It’s not difficult to believe that Blue Cheese was at first simply a forgotten cheese! In the 7th century, a scatterbrained sheepherder in the village of Roquefort, France, forgot his lunch in a cave one day.
He returned several months later only to find his cheese infested with penicillium roqueforti, a mold growing there. He was brave enough to try the foul-smelling cheese, and with a grin on his face, he was surprised how good it tasted. Today, the natural mold culture is simply added to the cheese milk.
Tofu
There are many origin stories, with one legend telling of a cook's clumsiness in ancient China. He accidentally mixed this natural coagulant called nigari in with soybean milk.
So the ancient people of China began to make tofu - bean curd - a food item particularly enjoyed by anyone preferring vegetarian meals. Although it originated in China some 2,000 years ago, tofu only arrived in western kitchens in the 20th century.
Crêpes Suzette
A French waiter named Henri Charpentier said he was the one who invented the Crêpe Suzette while working in Monte Carlo. After unintentionally burning the sauce, Charpentier said he was making crêpes for a collection of influential and powerful restaurant patrons.
One of those diners, the Prince of Wales, who later became known as Britain's King Edward VII, enjoyed it so much that he demanded that it be named after the woman he was with, and her name was Suzette. Nowadays, Crêpe Suzette might be considered a little fussy or formal for many restaurants, but the fancy dessert will forever have a place in culinary folklore.
Hot Nashville Chicken
They say revenge is a dish served cold; in this case, it was meant to be flaming hot chicken. According to rumors, Nashville hot chicken was invented accidentally-on-purpose at Nashville's famed Prince's Hot Chicken Shack by the current owner's great-uncle Thornton Prince's lover.
She was suspicious of her lover cheating on her, so to get back at him, she served him a fried hot chicken, but with an extreme amount of pepper. To her surprise, Prince loved the spicy chicken and soon began to serve it at his Chicken Shack. And now, all those years later, it's become a complete sensation.
Fortified Wine
It seems that on long voyages sailing all around the world due to growing trade during the 16th and 17th century, European wines were bound to spoil on the long trip.
The brilliant winemakers were clever enough to fortify the wine and did so by adding a dash of brandy to stabilize it. Therefore, they prepared it to withstand the temperature differences.