The '90s Time Machine: 42 Moments That Defined a Decade in Food

Remember when everything tasted of strawberry-kiwi, the complexities of Asian regional cuisines were distilled into ambiguous fast-food “Chinese chicken salads,” and you could even have pizza in the morning, pizza in the evenin’, pizza at suppertime, because when pizza’s on a bagel, you can eat pizza any time? The 1990s might not have been all that and a bag of chips (especially if those chips were made with Olestra), but a handful of events throughout the decade helped shape American food into the gastronomical landscape we know today. Here’s some of the most important moments.

I Love the ‘90s

• Dunkaroos Launch: The lunchbox favorite, produced by Betty Crocker, came out in 1990.
• Kid Cuisine Launch: The brand of packaged frozen meals made for children came out in 1990.
• TheTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Obsession : A capstone on a successful 1980s comic book and animated series run, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action film premiered, further justifying our national adoration of pizza.
• Broccoli Gets Political: President George H. W. Bush made his first public comments about his dislike of broccoli when he joked that workers in the Office of Personnel Management would receive merit pay “in broccoli.” This strange joke set off a media scrutiny over the President’s vegetable intake and led to numerous other broccoli-themed political incidents, including a pledge from California broccoli-growers to send several truckloads to the White House. Broccoli has retained it’s “political” hot-button status ever since. Coincidentally, maybe, Campbell’s launched their brand new canned-soup flavor, Cream of Broccoli soup a few months later.
• The Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act: After the release of undercover footage of commercial fishing vessels purposely encircling dolphins and allowing them to drown in nets in pursuit of yellowfin tuna, US consumers called for a boycott of tuna products and a protest against problematic fishing practices. Tuna producers responded by labeling their products as “dolphin-safe.” In 1990, the US created the Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act to regulate these new labels. 
• EatingWell Magazine: Founded before farm-to-table was a household phrase, EatingWell magazine launched in September 1990 by the editors of Harrowsmith Country Life, another publication that focused on homesteading, in Vermont. Within the first year, circulation grew to more than 400,000 subscribers and featured healthy recipes from cuisines around the globe as well as articles on sustainability.

• Gushers Launch: The sweet treat, produced by Betty Crocker, first launched in 1991.
• Bagel Bites Launch: The popular snack—and one of the best commercial jingles ever produced—launched in 1991. 
• Salsa Outsells Ketchup: The New York Times reported that salsa, a category that includes picante, taco, and chili-based sauces, outsold ketchup by $40 million. Industry reports showed that salsa’s rise in popularity was neither spontaneous nor relegated to the culinary outskirts, but had gained mainstream status among many Americans. This shift in condiment capitalism signaled both a change in consumer demographics as well as culinary tastes. 
• The Honeycrisp Apple Launch: Holding the honor of being “Minnesota’s State Fruit” as well as the savior of a once declining apple growing industry, the Honeycrisp Apple (also known as the Honeycrunch Apple in Europe; I agree, it sounds strange) was developed and released to consumers by the University of Minnesota fruit breeding program at the Horicultural Research Center in 1991. Fun fruit fact: Honeycrunch® is a registered trademark of the University of Minnesota.

