The most interesting brand names based on fictitious people, by far, are those that were devised with the express purpose of playing up the concept of "idealized domesticity," which was a big marketing trend around the turn of the 20th century. Behind the label is a whole impressive history, beginning with the origins of Ettore Boiardi, who became Hector Boyardee the chef we all know and love. A Real, Italian-American Icon In a world of fake food mascots, Ettore Boiardi was the real deal. Chef Boyardee products are available in cans or single-use microwavable cups. Kat Eschner is a freelance science and culture journalist based in Toronto. His name was Hector Boiardi, and he was born in Italy in 1897. [1] Already then, the company was the largest importer of Italian Parmesan cheese, while also buying tons of olive oil, according to grandniece Anna Boiardi. But he remains one the most recognized faces of TV, thanks to his legacy of advertisement. 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. The Chef Boyardee brand was created by a real Italian chef, Ettore Boiardi. In less-racist mascot falsification, Betty Crocker was the product of a Saturday Evening Post contest, and KFC's Colonel Harlan Sanders never actually earned the military rank that many misattribute to him. In a world of fake food mascots, Ettore Boiardi was the real deal. We've all had at least one meal from Chef Boyardee. Some other real people behind brands, besides Chef Boyardee, were Uncle Ben; KFCs Harland Sanders; popcorns Orville Redenbacher; and McDonalds Dick and Mac McDonald. 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. Hector Boyardee himself died a millionaire in 1985. Does Chef Boyardee Still Make Chili Mac? | Greengos Cantina Chef Boyardee was a real person. Anastasia Arellano. Fictional. Did You Know Chef Boyardee Was a Real Person? | Kitchn That was because Chef Boyardee meals were included in American soldiers rations. 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. [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]. So he changed his last name's spelling to make it easier to pronounce, slapped it on a can, and boom, Chef Boyardee was born. Chef Boyardee: 12 Things To Know About The Popular Chef - Mashed.com But his goal was always to sail across the Atlantic and join his brother Paul in America. Sir Henry Morgan sailed the high seas during the 17th century as a privateer. From there, he worked at a variety of high end restaurants in New York as a cook, eventually working his way up to Chef. From Duncan Hines to Chef Boyardee, here are 33 grocery store items named after real people. His name? In 1917, NPR writes, he moved to Cleveland, where in 1924 he opened a restaurant with his wife Helen Boiardi. He said I run a restaurant in Cleveland and am catering parties by putting my spaghetti in a bucket. Thank You! By the late 1930s, Hector was headed east to set up his kitchen in Milton, Pennsylvania . When Hector opened his Italian restaurant in the 1920s, Italian food was foreign to Americans. About Us | Chef Boyardee 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. They even hired a former slave, Nancy Green, to be the first spokesperson. It is an excellent and convenient meal that can be consumed quickly and has delighted generations of families. He persuaded his brother, Mario, who was in New York working with Paul at the Plaza, to come to Cleveland. In 1938, the company moved to Pennsylvania where it is still today. His brother Paul worked there as maitre dhotel. Eventually, the revenue from these takeout orders surpassed what the restaurant itself was bringing in and Boiardi needed a processing plant to keep up with demands. Hector Boiardi was born in Piacenza, in northern Italy. Chef Boyardee: Chef Boyardee The famous canned pasta is named after its founder, Hector. He stayed on as a consultant there until 1978. Boiardi originally grew his trademark mustache to try to make himself look older as he was generally the youngest cook in the often top notch restaurants where he was a cook at, starting around 16 when he moved to America. 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. Few people are aware that Chef Boyardee, the iconic mustached man on the can of ravioli, was a real person with an amazing story. Famous Grave of Chef Boyardee All Souls Cemetery Chardon Ohio Hector Boiardi remained on as a consultant and the face of canned pasta until 1978. Newlyweds Chef Hector and Helen open the restaurant Il Giardino d'Italia, where his Italian cooking becomes the talk of the town. 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. 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. 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. [18], In 2015, a class-action lawsuit was brought against the Chef Boyardee company. Records from the store show that theyd played around with a similar name before, and had a recipe for a digestive aid called D. Real. In other cases, they were created by advertising agencies to give a friendly face to a faceless company. 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. [6] American Home Foods turned its food division into International Home Foods in 1996. 