-
Period: 500 to Dec 21, 1300
Middle Ages
People in the Middle Ages had huge feasts with one purpose: to eat. -
Dec 21, 1290
Marco Polo
Marco Polo brought spices all of the world to place where they could not be grown. -
Period: Dec 21, 1400 to
The Renaissance
Haute cuisine was created. -
Dec 21, 1533
The Fork
Catherine de Medici brought the fork to France. -
Period: to
Settling in North America
-
Cafe
Boston and New York became major centers of trade. In 1634, an inn in Boston called Cole’s offered food and lodging to travelers. -
Coffee House
The first coffee house was opened in Oxford, England. -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution
-
The Restaurant
Boulanger began serving hot soups called restaurers
(meaning restoratives) for their health-restoring properties. He called his café a restorante, the origin of our modern word restaurant. -
The Hotel
The City Hotel in New York City opened, the first building in the United States designed specifically as a hotel. -
The Railroad
With the invention of the railroad in 1825, inns, taverns, and foodservice facilities located near railway stations began
to grow. -
The Cafeteria
the cafeteria was invented -
Period: to
The 20th Century
-
White Castle
The first White Castle restaurant opened in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas, serving food that could be prepared and eaten quickly. This was the birth of the fast-food operation, or quick-service restaurant. -
A&W
Roy Allen and Frank Wright begin selling rights allowing people to sell their root beer (A&W), creating the fi rst franchise company. -
Starbucks
Zev Siegel, Jerry Baldwin, and Gordon Bowker open Starbucks
in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks has grown to the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with more than 1 6,000 stores in 49 countries. -
Fine-Dining
Ruth Fretel opens a second Ruth’s Chris Steak House, starting one of the first national fine-dining chains. -
Food on TV
The Food Network was launched