16 Foods You've Probably Eaten But Didn't Know They Were - BuzzFeed As Anna Boiardi told NPR in 2011, they were the largest importers of Parmesan cheese from Italy. Ettore Boiardi was an Italian immigrant who worked as a chef in New York and West Virginia hotels (where he supposedly catered Woodrow Wilson's second wedding) before. According to the company, Uncle Ben was a real rice grower known for high-quality product in founder Gordon Harwells native Texas, and the brand was named for him as an homage. Born 119 years ago this month (October 22nd, 1897) in the northern Italian city of Piacenza (part of Italy's famous "food valley"), legend has it that cooking was so ingrained in Boiardi that he used a wire whisk as a rattle. Betty Crocker, Uncle Ben, Orville Redenbacher, and Dr. Pepper are a few that come to mind. It then expanded when the production was moved to Milton, Pennsylvania, and there, the Chef Boyardee empire was born. May your love of pasta continue to inspire cooks for generations to come even if they're just using a microwave. Hector Boiardi (1897-1985) - Find a Grave Memorial Is Pizza Getting Too Gourmet for Its Own Good? They later sold the company, and Dean stayed involved in management and as a spokesperson until management phased him out. they serve chef at the olive garden so dont tell me its not real italian food. In 1914, Hector Boiardi made the trip to America on the French ship La Lorraine, landing at Ellis Island. When he began selling jars and cans of his tomato sauce, he chose to do so under a name that Americans could pronounce more easily: "Chef Boy-Ar-Dee" (later changed to Chef Boyardee). Husted picked the first name Betty because it sounded warm and friendly, and combined it with Crocker as a tribute to retired Washburn Crosby executive William Crocker. Weve all had at least one meal from Chef Boyardee. The businessmen who developed an early ready-made pancake mix reportedly saw one such character in a black-face minstrel show in the late 1800s and appropriated the image to brand their new product. To woo potential clients, hed send them packages of his home-made cookies. Yes, Chef Boyardee was an actual person, and for more information about him, look below for a detailed answer on his past. The restaurant was called Il Giardino dItalia, which means The Garden of Italy. He opened the first Famous Amos store in Los Angeles in 1975 and then began supplying cookies to grocery stores around the country. Required fields are marked *. and "Hilltop" for Coca-Cola. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. ", SLEEPYTIME TEA AND THE LITTLE-KNOWN RELIGION BEHIND IT, THE NOT-SO-AMERICAN HISTORY OF CHEEZ WHIZ. [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. 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. 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. Which of these company figureheads was a real person? - Getvoice.org Meet The Real Chef Behind The Chef Boyardee Brand Hector Boyardee himself died a millionaire in 1985. 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. The Welsh sailor made his name defending British interests and raiding Spanish ships and towns throughout the Caribbean. These names are probably all over your kitchenbut did they belong to real people? From there, he worked his way up the ranks and became the head chef. | JUSTICE LEAGUE and all related characters and elements & DC Comics. The company, which is today known for its canned meals, especially its ravioli, has changed hands a number of times since. 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). The plant runs 24/7, and after the war hes awarded the Gold Star, one of the highest military honors a civilian can receive. Lippert believed the ad influenced other famous commercials such as Prince Spaghetti (known for "Anthony! 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. Turns out Chef Boyardee wasnt just a mascot for canned raviolihe was a real boy(ardee)! He stayed on as a consultant there until 1978. In 1928, the Chef Boyardee Company was born. He thus began bottling up his sauces in old milk bottles and packaging his special blends of cheeses and spices with dried pasta and selling these meal kits to customers. That was the town where its tomatoes were grown, and the company even grew mushrooms insidethe factory. Dorann Weber / Contributor / Getty Images. REAL: An Italian immigrant, Chef Ettore Boiardi had a restaurant in Cleveland. That's thanks to Chef Boyardee adding high fructose corn syrup to their sauce. by Audrey Engvalson BuzzFeed Staff 1. 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. When Hector opened his Italian restaurant in the 1920s, Italian food was foreign to Americans. There, he started selling bottles of his pasta sauce, and soon expanded the operation with a factory in Pennsylvania. The Chef Boyardee brand was created by a real Italian chef, Ettore Boiardi. 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. As of 2021, the following products are no longer in production. Based on that strength, Consolidated Foods adopted the name Sara Lee for the whole corporation. The Unhealthiest Canned Foods on the Planet | Eat This Not That 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. He also garnered a summer job cooking at the historic and ritzy Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia (for 30 years, it was also the site of an underground bunker for Congress in the case of nuclear war). Chef Boyardee JUMBO Spaghetti & Meatballs Per 1 cup (255 g): 280 calories, 13 g fat (4.5 g saturated fat), 700 mg sodium, 29 g carbs (3 g fiber, 8 g sugar), 11 g protein Who knew that spaghetti and meatballs could come with 8 grams of sugar? Chef Boyardee REAL:An Italian immigrant, Chef Ettore Boiardi had a restaurant in Cleveland. He died on June 21, 1985, and today the company is owned by ConAgra, the conglomerate behind faves like Slims Jim, Reddi-wip, Vlasic pickles, PAM, Orville Redenbachers popcorn, and, like, a bajillion and three more food brands. He also held a degree in business and co-owned a steel mill with his father. From Duncan Hines to Chef Boyardee, here are 33 grocery store items named after real people. The Man, The Can: Recipes Of The Real Chef Boyardee : NPR 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. He later immigrating to America at the age of 16 and took the name Hector Boiardi as he passed through Ellis Island. He made quite the impression amongst diners as Italian food wasnt quite as widespread as it is today. Chef Boyardee was a very real, very successful chef. He was born Ettore Boiardi (or Hector as he was called in English) in