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Dish · Buffalo
Beef on weck
Rare roast beef sandwich on kummelweck roll, topped with coarse salt and caraway, with horseradish and the roll dipped in the roast jus. It’s a tavern specialty from Buffalo, older than the chicken wings.
Flavors · New York
New York cheesecake
Dense, creamy tart made with cream cheese, eggs and cream on a cookie crust, served without topping.
Traditional sweet from New York, New York
Also known as: New York-style cheesecake
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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New York cheesecake — New York, the United States
New York cheesecake is a tall, dense, creamy tart made with cream cheese, sugar, eggs and cream, baked on a crushed cookie crust. The classic version is served plain, without fruit or syrup on top.
This style depends on cream cheese, created in 1872 by William Lawrence, a milk producer in Chester, New York, who was trying to copy the French cheese Neufchâtel and added cream to the milk. The result was a thicker, creamier cheese that later came to be produced at scale by large manufacturers.
Arnold Reuben, the owner of a Broadway restaurant, claimed to have created the modern version of the dessert after tasting a cheese pie at a friend’s home and developing the recipe with his chef. The cheesecake was served at his restaurant in the 1930s and later gained fame in other establishments in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
New York’s tourism authority lists the cheesecake among the foods the city does better than anywhere else. The filling uses more egg yolks than other versions, which makes it denser, and technically it is more of a baked cream than a cake.
It is served in generous slices, chilled, as a dessert in delicatessens and traditional city restaurants.
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Where it comes from
New York , New York
Cheesecake style born in New York, listed by the city’s official tourism office.
Ingredients
Cream cheese, sugar, eggs and yolks, cream and vanilla, on a crushed cookie base (graham cracker) and butter.
How it is eaten
In slices, chilled, as a dessert; plain in the classic version (no topping).
When it is eaten
Year-round, as a dessert.
Your questions
Questions about New York cheesecake
What sets New York cheesecake apart?
It is dense and creamy, made with cream cheese and extra yolks, on a cookie crust, and served without topping in the classic version.
Was cheesecake invented in New York?
Cheese tarts have existed for centuries. The New York style originated in the city after cream cheese was created in the state in 1872.
Does New York cheesecake have a fruit topping?
The classic version is served plain. Fruit toppings exist, but they are not part of the traditional recipe.
Flavors of the United States
Discover other flavors of the United States
Dish · Buffalo
Buffalo wings
Fried chicken wings not breaded and coated in a hot pepper and butter sauce, served with celery and blue cheese dressing. They were created in Buffalo in 1964, according to the most accepted version.
Sweet · Key West
Key lime pie
Key lime pie, made with the small yellow Key lime, condensed milk and egg yolks on a cookie crust. Associated with Key West since the late 19th century, it is the official pie of Florida.
Dish · Los Angeles
French dip
Sliced roast beef sandwich on French bread, with the bread dipped in the roast’s jus. Two downtown Los Angeles establishments, opened in 1908, claim its invention.
Drink · Miami
Cafecito
Cuban coffee: a short, strong espresso sweetened during preparation, with a sugar foam on top. It’s the everyday coffee of Miami’s Cuban community, served in small cups at café windows.
Dish · New York
New York-style pizza
Large pizza with a thin, crisp yet flexible crust, thin enough to fold a slice in half. It originated among Neapolitan bakers in New York and is sold by the slice throughout the city.
Dish · New York
Pastrami on rye
Pastrami sandwich: cured, seasoned and smoked beef, hot-sliced on rye bread with mustard. It’s the sandwich of New York’s Jewish delicatessens.
Dish · San Diego
California burrito
Carne asada burrito with French fries inside, cheese, pico de gallo, sour cream and guacamole. San Diego’s tourism authority presents it as a creation of the city from the 1980s.
Dish · Santa Maria
Santa Maria-style barbecue
Beef barbecue seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic and roasted over oak coals, served with pinquito beans, salsa, toasted bread and salad. The Santa Maria Valley chamber of commerce registered the menu in 1978.
Dish · San Francisco
Cioppino
Stew of fish and seafood in a tomato-and-wine broth, created in the 19th century by Italian fishermen, mostly from Genoa, on the San Francisco pier. It is served with bread for dipping into the broth.
Dish · San Francisco
Mission burrito
Large burrito made with a flour tortilla, filled with meat, rice, beans, salsa and sour cream, wrapped in aluminum foil. It originated in the taquerías of the Mission neighborhood in San Francisco in the 1960s.
Dish · Tampa
Cuban sandwich
Cuban sandwich made with Cuban bread, roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard, pressed on a griddle. In Tampa it also includes salami. The City Council declared it the city’s signature sandwich in 2012.
Dish · Virgínia
Brunswick stew
Thick stew of chicken, lima beans, corn and tomato, cooked for hours in iron pots. The Virginia General Assembly points to Brunswick County as the place of origin, in a long-standing dispute with Georgia.
Dish · Washington, D.C.
Half-smoke
A sausage thicker and spicier than the hot dog, smoked and grilled, served in bread with chili, onion and mustard. Washington’s tourism agency calls it the city’s signature dish.