Three-layer dependent dropdown with validation query

I need to create three drop down lists, with the second dependent on the choices in the first and the third dependent on the choices in the second. This is proving to be quite difficult and takes a lot of processing the way I'm going about it (most likely the wrong way).

My data looks like this:

A	B	C
Macintosh Apple	Fruit	Apple
Fuji Apple	Fruit	Apple
Manzano Banana	Fruit	Banana
Baby Banana	Fruit	Banana
Sweet peas	vegetables	peas
T-bone	meat	beef
Snow peas	vegetables	peas
Roma Tomato	vegetables	Tomato
Mandarin Orange	Fruit	Orange

The data is presented to me with the most narrowly defined column first, then the most general, then more defined.

What I need is the user to select (on a separate worksheet from the data) the category from column B, then the type from column C, then the specific item from column A. Each selection is dependent on the earlier selection, so that choice 1 (column B) determines the options for choice 2 (column C), which determines the options for choice 3 (Column A).

I asked a similar question in this thread, but turns out my problem is a bit more difficult than I had thought.

Any ideas?

Also, I think I found that "VLOOKUP" has a problem where it is unable to match data from the first column based on data in a second or third column. For instance, in the above example, if I asked VLOOKUP to look for "Apple" and give me values in column A that contain "Apple" in column C, all I get is "#N/A".

However, I don't know if the VLOOKUP problem is due to having more than 1 match in that column?