Piacenza Italy in 1897. As a kid, I had so many questions. Terms of Use Who Was the Real Chef Boyardee? - YouTube He said I run a restaurant in Cleveland and am catering parties by putting my spaghetti in a bucket. And that picture on the product labels, of course. After the war ended, Boiardi had to choose between selling the company or laying off everyone he had hired. In a world of fake food mascots, Ettore Boiardi was the real deal. [1] [2] History The Chef Boyardee factory in Milton, Pennsylvania, as seen from across the West Branch Susquehanna River at Central Oak Heights Question: Which of these company figureheads is not a real person? Your email address will not be published. There was never an "Uncle Ben" before Mars decided to overhaul the brand, and "Aunt Jemima" was a racist construction inspired by minstrel shows. Though no longer the owner, he remained the face of the company, appearing in a variety of print and TV ads for the brand until the late 70s, touting an ever-expanding array of canned Italian eats. So, using milk bottles, he packaged up the sauce and sent them off. Far from some dated Italian caricature, "Hector" was actually a model immigrant who made his name cooking for discerning diners in New York and Cleveland not to mention a sitting president long before his likeness ever graced a can of Beefaroni. This was too much for Boiardi and his brothers to handle. Real. Real. Aunt Jemima was later brought to life when the businesss new owner hired Nancy Green, a former slave, to portray the character in ads and at events. The Real Chef Boyardee - GenealogyBank Blog 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. His 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. Chef Boyardee History: The Real Man Behind the Famous Canned Empire 14 Discontinued Canned Foods You'll Never See Again 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. [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. As for the products that Hector Boiardi left as his legacy, Anna Boiardi admits that they may not be the same as when her great-uncle made them but it is an alternative for those who just don't have the time to cook. According to his New York Times obituary, Boiardi handled the catering at the reception for Woodrow Wilson's second marriage in 1915, still the most recent example of a presidential wedding. Chef Boyardee pasta products contain no artificial ingredients, no artificial colors, and no preservativesjust the time-tested taste your family loves. My friends dad put me on the phone to speak with him and I still remember his accent. Ettore Boiardi (October 22, 1897 - June 21, 1985), also known by the Anglicized name Hector Boyardee, was an Italian-American chef, famous for his eponymous brand of food products, named Chef Boyardee . The 17 Real People Behind Your Favorite Food Brand Names Slideshow. 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. Chef Boyardee Real. Thanks. For its founder, see, "The Man, The Can: Recipes Of The Real Chef Boyardee", "Your favorite food icons: Fact or fiction? Anastasia Arellano. With his brothers Mario and Paul, Chef Hector starts the Chef Boyardee Company. He died at the age of 87 in 1985. 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. This is a young man on the move. Records from the store show that theyd played around with a similar name before, and had a recipe for a digestive aid called D. Chef Boyardee: 12 Things To Know About The Popular Chef - Mashed.com Who Is Chef Boyardee? | Sporked Betty. He later started a successful flooring and tile company. Chef Boyardee Juan Valdez Colonel Sanders Duncan Hines. When World War II erupted in Europe, the food company was put to work making Army rations. Let us know! Before launching the Chef Boyardee line of products, Chef Boiardi, in 1915 at the age of 17 years old, supervised the catering for President Woodrow Wilsons wedding reception. In 1917, NPR writes, he moved to Cleveland, where in 1924 he opened a restaurant with his wife Helen Boiardi. In terms of famous people from Ohio, Chef Boyardee might just top them all! By age 11, he was working at a local restaurant. Today I found out Chef Boyardee was a real person. [2] At its peak, the company employed approximately 5,000 workers and produced 250,000 cans per day. Kat Eschner is a freelance science and culture journalist based in Toronto. Does Chef Boyardee Still Make Chili Mac? | Greengos Cantina Sara Lee didnt follow her father into the baking business, but instead has worked to encourage and support women working in science. 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. He is the great uncle of American author Anna Boiardi, who wrote Delicious Memories: Recipes and Stories from the Chef Boyardee Family. He did have to sell the company soon after the war, though, in order to make sure that all the extra hands hired for the war efforts could keep their jobs. 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.". [16], Chef Boyardee is one of the only brands to request to be removed from an episode of Seinfeld. But despite all that cynicism, there's at least one food brand out there whose namesake was not only real, he was a pioneering figure who helped change how America understood Italian food. The classic ready-made pastas are iconic and well known. Chef Hector Boyardee was born in 1897 in Piacenza, Italy, not surprisingly with a very Italian name: Ettore Boiardi. A real persona and a real legend. But he remains one the most recognized faces of TV, thanks to his legacy of advertisement. Lets try!. Some other real people behind brands, besides Chef Boyardee, were Uncle Ben; KFCs Harland Sanders; popcorns Orville Redenbacher; and McDonalds Dick and Mac McDonald. Boiardi was born in Piacenza, Italy, in 1897, to Giuseppe and Maria Maffi Boiardi. Boiardi had been an 11 year old apprentice at a restaurant in Italy before coming to New York. Anthony!") When I see cans of Chef Boyardee Lasagna, I think of ads using Weird Al Yankovics Lasagna as background music. Chef Boyardee Was a Real Person - Today I Found Out So how did Ettore Boiardi become Chef Boyardee? So impressed with Boiardi's cooking, Wilson chose him to supervise the homecoming meal of 2,000 returning World War I soldiers in late 1918. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. "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. The short answer is probably not, unfortunately. Later on, the company got sold to American Home Products in 1946, and then later it was turned over to the International Home Foods division in 1996. 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.)