Alice Waters of California's Chez Panisse is one of several American chefs who have shaped the country's food culture. We now take goats' cheese salad for granted. Her 1981 did.
When Nobu opened in 1994, the black cod with miso became a smash at the top of American cuisine. It's a global favorite that's easy to make at home.
Buffalo wings, named after upstate New York's Buffalo, are an American favorite. The wings, served with blue cheese dip, celery sticks, and buttery spicy sauce, are easy to make at home.
American pizza spans from huge Chicago-style pies to small New York slices. Without a wood-burning oven, reproducing many of them is impossible, but a super-hot oven can help.
Lemuel Benedict, entered the Waldorf Hotel in 1894 and ordered "some buttered toast, crisp bacon, two poached eggs, and a hooker of hollandaise sauce" to cure his hangover.
Crab cakes represent Maryland's famed crustacean. Old Bay, spices, and lemon flavor the seafood. There's no filler—just enough breadcrumbs, egg, and mayonnaise to bind the crabmeat before frying.
An Italian-American in Mexico devised the Caesar, possibly the first renowned American salad. "Thirsty" Californians frequented Caesar Cardini's Tijuana eatery during Prohibition.
Bob liked the vinaigrette-tossed salad of lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, bacon, avocado, hard-boiled egg, and blue cheese so much he put it on the menu.