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. This was too much for Boiardi and his brothers to handle. they serve chef at the olive garden so dont tell me its not real italian food. Again, I was 10 and you could have put me on the phone with the president of the US and I would care less (same goes for today). Boiardi was an immigrant who went on to live the American Dream when he created a whole Italian food empire. The Milton factory started operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week in 1942, Five Places Where You Can Still Find Gold in the United States, Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Otherand the Birds Loved It, Balto's DNA Provides a New Look at the Intrepid Sled Dog, The Science of California's 'Super Bloom,' Visible From Space, What We're Still Learning About Rosalind Franklins Unheralded Brilliance. He was indeed a real. The Facts Behind These Familiar Food Ads. Although the product sold well, the company name was a sticking point. He worked as a cook at his first restaurant at the tender age of 10 years old in Italy. Before Tim and Nina Zagat, there was Duncan Hines, a traveling . 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. The classic ready-made pastas are iconic and well known. When he began selling jars and cans of his tomato sauce, he chose to do so under a name that. In 1917, NPR writes, he moved to Cleveland, where in 1924 he opened a restaurant with his wife Helen Boiardi. [19] The lawsuit was dismissed in 2016.[20]. Chef Boyardee is an American brand of canned pasta products sold internationally by Conagra Brands. What is Chef Boyardee? Look at Chef Boyardee, for example. The rest is history. Thanks. Another 6 years later and he came up with the now famous brand name Chef Boyardee, changing the spelling of his name to be phonetically correct, as he was tired of explaining to people how to pronounce his name and thought if he was going to be selling nationally, he should make it easy for Americans to pronounce. Italian food wasnt on the radar. 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. He and his wife would hand them out using old milk bottles. Betty. As of 2021, the following products are no longer in production. He soon found his way into the kitchen of New York's famous Plaza Hotel, with help from older brother Paul, who worked there as a matre d'. OK, he didn't spell his name the same way, but Ettore "Hector" Boiardi was a real person. very interesting. From Italian immigrant to selling his company for millions, Boiardi's story is the very embodiment of the American dream. He is the great uncle of American author Anna Boiardi, who wrote Delicious Memories: Recipes and Stories from the Chef Boyardee Family. 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. Cookie Policy | READ MORE. 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. Yes, Chef Boyardee was an actual person, and for more information about him, look below for a detailed answer on his past. But his facelike his name, or at least the phonetic spelling of itendures on the label of every can. Chef Boyardee is still on store shelves, but the Smurfs version is a thing of the past. Based on that strength, Consolidated Foods adopted the name Sara Lee for the whole corporation. At this time, Italian restaurants were just becoming immensely popular on the east and west coasts (thanks in large part to the influx of immigrants to these areas of the country) but it hadn't quite hit middle America yet. 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. In the 1970s, friends suggested that Amos make cookies his full-time business. Businessman. Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli is made with fresh pasta, hearty, Italian-flavored tomato sauce, and real beef, giving it the classic flavor everyone loves. At first, the revised name was Boy-ar-dee, a phonetic spelling of how the family name was pronounced. The company he sold to was American Home Products (today called International Home Foods). 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. Meet The Real Chef Behind The Chef Boyardee Brand. It was also around the time that Boiardi sold to the conglomerate American Home Products. He also held a degree in business and co-owned a steel mill with his father. When he did so, he took her to a grocery store at 1am, this followed: Wife: I thought he was going to tell me it was a no-go and that he thought the relationship was a mistake, so I said, Look, its been great. Known affectionately as 'Chef Boyardee,' he founded his food franchise of products with his wife, Helen. Joined by Paul and his other brother Mario from Italy, Hector launched the Chef Boiardi Food Company in 1928. 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.". It was confusing to some people and that was beginning to affect sales, staff, and customers so that is when the brothers decided it was best to anglicize their name to make it easier for others to recognize. 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. I was at a friends house and his father was an actual good friend of the Chef. 