It’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention. However, when you consider how some of our favourite foods came to be – mozzarella, crisps and chocolate brownies, for example – you might conclude that curiosity, clumsiness and error come together to create the best formula. Here we reveal the most delicious products and dishes that nearly didn’t happen, from a classic 20th-century hot chicken recipe to a sweet snack that's thousands of years old.
Click or scroll through our gallery to discover 39 popular foods and drinks that were invented by accident – counting down to the tastiest of them all.
We’ve based our ranking on the enduring popularity of each food in its place of origin and beyond, and on the opinions of our well-travelled (and well-fed) team. The list is unavoidably subjective.
Popcorn has been enjoyed for thousands of years, but its interaction with microwaves was not well understood until the 20th century. In 1945, scientist Percy Spencer was experimenting with a magnetron (a device that generates microwaves) and noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. Intrigued, he experimented further with other ingredients, including corn kernels, and found that microwaves could quickly heat food. Pillsbury received the first patent for a microwavable popcorn bag in 1978, which was designed to pop popcorn efficiently in a microwave.
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used in sugar-free food and drinks – and it was invented entirely by accident in 1965 by scientist Dr James Schlatter. While working on an anti-ulcer drug, the doctor licked his finger to pick up a piece of paper, and found that it tasted sweet. It's likely to be one of very few times that accidentally ingesting a chemical in a science experiment has led to a positive outcome.
Oyster sauce's history stretches all the way back to 1888 in Nanshui, China, when chef Lee Kum Sheung was busy running his popular food stall. In an accident that would launch a food empire, he forgot about a pot of oyster soup he’d put on the stove, leaving it to simmer gently. Hours later, realising his mistake, he discovered that the soup had reduced to a thick brown paste with a deeply savoury taste. He began selling it as oyster sauce, and it proved a huge hit – so he set up his own sauce company, Lee Kum Kee. These days, Lee Kum Kee produces over 200 Chinese-style sauces, and it's still run by the Lee family.
The battle over who invented toasted ravioli, a popular starter in St. Louis, Missouri, rages on between two local restaurants to this day. Oldani’s claims that in the 1940s, a chef tipsy on red wine accidentally dropped ravioli into a fryer. Meanwhile, according to Angelo's, a waiter instructed an untrained cook to 'drop some raviolis' – resulting in them being tossed into boiling oil by mistake.
Fun American dessert Dippin’ Dots, which features hundreds of miniature ice cream balls, was invented by microbiologist Curt Jones in Lexington, Kentucky in 1988. He realised that anything added to liquid nitrogen instantly froze – and decided to apply the technique to ice cream. Dippin’ Dots was the surprisingly delicious result.
Raisins were first discovered as long ago as 2000 BC, when an unsuspecting someone stumbled upon grapes that had dried up on the vine. Originally, the dried fruits were used for decoration, as trading items and as prizes at sports events – and in medieval times, they were considered the sweetener of choice.
The Swizzels drumstick, the first chewy lolly ever to exist, was invented in the UK in 1957 by Trevor Matlow, son of one of the founders of British confectionery company Swizzels Matlow. The story goes that he discovered it was possible to create a lollipop with two flavours instead of one when experimenting with a new machine. Milk and raspberry was the original Drumstick pairing, but there have been other variants since – such as strawberry and banana, and peaches and cream.
One of America’s most iconic sandwiches, the classic French dip is a messy delight, featuring sliced roast beef, melted Swiss cheese and onions, stuffed into a baguette or French roll, and accompanied by a bowl of jus (a thin gravy) to dip it into. There are conflicting stories on which Los Angeles restaurant invented it, but many trace it back to old-school joint Phillipe's. The story goes that in 1918, owner Philippe Mathieu unintentionally dropped a beef sandwich into a roasting pan full of juices, then served it to a hungry policeman. The next day, the policeman returned, asking for another – and a legendary dish was born.
Despite earlier attempts to crack the ready-meal market, it wasn’t until Swanson Foods made a royal business blunder that left it with 520,000 lbs (2,356 tonnes) of excess turkey after Thanksgiving in 1953 that TV dinners successfully made it into American homes. Annoyed bosses asked staff to think of a way to avoid wasting the meat – and salesman Gerry Thomas dreamt up the ultimate lazy dinner, inspired by the pre-prepared food served on airlines.
The Bakewell pudding is said to have been invented by accident in the Derbyshire town of Bakewell, England in 1860, following a misunderstanding between Mrs Greaves, the mistress of a local inn, and her cook. A nobleman visited and requested a strawberry tart, but an egg mixture was erroneously poured on top of the jam. Needless to say, the nobleman was a big fan of the resulting pudding, which is beloved by Brits to this day.
