Below is a 1953 commercial featuring Chef Boyardee: And below the commercial from the 50s, is the whole history behind the Boyardee name: What do you think of the history behind the Chef Boyardee name? [18], In 2015, a class-action lawsuit was brought against the Chef Boyardee company. So basically, Chef Boyardee cans are just normal cans. Hes become a household name, but few people actually know the chef behind the brand. Real. I usually avoid commenting on all the grammar mistakes, but this one is really bad: in the first paragraph, He later immigrating to America at the age of 16 should be He later immigrated to America at the age of 16. The name was created for the Washburn Crosby Company (which would later merge with other businesses to form General Mills) by Marjorie Husted as a way to personalize the companys products and customer relations. Who Was Chef Boyardee? They also procured distribution across the United States through their grocery's wholesale partners. Real. Hector Boiardi, born in 1897, was born in Italy, where he began working at a hotel in his hometown when he was 11 (child labor meant something a little different in the early 1900s.) He's become a household name, but few people actually know the chef behind the brand. Its first product: spaghetti dinner, including a canister of grated parmesan, a box of spaghetti and a jar of sauce. Take a Break from Tuna with the Best Canned Salmon, All of the Tapatio Products You May Not Have Known Exist, The 5 Best Bread and Butter Pickles Are Sweet, Sour, and Sensational, Sporkeds Guide to the Best Nachos Fixins, 3 Best Frozen Chicken Patties for DIY Fast Food. At the time the statue went up, Chef Boyardee had provided jobs for more than 10,000 workers in the Milton area.. Probably fictional. [19] The lawsuit was dismissed in 2016.[20]. He sold the company to American Home Foods in 1946 for nearly $6 million, and remained as a spokesman and consultant for the brand until 1978. Colonel Sanders was real. Cookie Policy The classic ready-made pastas are iconic and well known. Paul Boiardi had moved to America when Hector was a small boy and had quickly found a job waiting tables in New York's Parisian Room at the famous Plaza Hotel. The Facts Behind These Familiar Food Ads. Ettore "Hector" Boiardi was born in Italy and immigrated to Cleveland in 1914. In a world of fake food mascots, Ettore Boiardi was the real deal. His food was very popular, and his customers were always asking to take home samples of his sauce. Anastasia Arellano. With Boiardi serving food from his northern Italian home of Piacenza to a population that wasn't already inundated with Italian food, his restaurant was perhaps the one of the most unique (and popular) in the city. Baker Charles Lubin owned a small chain of Chicago bakeries in the early 20th century. We stan Ettore. However, a version of . If you are a Chef Boyardee person who loved the stuff as a kid and happen to give it another go, let us know if it lives up to your memories. But what about the chef behind the raviolis. In an iconic TV ad from the early 00s, a can of Chef Boyardee beef ravioli goes on an epic journey, rolling of its own volition from the grocery store all the way to a familys home to be reunited with a small, ravioli-loving child. At one point, the company ranked among the biggest importers of olive oil and Parmesan cheese from Italy. She loves spicy snacks, Oreos, baking bread, teeny tiny avocados, and trying new foods whenever she can. American Home Foods was eventually acquired by the conglomerate ConAgra Foods, which still owns the Chef Boy-Ar-Dee brand today. Real. [11], Boiardi died of natural causes on June 21, 1985, at age 87 in a nursing home in Parma, Ohio, survived by his wife Helen J. Boiardi, who died in 1995, and son Mario, who died in 2007. Others, like Mr. Coffee, well, we don't think they were trying to fool anyone with that one. The company he sold to was American Home Products (today called International Home Foods). He later came to the states through Ellis Island and became a well-known celebrity chef, working at various fancy hotels (and even catering Woodrow Wilsons wedding) before opening his own Italian restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1924. He was still a teenager. [12] He had five grandchildren. Betty Crocker was not. From the Chef Boyardee website: . And he's just one of the 33 grocery store brands named after real people. He later immigrating to America at the age of 16 and took the name Hector Boiardi as he passed through Ellis Island. Chef Boyardee: Chef Boyardee The famous canned pasta is named after its founder, Hector. Thanks. Before Tim and Nina Zagat, there was Duncan Hines, a traveling . As Anna Boiardi writes in her book, "I think it is fair to say that those three men (the Boiardi brothers), with no formal education and very little money, can be credited with bringing Italian food to America.". While business was going well, Boiardi encountered a minor issue: salesmen and customers couldn't really pronounce his name. [2] The patrons of Il Giardino d'Italia frequently asked for samples and recipes of his spaghetti sauce, so he filled cleaned milk bottles.