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. In terms of famous people from Ohio, Chef Boyardee might just top them all! Who is Chef Boyardee? Chef Boyardee was born Hector Boiardi in 1897 in Piacenza, which. 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 . Well, a lot, actually. Your email address will not be published. Mario Boiardi was a sharpshooter Army Ranger in WWII and later in the Korean War. Did you know that Chef Boyardee was a real person? Read More SERVING HIS COUNTRY, SERVING THE TROOPS 1942 Chef Hector plays a major role on the home front by making food for the troops. Not much else is known about the real Ben, and its not even his picture on the box. Chef Boyardee Was A Real Person - Smithsonian Magazine Weird History Food will follow Chef from his humble beginnings as an 11-year-old apprentice to the iconic figure he is today. Chef Boyardee Was a Real Person Who Brought Italian Food to America By Matt Blitz Published on June 22, 2017 Photo: Dorann Weber / Getty Images Colonel Sanders was real. 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. A native of Piacenza, Italy, he was a world-renowned chef known for his many Italian dishes. Chef Boyardee | Real Or Fake: 21 Famous Brand Namesakes Revealed Terms of Use 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 Boiardi was awarded a Gold Star Order of Excellence from the United States War Department for supplying millions of rations for American and Allied troops during WWII. And, perhaps most importantly, who is Chef Boyardee? Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. But after rising to the rank of head chef at the Plaza,he started to put food from his birth country on the menu. Could spaghetti be canned? The future superintendent responded with, You can can almost anything, but I dont know what it would taste like. At the age of 11, he was working as an apprentice chef at local restaurant "La Croce Bianca", although his duties were confined to non-cooking odd jobs such as potato peeling and dealing with the trash. 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. Boiardi continued developing new Italian food products for the American market until his death in 1985. I actually talked with Chef Boyardee on the phone when I was 10 years old. Even though its now a household name, the people of still have very sentimental memories of Chef Boyardee. In short, Chef Boyardee was a real person. The Man, The Can: Recipes Of The Real Chef Boyardee : NPR In 1938, production was moved to Milton, Pennsylvania, where they could grow enough tomatoes to serve the factory's needs,[5] which reached 20,000 tons of tomatoes per season at peak production; they also began growing their own mushrooms on location in the plant. Is Pizza Getting Too Gourmet for Its Own Good? German immigrant brothers Oscar, Gottfried, and Max Mayer ran a butcher shop in Chicago in the early 20th century, which was one of the first companies to get on board with the USDAs new meat inspection grades. 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. Who Was Chef Boyardee? It doesn't take the accomplished Chef Hector long to find work, and by the age of 17, he leads the kitchen at New Yorks tony Plaza Hotel. It quickly became a family business, when his brothers moved to Ohio to help him with his canning business. Colonel Sanders was real. Hector Boiardi (1897-1985) - Find a Grave Memorial The name, Boiardi. [15], In 2018, Barbara Lippert of Advertising Age compared the 1966 Young & Rubicam ad for Beefaroni to The 400 Blows and running of the bulls. 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. As a result of the request, the name was changed to "Beef-a-reeno". Their first product beyond simple sauce was prepackaged spaghetti dinners in clear cellophane covered containers that included a canister of grated parmesan cheese, a box of spaghetti and a large jar of spaghetti sauce. He even got a Gold Star for it. Doesn't pancake syrup called Mrs. Butterworth's just sound delicious? Four years later, International Home Foods was purchased by ConAgra Foods, which continues to produce Chef Boyardee canned pastas bearing Boiardi's likeness.[7]. Dean was already a well-known country singer, actor, and TV personality when he and his brother Don founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company in 1969. 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. 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. Unlike the friendly but fictional food faces of Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, Chef Boyardee that jovial, mustachioed Italian chef is real. Chef Boyardee was an actual person | Fox News Boiardi used to grow his own tomatoes and mushrooms in the basement of the factory where his product line was produced. 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. The Chef Boyardee line was later sold, in 2000, to ConAgra Foods. Soon after, he was training under esteemed chefs in Paris and London. Morrison & Co. Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas in 1885. [17], In 2005, Chef Boyardee was shown in MasterCard's "Icons" commercial during Super Bowl XXXIX, which depicts advertising mascots having dinner together. 