The idea for Bassetts Liquorice Allsorts was (literally) stumbled upon in 1899, when clumsy company representative Charlie Thompson tripped and sent rows of neatly separated sweets flying. On seeing the bright mix of shapes and colours jumbled together, a customer was inspired, and immediately placed an order for a mixed delivery. Liquorice Allsorts hit the shelves, and they've been a success ever since.
The first cheese puffs were actually invented at an animal feed factory, The Flakall Company of Beloit in Wisconsin, back in the 1930s. A curious employee named Edward Wilson decided to take home some of the puffed corn pellets that the company produced. Once seasoning was added, he thought they tasted pretty great. Who'd have known?
With a tart flavour and crisp texture, the Granny Smith is one of the most beloved apple varieties worldwide – but it almost didn’t exist at all. The apple originated in Australia in the 1860s when Maria Ann Smith, a local orchardist known as ‘Granny’ Smith, discovered a chance seedling growing in her garden in Ryde, a suburb of Sydney. The story goes that Maria found the seedling growing among some discarded crab apple cores in her garden. She cultivated it, and the resulting apple had a unique taste and firm texture that set it apart from other varieties of the time.
Ever wondered how British dessert Eton mess came to be? The generally accepted story goes that a strawberry, meringue and cream pudding was dropped at a cricket match between Eton and Harrow in the late 19th century. Instead of being thrown away, it was simply scooped up off the floor and served, smashed to bits, in individual bowls. An even funnier version of how the messy dessert was invented involves a 1930s picnic, a pudding and an overexcited labrador…
The tuna melt is a staple at sandwich shops, diners and cafés all over the world – but you might be surprised to hear that it was invented by happy accident in South Carolina in the 1960s. According to local legend, a lunch counter cook at a Woolworth's branch in Charleston was slammed with orders when a bowl of tuna salad fell on top of a grilled cheese sandwich. Instead of throwing it away, the cook discovered the joy of this crowd-pleasing flavour combination. The rest is history!
Whether it's drizzled over cheese on toast or used to marinate meat, Lea & Perrins is a staple in most households – but it was actually invented by accident. When Lord Marcus Sandys, a former governor of Bengal, returned to England, he brought with him a recipe for a tangy sauce he encountered during his travels. He asked two chemists, John Lea and William Perrins, to replicate it, but the sauce didn't quite meet their expectations, so it was set aside and forgotten about. When the duo stumbled upon it again, they found that the sauce had matured and developed a rich, complex flavour.
The charming tale of the tarte Tatin starts with the Tatin sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline, who ran the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, a town in the Loire Valley of France, during the late 19th century. The story goes that one of the sisters was making an apple tart and, in a moment of distraction or forgetfulness, accidentally left the apples cooking in butter and sugar for too long. To salvage the dish, she placed pastry dough over the apples and baked it in the oven, intending to serve it upside-down. When the tart emerged from the oven, the sisters found that the apples had caramelised beautifully, forming a rich, golden topping.
The accidental invention of these deep-fried spicy wings, served with celery and blue cheese dip, can be almost indisputably traced to The Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, in 1964. Owner Teresa Bellissimo had meant to order chicken necks for the restaurant’s spaghetti sauce, but instead received a shipment of wings. To avoid wasting them, she thought up a new dish, and an American classic was born.
A Tex-Mex favourite, the chimichanga was reportedly invented by Monica Flin at her Tucson, Arizona restaurant, El Charro Café, in 1922. She accidentally dropped a burrito into the frying pan – and when hot oil splashed up, she was about to swear. However, she stopped herself because her young nieces and nephews were around, yelling 'chimichanga!' instead.
This seriously spicy chicken dish is a treat for those who like hot food, and a punishment for everyone else – which is precisely the reason it was invented. In 1930s Nashville, Thornton Prince was caught cheating by his girlfriend. To get revenge, she served him a breakfast of chicken doused in extremely hot pepper. However, the plan backfired, and he enjoyed it. Thornton went on to open a restaurant, Prince's Hot Chicken, dedicated to the fiery food.
Did you know that the inventor of the Popsicle, the much-loved summertime treat, was an 11-year-old child? In 1905, Frank Epperson left a cup of soda outside on the porch overnight with a stirring stick in it – and when he went out the next morning, it had frozen. Frank called his invention the ‘Epsicle’ because it was like an icicle, and later made it for his own kids, who called it ‘Pop’s ‘sicle’. The catchy name was patented in 1923.
According to Italian legend, mozzarella was created completely by accident centuries ago in Naples, when some curdled milk fell into a pot of boiling water at a cheese factory. The result? A delightfully smooth ball of fresh, creamy cheese that has since become the world’s favourite pizza topping. In Italy, it's made exclusively using water buffalo milk, though cows' milk versions abound in many other countries.
