Meet the American who invented Buffalo wings, disrupted entire chicken industry

California Poultry Federation President Bill Mattos on how inflation is impacting chicken as well as other meat products

Poultry pioneer Teressa Bellissimo inspired a delicious all-American bar-food phenomenon. 

The late restaurateur cooked the first batch of Buffalo wings, the most iconic of all barroom bites, by happenstance one winter night in 1964 at Anchor Bar in Buffalo.

Her invention soon upended an entire multi-billion-dollar sector of American agriculture. 

The nation has delighted with teary eyes and sauce-soaked fingers ever since a small band of barflies savored those first bites of spicy chicken limbs in New York nearly 60 years ago.

Americans consume an incredible 27 billion chicken wings per year, according to an estimate by the National Chicken Council. 

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"There’s no doubt that her creation changed the course of American food history," Buffalo History Museum spokesman Brian Hayden told Fox News Digital. 

"Buffalonians take a tremendous amount of pride in our signature dish, one that has now been replicated all over the world."

Teressa Bellissimo cooked the first Buffalo wings in 1964 in a moment of divine inspiration at the Anchor Bar, a Buffalo, N.Y., watering hole she owned with her husband Frank. (Anchor Bar)

Chefs, consumers and food producers now flavor almost everything — from snack chips to cauliflower to ice cream — in Buffalo-style hot sauce. It's a tangy red mixture of cayenne and vinegar sauce that’s blended with butter to temper the heat and create a smooth, savory mouth feel. 

"Few cities in the world can claim that they have an entire flavor named after them," added Hayden, author of the upcoming book, "111 Places