The Country That First Put Avocado Toast On A Breakfast Menu Is Not The US

Considering all the hype around American millennials and avocado toast over the last few years, you may be surprised to learn this dish actually wasn't even invented in the United States. Yes, avocado toast has become the butt of internet jokes and the scapegoat for an entire generation's economic ills, but this simple yet delicious meal is more than the sum of its parts. It combines the creaminess of avocado and the crunch of toasted bread, while providing endless opportunities for additions like chef Gordon Ramsay's three-ingredient combo that includes black sesame seeds, chile flakes, and lemon zest.

So who do we have to thank (or blame, depending on your point of view) for making avocado toast a breakfast staple for so many of us? It's the same country that gave the world AC/DC and "The Crocodile Hunter" series. Avocado toast is Australian, and we have possibly pinpointed its creator. That said, avocados and bread have a long fruitful relationship that spans many generations.

In 1993, a young entrepreneur in Sydney, Australia, named Bill Granger had just opened a café called Bill's. He added avocado toast to the breakfast menu, which was something he enjoyed eating. As Granger rose to become an international restaurateur, he brought avocado toast with him, helping to popularize it across the globe. Then, in 2011, American chef Jessica Koslow opened a popular Australian-style café in Los Angeles called Sqirl, with a menu that included a wide variety of avocado toast options. Enter actor and health guru Gwyneth Paltrow, who included avocado toast in one of her cookbooks. Then, with the rise of Instagram, came the perfect storm for avocado toast to steal hearts across the United States.

Still, there is a long history predating all of this. Centuries before social media and America's first avocado-based love affair in the 1990s, when guacamole became super popular, the Indigenous peoples in Mexico, Central America, and South America paired avocado with corn flatbread. Across the globe and in various time periods, like the Virgin Islands in the 1840s and California in the 1920s, there are accounts of people putting avocados on toast (or at least bread) as a tasty breakfast treat. So while Australia may have been the first country to put avocado toast on a breakfast menu, there were many other times and places that played their part in helping make this breakfast dish a brunch staple for the ages.