How Food Becomes American

We may live in divided times, but eating has always brought the US together.

June 18, 2026

Illustration by Tina Tona

The food historian in me cringes when people describe American food as “hamburgers and hot dogs,” as if two dishes could possibly represent everything American cuisine has to offer. The description is not so much wrong as incomplete, ignoring centuries of migration, adaptation, and creativity in favor of a single mid-20th-century snapshot. Conveniently cropped out are the diverse regional traditions that underpin our national food heritage.

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Ashley Rose Young, PhD, is a historian and author of Nourishing Networks: the Public Culture of Food in New Orleans. She currently serves as the curator of American history at the Library of Congress. ... Read More