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. [4] The idea for Chef Boiardi came about when restaurant customers began asking Boiardi for his spaghetti sauce, which he began to distribute in milk bottles. 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. Sara Lee didnt follow her father into the baking business, but instead has worked to encourage and support women working in science. Who Was Chef Boyardee? A Real, Italian-American Icon - Allrecipes But the real Chef Boyardee? To woo potential clients, hed send them packages of his home-made cookies. One of the more famous he worked at as a youth was New Yorks famous Plaza and Ritz-Carlton hotel. They changed the spelling of their name on the label, making it phonetic Chef Boy-Ar-Dee so people could pronounce it more easily. [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. They also procured distribution across the United States through their grocery's wholesale partners. Meet The Real Chef Behind The Chef Boyardee Brand The best. Real. 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. Does Absinthe Actually Make You Hallucinate? 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. He died at the age of 87 in 1985. The Real Chef Boyardee - GenealogyBank Blog As he developed a strong customer base, he found himself in the enviable position of having customers clamber after his food so much, they wanted to take it home with them so they could have it any time. Pharmacist Charles Alderton developed the formula for Dr Pepper while working at W.B. 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. Chef Boyardee was a real man, but he spelled his last name a little different from what you see on the cans of his pasta in sauce. Debbi Fields and her then-husband Randall opened their first bakery in 1977. He later started a successful flooring and tile company. You know his raviolis. What a dude. They later sold the company, and Dean stayed involved in management and as a spokesperson until management phased him out. As a Change.org petition advocating for a Boiardi statue in Cleveland notes, the company also churned out cans to feed America's troops during World War II, earning Boiardi a gold star from the U.S. government. and "Hilltop" for Coca-Cola. That's thanks to Chef Boyardee adding high fructose corn syrup to their sauce. So he changed his last name's spelling to make it easier to pronounce, slapped it on a can, and boom, Chef Boyardee was born. Chef Hector retires from his consultant position. I didnt say much and handed the phone back to my friends dad who was shocked I wasnt impressed. Maybe real. My friends dad put me on the phone to speak with him and I still remember his accent. JUSTICE LEAGUE and all related characters and elements & DC Comics. biggest importers of olive oil and Parmesan cheese from Italy. Was Chef Boyardee a real person? - Answers I needed that information for ia project I am doing on Chef Boyardee. Get all the top food rankings, new product reviews, and other grocery content delivered to your inbox every other week. It started out when he was an apprentice at a restaurant in Italy when he was just 11 years old, prior to his departure for New York. The restaurant was called Il Giardino dItalia, which means The Garden of Italy. Probably fictional. [1], Boiardi followed his brother Paolo to the kitchen of the Plaza Hotel in New York City, working his way up to head chef. DUNCAN HINES CAKE MIXES. 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). [4] After sauce, their next product was closer to a complete pasta meal, including a canister of grated Parmesan cheese, a box of spaghetti, and a jar of pasta sauce, held together in cellophane plastic wrap. Unlike Chef Boyardee, the following brands feature fictitious people: Betty Crocker, Mrs. Butterworth, Aunt Jemima, and Ronald McDonald. Juan Valdez of these company figureheads is not a real person.Thus, option B is correct.. What is a company? But what about the chef behind the raviolis. The company continues to use his likeness on Chef Boyardee-brand products, which are still made in Milton, Pennsylvania.[8]. Who Was the Real Chef Boyardee? - YouTube There are plenty of brands out there that are named after real people, who once lived real lives and, in many cases, actually invented the product that's named after them. 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? Among his products was a cheesecake named after his young daughter, Sara Lee Lubin. [12] He had five grandchildren. [13], In June 2000, ConAgra Foods acquired International Home Foods. The Milton factory started operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week in 1942, according to the company website. 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. Anthony!") 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. Chef Boyardee Real. Chef Boyardee is an American brand of canned pasta products sold internationally by Conagra Brands. To capitalize on their hometown popularity, they started branding their products with Oscars name when they expanded their business. 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.
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