[3]. Pharmacist Charles Alderton developed the formula for Dr Pepper while working at W.B. In Milton, the company exploded. By the age of 22, Hector Boiardi was one of America's most famous chefs - essentially Bobby Flay meets James Beard if they had barely finished going through puberty when they became big names. Ettore Boiardi as shown in a 1953 television commercial, 1953 television commercial with Ettore Boiardi, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Chef Boyardee Was a Real Person Who Brought Italian Food to America", "Hector Boiardi: A Chef's Resume | Chef Boyardee", "Carl Colombi served up Chef Boy-Ar-Dee idea", "The Man, The Can: Recipes Of The Real Chef Boyardee", "Hector Boiardi Is Dead: Began Chef Boy-ar-dee", "Hector Boiardi of 'Chef Boy-Ar-Dee' Foods Dies", "Chef Boyardee's grand-niece Anna Boiardi reveals family recipes with new cookbook", The Man, The Can: Recipes Of The Real Chef Boyardee, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ettore_Boiardi&oldid=1144495541, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from May 2022, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 14 March 2023, at 01:48. [13], In June 2000, ConAgra Foods acquired International Home Foods. After the war, the Boiardi family sold the companyaccording to a Boiardi descendant who spoke to NPR, selling to a larger company was the only way to keep all the the factory workers employed. Fairly quickly, it became clear that the young Boiardi he was a prodigy. In several cases it's not clear whether the namesake ever actually lived, and in many cases the person the brand is named after never existed at all. To capitalize on their hometown popularity, they started branding their products with Oscars name when they expanded their business. Hector Boiardi ran a popular Italian restaurant in Cleveland in the 1920s, and his recipes were so popular that people convinced him to mass-market them. In 1928, as we said already, Ettore and his two brothers founded "Chef Boyardee," a food company specialized in the production and commercialization of Italian style ready-to-eat meals. Peppers Pepsin Bitters. According to the Dr Pepper Museum, there are dozens of stories that connect the name to real-life Doctor Peppers that Morrison might have known, but no conclusive links have been established. His brother Paul worked there as maitre dhotel. Soon after, he was training under esteemed chefs in Paris and London. The brands signature tomato sauce has always been sweet and sort of thin, but youll notice a lot of people online claiming that the saucy products they remember loving in the 90s and 00s are soupier and less flavorful than they remember. Cooking up recipes from his hometown, he so impressed customers that he was hired away to be the head chef at Barbetta on 46th Street (where it is still located to this day). Known affectionately as 'Chef Boyardee,' he founded his food franchise of products with his wife, Helen. These names are probably all over your kitchenbut did they belong to real people? This will help you not spill any sauce as well as create little whirlpools in the sauce as the curve side down glides through the sauce; this provides optimal mixing. He later started a successful flooring and tile company. For producing rations supplying Allied troops during World War II, he was awarded a Gold Star order of excellence[clarification needed] from the United States War Department.[8]. Sara Lee didnt follow her father into the baking business, but instead has worked to encourage and support women working in science. Chef Boyardee products are available in cans or single-use microwavable cups. During the Depression, Boiardis company grew by leaps and bounds due to the fact that his product was incredibly cheap compared to most other meals and was very tasty (one assumes more tasty than now back then when Boiardi was directly involved in the production and quality control). Born in 1897 near Piacenza, Italy, Boiardi took to cooking from an early age, supposedly finding work as an apprentice chef at a hotel at the ripe age of 11.When he was 16, Ettore left home, arriving at Ellis Island just months before the outbreak of World War I. As of 2021, the following products are no longer in production. ", SLEEPYTIME TEA AND THE LITTLE-KNOWN RELIGION BEHIND IT, THE NOT-SO-AMERICAN HISTORY OF CHEEZ WHIZ. By Tim Nelson Published on February 13, 2021 When it comes to food brands and their human "mascots," you really can't believe everything you see. The Chef Boyardee brand was created by a real Italian chef, Ettore Boiardi. DUNCAN HINES CAKE MIXES. At the persuasion of a couple of restaurant regulars, including a couple who owned a local grocery store chain, Boiardi built a small canning and processing plant in Cleveland. However, demand for his sauce became too great and soon