Traditionally prepared tableside, this spectacular Parisian dish sees hot crêpes doused in a mixture of caramelised sugar, butter, orange juice and orange zest, splashed with orange liqueur, then set aflame. It was invented by mistake at Monte Carlo’s Cafe de Paris in 1895, when a young waiter was preparing a dish for the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII of England – and accidentally set it on fire. Scared to begin again, he served the dish anyway.
The Chinese invention of tofu is believed to have happened sometime during the Han dynasty (206-220 BC). Legend has it that a cook was experimenting in the kitchen by flavouring a batch of cooked soybeans with nigari seaweed, and ended up producing bean curd. However, other competing stories exist, too; some say that tofu was created by a man who blended cooked soybeans to create a soft dish to feed to his elderly parents.
The story of yogurt’s invention isn’t for the weak-stomached, and has its origins in ancient civilisation. It's thought that nomadic tribes, possibly in Central Asia or the Middle East, discovered yogurt by storing milk in containers made from animal stomachs. These containers likely contained natural bacteria, which fermented the milk and turned it into yogurt.
These days, you’ll struggle to find a Caesar salad that isn’t dressed up with delicious extras like chicken, bacon and prawns – but the traditional recipe is a much simpler affair. It's said to have been created by Caesar Cardini, an Italian chef, in Tijuana, Mexico. The story goes that business at Caesar's restaurant was so good on July 4, 1924 that the kitchen ran out of everything except lettuce, cheese, bread and the wherewithal for an egg-based dressing with a kick of Worcestershire sauce. The resulting salad was named the Caesar salad, and it went on to become a classic dish.
One day in 1930s Massachusetts, restaurant owner Ruth Graves Wakefield is said to have been baking cookies in the kitchens of the Toll House Inn in Whitman. She discovered she'd run out of an ingredient, so substituted in some chopped pieces of Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate. The cookies were thought to be so delicious that Nestlé provided Ruth with a lifetime supply of chocolate in exchange for being able to print the recipe on its packaging.
Legend has it that blue cheese was invented by accident when a drunken cheesemaker left a half-eaten loaf of bread in a cheese cave. When he returned, he discovered that the mouldy bread had transferred to the cheese, turning it blue – and surprisingly delicious. These days, blue cheese is made under more controlled circumstances, using specific bacteria.
A heavenly feast of chopped beef steak smothered in melted cheese and stuffed in a sub roll, the Philly cheesesteak needs little introduction, but did you know it was invented by accident sometime in the 1920s? Local lore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania says that hot dog seller Pat Olivieri once decided to throw some beef onto his grill to make a simple sandwich. It looked so good a passing cab driver asked if he could try it too. Word spread and cheese was soon added to the recipe. It proved so popular he opened Pat's King of Steaks in 1930, which is still the most iconic spot to try one today.
Nachos were accidentally invented at the Victory Club in Piedras Negras, Mexico by a maître d’ named Ignacio 'Nacho' Anaya in 1943. A group of hungry US military wives crossed the border from the Fort Duncan Army base and, unable to locate the chef, Anaya improvised a dish for them by covering a plate of tortilla chips with grated cheese. He melted it under a grill, topped it with sliced jalapeños and served it as a starter.
Corn Flakes came about when Kellogg’s founders John and Will Kellogg attempted to make granola. The duo accidentally flaked wheat berry, then experimented with flaking corn – and quickly realised they were on to something. The recipe was perfected, and Corn Flakes were eventually rolled out across the world.
It was a moment of quick thinking that led to the invention of the ice cream cone. At the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair in Missouri, Syrian vendor Ernest Hamwi decided to roll up some zalabia – crisp, waffle-like pastries – to help out a neighbouring ice cream seller who ran out of bowls. The idea caught on, and ice cream cones soon became popular worldwide.
There are a few competing theories as to who invented the crispy-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside delight that is the chocolate brownie. But the story favoured by many – and the one cited in Betty Crocker's Baking Classics – is that the treat was created by American home economist Mildred Brown Schrumpf (nicknamed 'Brownie') in the early 20th century, when she forgot to add baking powder to her chocolate cake mix.
Amazingly, these wildly popular savoury snacks were first created as a form of revenge. At Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1853, Cornelius Vanderbilt sent his French fries back to the kitchen for being cut too thick. In outrage, waiter George Crum prepared them again – making them as thin and hard as possible – and crisps were born. Although this origin story is sometimes contested, the restaurant is certainly where crisps gained popularity.
The sandwich is named after 18th century English nobleman John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich. It’s said that he was unable to leave a gambling game he was playing in, so requested that his servant bring him meat between two pieces of bread. The meal caught on, and people started saying, 'I’ll have the same as Sandwich'.
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Last updated by Natasha Lovell-Smith.