• AriZona Iced Tea Launch: The popular beverage was introduced to market in 1992.
• SnackWell’s Launch: The line of fat-free cookies and snack cakes by Nabisco launched in 1992.
• Snapple's Kiwi-Strawberry Flavor Launch: Snapple launched a kiwi-strawberry, better known as strawberry-kiwi, flavored juice. While the flavor combo existed prior to Snapple’s product launch, the company’s popularity and their charismatic “Snapple Lady” inspired a bevy of other trendy strawberry-kiwi flavored beverages. 
• Clear Soda Reigned Supreme: Inspired by the “clear craze” marketing trend (think: see-through Game Boys and colorful translucent iMac computers), Pepsi and Coca-Cola both launched clear caramel-coloring-less versions of their popular softdrinks and dubbed them Crystal Pepsi and Tab Clear, respectively.
• Mangia Mania: It’s hard to pin-point the exact moment America became obsessed with everything Italian, but 1992 is a molto bene place to start. Classic Italian recipes published in the 1970s by Marcella Hazan, the godmother of Italian cuisine, were reissued as Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Around the same time, New York epicurean grocery Dean & Deluca imported some of the first sundried tomatoes to the US and they soon found their way into all manner of dishes across the nation. Other “new” Italian staples like pesto were already popular after a boom in the 1980s. This fascination also set the stage for Tuscan-inspired home kitchen trends (think warm paint colors and “Old World” finishes like travertine floors and wrought iron). 
• The Eating Right Pyramid: Graphic-representation of recommended food intake has existed for decades and was most prominently used during wartime shortages to help anxious consumers navigate rations and empty grocery store shelves. Decades later, federal nutritionists fell for a pyramid scheme shape to visually demo their dietary recommendations. Stolen from Sweden (who first published the graphic in the 1970s), the USDA introduced an American version known as the “Eating Right Pyramid” also known plainly as “the food pyramid” to school-aged kids across the nation.
• The Super Size Me Generation: The first documented use of the phrase “super size” in reference to the McDonald’s menu can be traced to summertime advertisements in the late 1980s. The concept of sizing-up drinks and fries failed to really take hold, however, until the brand’s successful collaboration with the 1993 blockbuster film Jurassic Park which encouraged diners with Tyrannosaurus-sized hunger to “dino-size” their meals. The dinosaur themed packaging was a hit, but the phrase failed to make consumers bite as they would substitute “super size” instead. The menu upgrades stuck around until 2004 when criticism from healthy-eating advocates, the debut of the epyomnous and shocking documentary by Morgan Spulock, and a concerned public prompted McDonald’s to phase out the feature.

• Zima Launch: “Malternative beverage” Zima launched along with a handful of other sweet, low ABV coolers (in the UK, these are also known as “alcopops,” which is decidedly a much better nickname).  
• The Food Network Launch: Originally called The Cooking Channel, the Food Network launched in 1993 with a handful of shows featuring guests such as renowned chef Jacques Pepin, Donna Hanover (the then wife of NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani), and Robin Leach of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” In addition to food news, the network added various show styles over the years including “The Essence of Emeril,” the British travel program “Two Fat Ladies,” and Alton Brown’s “Good Eats.” 
• RebrandCooks Illustrated: A busy year for food media, 1993 also saw the rebrand of Cook’s Illustrated magazine. First launched in 1980, then sold to Condé Nast, and then reacquired by then-editor Christopher Kimball, the magazine quickly gained a large readership after a rebrand. The magazine relied on an army of home cooks who helped test and ultimately publish foolproof recipes along with straight-forward black-and-white illustrations. Each issue included a taste test of common household ingredients and an equipment review. 
• New York TimesRuth Reichl Becomes the Restaurant Critic for the : After helping lead the counterculture food movement, restaurateuring, and serving as the restaurant editor for the Los Angeles Times, food media legend Ruth Reichl returned to her native Manhattan to write as the restaurant critic for The New York Times. Known for her attention to detail and a mission to demystify the haute cuisine, Reichl was one of the first critics to focus on small immigrant-owned and mom-and-pop restaurants in New York City. In 1999, Reichl left the newspaper world to serve as the editor of Gourmet magazine.