Boiardi realized that perhaps it was this "take-home" industry that was his future. Using brother Peter's Plaza Hotel connections, Chef "Boy-Ar-Dee" meals ended up on the shelves of A & P grocery stores across the country, by far the largest food retailer in America at the time. Today, Chef Boyardee sells a variety of classic pasta dishes in both cans and those little microwavable cupsSpaghetti & Meatballs, Beefaroni, Lasagna, and, of course, both meat and cheese ravioli. Chef Boyardee Juan Valdez Colonel Sanders Duncan Hines. The rest is history. Terms of Use they serve chef at the olive garden so dont tell me its not real italian food. His name was Hector Boiardi, and he was born in Italy in 1897. In the 1970s, friends suggested that Amos make cookies his full-time business. With all that in mind, it's natural to be skeptical of the origins and credentials of any food company mascot. ", By 1936, the company had outgrown the Cleveland plant and moved to a large swath of land in Milton, Pennsylvania where they could grow their own tomatoes. In some cases, the name simply sounds good. I love the part about the guy keeping his familys wealth secret until he was sure. Whats more: Hector Boiardi was a respected chef who even helped cater Woodrow Wilsons second wedding. He died at the age of 87 in 1985. | READ MORE. After the war ended, Boiardi had to choose between selling the company or laying off everyone he had hired. Dorann Weber / Contributor / Getty Images. Turns out Chef Boyardee wasnt just a mascot for canned raviolihe was a real boy(ardee)! He was born Ettore Boiardi (or Hector as he was called in English) in Piacenza Italy in 1897. Believe it or not, Chef Boyardee was a real live chef, and Chef Boyardee's history is pretty amazing. "There are people that are working, and their kids have to come home and make something for themselves," Boiardi told NPR, "even when I was growing up and my mom is a fabulous cook she would open up a can of Chef Boyardee for us on certain nights when there just wasn't enough time. Italian Chefs Are Reinventing Risotto, and It's More Delicious Than Ever, Poet Charles Simic Paints a Self-Portrait with Spaghetti, Skyline Chili, and Cincinnati Chili in General, Explained by a Local As Best She Can, The 45 Biggest Food Trends of the Past 45 Years, You Can Ski to This Buzzy New Restaurant at Californias Most Famous Ski Resort, How Japanese Immigrants Shaped This Peruvian Food, You Can Eat 150 Years of Italian History on the Shores of Lake Como, The 25 Most Influential American Candy Bars of All Time, The Real Colonel Sanders Hated Everything that KFC Became, How Aleem Syed Returned to the Kitchen After a Life-Changing Tragedy, The Best Places to Eat Filipino Food in Every State, The People's Best New Chef: Midwest Contenders, becoming one of the most well-known hosts in the city, underground bunker for Congress in the case of nuclear war, wedding reception of President Woodrow Wilson to Edith Bolling Galt, Cleveland's famed and very popular Hotel Winton, becoming immensely popular on the east and west coasts. Just remember one thing, lets part friends. He looked at me and said, What the hell are you talking about? He put his hand into my trolley cart, pulled out a can and said, this is my father. We both cried.. While Boiardi's culinary resume was already quite impressive by the time he relocated to Cleveland, that's where his transformation from Ettore Boiardi to Chef Boyardee began in earnest. Chef Boyardee was a real person. Clevelander Chef Boyardee (born Ettore Boiardi and known as Hector Boyardee after moving to the United States) found his rhythm right here in Ohio, a state he was not native to but that he effortlessly adopted the culture of. He made quite the impression amongst diners as Italian food wasnt quite as widespread as it is today. Chef Hector Boyardee was born in 1897 in Piacenza, Italy, not surprisingly with a very Italian name: Ettore Boiardi. ", "Natural History of the Kitchen: Chef Boyardee", "Canned & Microwave Spaghetti | Chef Boyardee", "Mastercard Priceless | Experiences make life more meaningful", "Chef Boyardee Maker Hit With False Advertising Class Action", Hector Boiardi (Encyclopedia of Cleveland History), Gallery of classic graphic design featuring Chef Boyardee, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chef_Boyardee&oldid=1134715590, Companies based in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Articles lacking reliable references from September 2020, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Spaghetti & Meatballs (can, microwavable cup), Mini Spaghetti Rings & Meatballs (can, microwavable cup), Cheese Ravioli In Meat Sauce (microwavable cup), Mini Beef Ravioli & Meatballs (can, microwaveable Cup), Mini Micro Beef Ravioli (microwaveable cup), Pasta With Chicken And Vegetables (microwave cup), Spaghetti In Tomato Sauce (microwave cup), Pasta In Butter Sauce (can, microwaveable cup), Rice With Chicken & Vegetables (microwavable cup), Mini ABC's & 123's