When executives at Kraft heard about the salesman’s idea, they knew they had a hit on their hands. Soon customers were snapping up these “meal kits” faster than the salesman could put them together. Frustrated that no one was buying his boxes of macaroni noodles, he began rubber-banding them to packets of processed cheese made by Kraft Cheese Company. But in many parts of the country, mac and cheese was still unknown.Ī pasta salesman in St. Cheap and filling, mac and cheese was the perfect meal for hard times. Many were struggling to buy enough food to feed their families. The country was in the middle of a dark time called the Great Depression. (Europe’s kings and queens would have been horrified.)Īnd Americans were desperate for affordable meals.
Once a royal treat, mac and cheese had now become a meal almost anyone could afford. had started preparing it with cheap American cheddar and noodles instead of pricey Parmesan and pasta imported from Italy.
By the 1930s, mac and cheese had come a long way from its posh European beginnings.