• Pulp Fiction Food: Cult-classic Pulp Fiction wooed film critics, made us ponder the metric system, and gave audiences cravings with numerous on-screen references to American foods including Fruit Brute cereal, Pop-Tarts, cheeseburgers, milkshakes, and many other diner favorites. 
• North American Free Trade Agreement: Enacted in 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a pact between Mexico, Canada, and the United States, lowered trade barriers and created more opportunities for foreign investment. While the trade agreement included products, services, and intellectual property, one of the biggest impacts visible to everyday consumers was in the grocery store. Though criticized for its problematic handling of preexisting safeguards for small and Indigenous farming communities, NAFTA significantly boosted agricultural trade (including things like beef, poultry, rice, peanuts, and fruits and vegetables) into and out of the United States. The agreement helped reshape diets, too; Americans consume more than double the amount of foreign fruits and vegetables, while Mexican consumers navigate an influx of processed foods and U.S. produced ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup.
• Mad Cow Disease Shakes the US: Mad Cow Disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was first documented in British cattle in 1986, setting off a decade of bans and precautionary measures related to cattle husbandry and trade. A few years later, the United States banned the import of British cattle. In 1994, scientists confirmed that consuming BSE-infected meat can cause a fatal disorder in humans. While the US took extreme measures to mitigate a similar crisis in American beef markets, meat-loving consumers were already anxious. Government officials and the US beef industry were forced to mobilize to reassure consumers that American beef was safe to eat. As a result, anyone who was born or lived in Europe between 1980 and 1997, the height of Mad Cow Disease, was barred from donating blood in the United States until the FDA lifted the ban in 2020.

• Seinfeld's Soup Nazi: Seinfeld’s famous “The Soup Nazi” episode aired featuring a strict soup stand owner. The title didn’t age well, obviously, but the soup peddler’s line “No soup for you!” led to dozens of pop culture references, additional acting gigs for actor Larry Thomas, as well as an Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.”  
• The Rise of Online Food Media: As the computer became more integrated into the standard American household, consumers turned to the internet for all sorts of information, especially about their food. In 1995, Epicurious launched as part of Conde Nast’s Internet subsidiary and offered recipes, general information on food and wine, as well as cooking tips. Allrecipes, which originally launched a site dedicated to cookies, followed two years later in 1997. And in 1996, the groundwork for About.com, a digital repository of information about hundreds of curated topics including food and cooking, was established. Two decades later, About.com would become Dotdash (and then Dotdash Meredith), the parent company of The Spruce Eats.
• Martha Stewart Is Everywhere: By the mid-nineties, Martha Stewart was already an established American icon of all things related to the home. She released a number of cookbooks throughout the 1980s, launched her long-running magazine venture Martha Stewart Living in 1990, and a weekly television program in 1993. Two years later, New York Magazine designated Stewart “the definitive American woman of our time.” While ever the ideal hostess, Stewart’s 1995 publications of The Martha Stewart Cookbook, Special Occasions, and Handmade Christmas further democratized the Martha Stewart-style for domestically-obsessed Americans across the nation.

• Big Night Takes Center Stage: Italian-American dramady classic, Big Night, premiers with a star-studded line up of Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, Allison Janney, and a towering meat-filled timpano.  
• Forrest Gump's Bubba Gump Shrimp: American comedy-drama Forrest Gump (1994) gave society many metaphorical gifts—most notably the well-worn simile “life is like a box of chocolates.” However, the most culturally pervasive of these gifts was a chain of Cajun cuisine focused restaurants called Bubba Gump Shrimp Company (named after the soldier Forrest befriends and loses when their Army platoon is ambushed in Vietnam). In real life, the first Bubba Gump Shrimp Company opened in 1996 in Monterey, CA in partnership with Paramount Pictures. The restaurant has since franchised internationally and produces a line of frozen packaged shrimp products. 
• Olestra Takes Over Snacks: Already well into the non-fat era, the FDA approved a new fat substitute known as Olestra (also known as Olean) in 1996. In lab tests, Olestra helped lower blood cholestral levels and was originally pitched as a healthy fat alternative in high-fat foods like potato chips and crackers, but it also had an unsavory side effect: abdominal cramping and loose stools. To make matters worse, Olestra also inhibited the absorption of some vitamins and nutrients (which led snack companies to add those vitamins back into their products to curb FDA scrutiny). The FDA required companies to add a special label informing consumers of these potential side effects. By the end of the decade, snackers had a change of stomach, tiring of Olestra’s fat-free gastrointestinal outcomes, and largely stopped buying products containing the additive. 
• EBT Ramps Up: A federal program started just before WWII, low-income Americans utilized paper and analog forms of food stamps for grocery purchasing assistance up until the late 1990s when the program switched to Electronic Bank Transfers (EBT) and debit cards. While the technology moved swiftly, Congress and state programs took longer to adopt the new process. Maryland had the first fully functioning EBT system in 1996.

