The Blackbeard Catering Company was created in 1717 by Oliver Harris as a full service food service organization, serving North and South Carolina. Though the business lasted less than a year, it is widely regarded as the first commercial food provider in the continental United States. Although the firm failed, its central concept of catering would fire imaginations for years to come, and Blackbeard's kitchen exploits would become etched in the minds of millions of schoolchildren.