With Meatballs (can, microwavable cup), Mini ABC's & 123's Without Meatballs (can), Justice League Pasta Shapes with Meatballs, Roller Coaster Pasta Shapes with Mini Meatballs, Sir Chomps-a-lot Bite-Sized Cheese Ravioli, The Smurfs Mini Pasta Shapes with Meatballs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pasta Shapes with Mini Meatballs, This page was last edited on 20 January 2023, at 05:35. The name, Boiardi. [5] Touting the low cost of spaghetti products as a good choice to serve to the entire family, Boiardi introduced his product to the public in 1929. When World War II erupted in Europe, the food company was put to work making Army rations. The Milton factory started operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week in 1942, according to the company website. There was only one problem: customers had a tough time pronouncing Ettore Boiardi's name. Ettore (Hector) Boiardi came from Piacenza, Italy to New York with his brothers, where he became the head chef of the famous Plaza Hotel at the age of 17. Some other real people behind brands, besides Chef Boyardee, were Uncle Ben; KFCs Harland Sanders; popcorns Orville Redenbacher; and McDonalds Dick and Mac McDonald. With his brothers Mario and Paul, Chef Hector starts the Chef Boyardee Company. Fictional. Born Ettore (Hector) Boiardi, Chef Boyardee was a real man and a real chef (unlike Mrs. Butterworth or Betty Crocker). [1] [2] History The Chef Boyardee factory in Milton, Pennsylvania, as seen from across the West Branch Susquehanna River at Central Oak Heights Did all the can move on their own? As for how the whole iconic cheap canned pasta thing started, Ettore decided to help out by producing military rations for the troops overseas during World War II, which kind of sort of made him an American hero. I asked a friend of mine who used to work on the Chef Boyardee line if the cans propelled themselves and just rolled like in the commercial so that the line didnt have to do anything and she just looked at me real weird and started explaining how canning lines work. He eventually took jobs in Paris and London, learning various restaurant skills to complement his Italian upbringing. There, he started selling bottles of his pasta sauce, and soon expanded the operation with a factory in Pennsylvania. After a stint in prison for continuing to harass and pillage the Spanish after a peace treaty was signed, he was knighted and appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica. Chef Boyardee is an American brand of canned pasta products sold internationally by Conagra Brands. Privacy Statement Lines wrapped around the block and customers begged to know the secrets of his signature dish - cooked-to-order spaghetti with homemade sauce and cheese. Later, in 2000, ConAgra bought IHF, and they currently own the Chef Boyardee name. There has even been an internet rumor denying his existence, claiming that "Boyardee" was combination of the names of three food company executives; Boyd, Art and Dennis. [5] Boiardi sold his products under the brand name "Chef Boy-Ar-Dee" because non-Italians could not manage the pronunciation,[6][7] including his own salesforce. The dish was so popular that patrons wanted to make it for themselves at home, so Boiardi began to assemble take-out meal kits that included dried pasta, cheese and cleaned milk bottles filled with marinara sauce along with instructions on how to cook, heat and assemble the meal. RELATED: 10 Discontinued Restaurant Dishes You Totally Forgot About 12 Trader Joe's Vegetable Chili Shutterstock Trader Joe's has discontinued several of its chili offerings, including the fan-favorite veggie chili. Based on that strength, Consolidated Foods adopted the name Sara Lee for the whole corporation. By 11, according to his great-niece Ann Boiardi's 2011 book, he was already a chef's apprentice at a restaurant called "La Croce Bianca," where he mostly peeled potatoes and took out the garbage. The short answer is probably not, unfortunately. Born in 1897 in Northern Italy, Boiardi was 11 when he landed a job apprenticing for a chef at a hotel in his hometown of Piacenza, per the Chef Boyardee website. Few people are aware that Chef Boyardee, the iconic mustached man on the can of ravioli, was a real person with an amazing story. Ettore Boiardi was an Italian Italian immigrant who came to the United States at the age of 16 and took the name "Hector Boiardi" while passing through Ellis Island. So, who was Chef Boyardee? When I see cans of Chef Boyardee Lasagna, I think of ads using Weird Al Yankovics Lasagna as background music. The Gruesome Tale of the Laughing Death Epidemic, The Greatest Air Race of All Time Which Helped Give Us the Global Airline Industry, An Ode to Glorious Chips (And Who Invented Nachos), What Those Nasty White Chunks That Sometimes Come From Your Throat Are, The Difference Between a Fact and a Factoid, Marilyn Monroe was Not Even Close to a Size 12-16, A Japanese Soldier Who Continued Fighting WWII 29 Years After the Japanese Surrendered, Because He Didnt Know. I was at a friends house and his father was an actual good friend of the Chef. In short, Chef Boyardee was a real person. Boiardi was an immigrant who went on to live the American Dream when he created a whole Italian food empire. Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli: A Delicious And Convenient Meal. Weird History Food will follow Chef from his humble beginnings as an 11-year-old apprentice to the iconic figure he is today.. THE #FAMOUSGRAVE OF #CHEFBOYARDEE IN CHARDON #OHIO Born in 1897 in the northern Italian region of Piacenza, Boiardi supposedly used a wire whisk for a rattle and by age 11 was working as an. At this point in history, fine dining was synonymous with French food, according to NPR. The plaintiff who filed the class-action lawsuit was demanding more than $5 million in damages. It is an excellent and convenient meal that can be consumed quickly and has delighted generations of families. From there, he worked at a variety of high end restaurants in New York as a cook, eventually working his way up to Chef. His name? Writes History.com: Il Giardino dItalia, The Garden of Italy in English, soon became one of Clevelands top eateries with customers regularly lining up to wait for tables and dine on Boiardis signature cooked-to-order spaghetti with its savoury sauce and tangy cheese. [2] At its peak, the company employed approximately 5,000 workers and produced 250,000 cans per day. Even though its now a household name, the people of still have very sentimental memories of Chef Boyardee. Sir Henry Morgan sailed the high seas during the 17th century as a privateer. Yes, Chef Boyardee was an actual person, and for more information about him, look below for a detailed answer on his past. Ettore's journey from immigrant to figurehead of a burgeoning canned pasta empire is enough to store even a cynic's wavering faith in the American dream. There are now more than 650 Mrs. Fields stores in the U.S. Real. With the stock market crashing a year after the company's launch, the Great Depression was a boon for Chef Boyardee and its inexpensive, prepackaged meals, which helped to bring Italian food to the masses. Their product labels stated that they contained no preservatives, yet they contained citric acid. Weird History Food took a look at this impressive career, explaining, Chef Hector Boyardee was born in 1897 in Piacenza, Italy, not surprisingly with a very Italian name: Ettore Boiardi. In 2013, the town erected a statue honoring him at the entrance to the factory. Did you know this already? Hector Boiardi, born in 1897, was born in Italy, where he began working at a hotel in his hometown when he was 11 (child labor meant something a little different in the early 1900s.) Anthony!") With the help of his brothers, Ettore launched what was initially known as the Chef Boiardi Food Company in 1928, whose first product was those prepackaged spaghetti dinners. Answer: While Juan Valdez might sound like the name of a Colombian coffee grower, however his name is completely fictitious. You love his raviolis. Today I found out Chef Boyardee was a real person. Lets try!. Ettore "Hector" Boiardi (that's. In short, Chef Boyardee was a real person. Real. With all that said, it's pretty clear that Chef Boyardee was the real deal. Businessman. [1][2], After leaving his position as head chef at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, Ettore Boiardi opened a restaurant called Il Giardino d'Italia in 1924[3] at East 9th Street and Woodland Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. When inventor Chris L. Rutt wanted to sell his pancake flour, he went for the stereotypical "mammy" archetype and took the name "Aunt Jemima" from a popular minstrel song. The lawsuit alleged false advertisement on the part of Chef Boyardee. The 17 Real People Behind Your Favorite Food Brand Names Slideshow. Your email address will not be published. Green made her public debut in character at the1893World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where she charmed the crowds and doled out pancakes from a booth.The Jemima brand soon became so popular that Green secured a lifetime contract, and the business was renamedthe Aunt Jemima Mills Company. When stirring sauce, you should always stir with the spoons rounded side down, rather than stir sideways like pretty much everyone does. Weird History Food said, Chefs significant contributions to Milton, Pennsylvania were never forgotten. Hector Boiardi was born in Piacenza, in northern Italy. But Chef Boyardee was not, as commonly believed, a fictional creation whose name was formed from the given names (Boyd, Art, and Dennis) of the men who created him. Chef Boyardee was born Hector Boiardi in 1897 in Piacenza, which. By 1938, Chef Boyardee expanded again, relocating its headquarters to Milton, Pennsylvania in order to more easily cultivate a specific type of tomato for use in the sauce.

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