• Go-Gurt Launch: The Yoplait branded plastic tubes filled with yogurt, launched in 1997.
• Good Burger: The home of the good burger and iconic 1990s comedic youth duo Kenan and Kel, premiered.
• Wonder Ball Launch (and Decline): The spherical chocolate shell filled with candy or a small toy (also pandered to American youths through an exceptional earworm of a jingle), first launched in the mid-1990s. After significant lobbying from parents concerned that the small toys presented choking hazards, the candy’s parent company, Nestle, withdrew the product from shelves. 
• Chowhound Launch: A sort of Reddit for the food obsessed, Chowhound launched in 1997 as a New-York focused digital gathering place created by Jim Leff and Bob Okumura. Unlike other virtual food communities, Chowhound focused on regional cuisines and local foods found throughout the city. The website is credited with helping sell the broader American consuming public on regional foodways with help from early contributing authors and leading food voices including Robert Sietsema of the Village Voice and Gourmet and Jonathan Gold of the Los Angeles Times). Chowhound quickly expanded to other cities, riding the digital waves of food blogging and food-obsessed social media platforms. The website closed in the spring of 2022.

• Sex and the City's Cosmo Generation: HBO television series Sex and the City premiered in 1998, influencing fashion trends across the nation and reintroducing a new generation to the protagonist’s go-to cocktail, the Cosmopolitan. 
• California Bans Smoking in Bars: “Smoking or Non?” A phrase largely unheard today, growing concerns for second-hand smoke inhalation led to a slew of statewide smoking bans, drastically shifting hospitality culture for workers and diners alike. Updating their smoking ban in enclosed workplaces, which included restaurants, from 1995, California went one step further to ban smoking in bars in 1998. Dozens of California municipalities had already implemented local smoking bans before it was official state-wide. Following California’s lead, dozens of other states passed similar laws over the next decade. Today, only 12 states lack general statewide smoking bans in restaurants and bars.

• Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies Launch: The brownies, which were originally created because of the Cosmic Bowling trend, launched in 1999.
• The First Certified Organic Restaurant in the US Was Born: An early adopter of the farm-to-table phrase and mission, Restaurant Nora in Dupont Circle in Washington DC became America’s first certified organic restaurant in 1999. Chef and owner Nora Pouillon was a pioneer in organic cooking, developing extensive networks of organic and natural farmers in her local area. After learning that no organic certification process existed for restaurants, Pouillon helped create standards for the title with the Oregon Tilth Certified Organic Program, an accredited certifying agent for the USDA’s National Organic Program. The Organic Foods Production Act only went into effect in 1990 as part of the U.S. Farm Bill. 
• The Y2K Survival Guide: The threat of Y2K—also known as the “year 2000 problem” so named for the potential cataclysmic computer errors that could occur due to the reformatting of calendar data on January 1, 2000—caused substantial public concern leading up to the new year. Media hysterics led consumers to stock up for apocalyptic scenarios, including food shortages and power grid failures. Despite official attempts to calm public concern, some consumers still stored Spam and other shelf stable goods for a calamity that never came. Likely due to the non-issue of the whole ordeal, there are still plenty of copies of The Y2K Survival Guide and Cookbook (published in 1999) available on Amazon. 
• The Rise of Food Blogging: To coincide with the release of his first book, Room for Dessert, David Lebovitz, recipe developer and former pastry chef at Chez Panisse, launched his now-famous blog in 1999. At the same time, David Leite, Portuguese-American food writer, founded Leite’s Culinaria, a blog-style website that delivered daily recipes and cooking tips. Later that year, Blogger, the web-based blogging software that birthed a million food blogs, launched before a hungry public.
• The Year of the Restaurant: In recognition of the restaurant industry’s significant contribution to the U.S. economy, the U.S. Department of Commerce dubs 1999, “The Year of the Restaurant.”