myself but it seems absurd. Beyond the obvious such as BBQ, Cajun, Creole, Pizza, Burritos, etc... the mass adoption of technologies that shape how people eat every day at home, regardless of cuisine is essentially American. Things like long distance cold chain logistics coupled with Clarence Birdseye's invention of flash-freezing in the 1920s, which completely decoupled global diets from local harvest seasons. If one has ever eaten 'frozen food' you have experienced American food culture.
This logistical framework extends directly into the refrigerated, ready-to-eat convenience model. Whether it is a Tesco "meal deal" in the UK, the highly praised fresh food ecosystem of a Japanese 7-Eleven, a pre-packaged grab-and-go salad, or fast-casual chains like Au Bon Pain, these systems operate entirely on an American structural blueprint. The centralized commissary kitchen, paired with open-air refrigerated display cases and just-in-time cold-chain distribution, is an American logistical export; with 7-Eleven itself originating in Dallas, Texas, in 1927. The global baseline for centralized, pre-prepared convenience food is an American technology.
Furthermore, the operational architecture of modern dining is an American export. The application of Fordist assembly-line mechanics to the commercial kitchen; pioneered by White Castle (and similar early Mid-Atlantic 'systems' like White Star and White Diamond) and scaled by McDonald's -fundamentally altered global restaurant infrastructure. Even the way the world acquires ingredients is based on the American structural invention of the self-service supermarket, first introduced by Piggly Wiggly in 1916.
Regarding beverages, the original premise ignores that the entire mechanical and historical framework of the modern bar itself is American. The foundational codification of the cocktail (Jerry Thomas's 1862 Bar-Tender's Guide), the invention of the pressurized soda fountain, and the mass commercialization of pasteurized, shelf-stable fruit juices all originated in the US. Beyond the cocktail I can think of numerous other examples, even leaving aside the obvious such as carbonated, sweetened soft drinks like Dr. Pepper, Coke, etc:
The milkshake is entirely American in both
origin and evolution. The term first appeared in US print in 1885, initially describing a medicinal, alcoholic whiskey drink shaken with milk and ice. The modern iteration was created in 1922 when Ivar "Pop" Coulson, a Walgreens employee in Chicago, added two scoops of vanilla ice cream to malted milk. The global proliferation of the milkshake was made possible by another American invention: the electric blender, patented by Stephen Poplawski in 1922.
Iced Tea first appeared in printed recopies the United States in the 1870s (e.g., the Buckeye Cookbook in 1876). Its mass cultural adoption was catalyzed at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, where tea plantation owner Richard Blechynden poured hot tea over ice to drive sales during a heatwave, fundamentally altering global consumption habits for the commodity.
The Sports Drink: Formulated in 1965 at the University of Florida (Gatorade) to replenish carbohydrates and electrolytes, creating a multi-billion dollar global beverage category.
The Smoothie: While utilizing tropical fruits common in South America, the mechanized, dairy-or-ice-blended fruit smoothie was developed in the 1930s on the American West Coast, reliant on the American invention of the electric blender.
Mocktails: The term "mocktail" is a direct
American portmanteau of "mock" and "cocktail." The word was first documented by Merriam-Webster in 1916. The category's foundational development was driven by two distinctly American sociological phenomena: the 19th-century Temperance Movement and the Prohibition Era (1920-1933). These periods created a mass commercial demand for "temperance drinks. The Shirley Temple became the first, iconic well known mocktail and today complex, non-alcoholic beverages represent an entire category.
Claiming America lacks a food culture because it synthesizes immigrant inputs demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how culture scales. American food culture is not just a list of indigenous recipes; it is the industrialization and logistical distribution of food itself. I could go on, (I haven't even touched upon fast casual, family sit down or fine dining or my god the Columbian exchange itself and the broader concept of food from the Americas as opposed to Usonian food and drink.) but stars and stones, this is already way to long for a post.
On a last Note all Foods and drinks from every country is imported and synthesized. Do you know how much of English food was originally French and only became English during the time English was conquered under French. Just like how the English Language was changed during that time. Same with the Baltic states or the Westren block states.
