[12] He had five grandchildren. Probably fictional. The restaurant was called Il Giardino dItalia, which means The Garden of Italy. There was never an "Uncle Ben" before Mars decided to overhaul the brand, and "Aunt Jemima" was a racist construction inspired by minstrel shows. Well, a lot, actually. Who Was General Tso (And Why Does He Have His Own Chicken)? In 1917, NPR writes, he moved to Cleveland, where in 1924 he opened a restaurant with his wife Helen Boiardi. 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. 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 - Wikipedia So, he changed the product's name to the phonetic Chef "Boy-Ar-Dee." In 1927, Boiardi met Maurice and Eva Weiner who were patrons of his restaurant and owners of a local self-service grocery store chain. That image is instead said to be based on the matre d' of the restaurant where Harwell and his business partners sometimes met. Everyone is proud of his family name but sacrifices were necessary for progress, Boiardi said, according to History.com. This not only helped cut down on the cost of ingredients, but also helped insure that the ingredients were top quality and provided a steady supply. 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. 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. In 1924 he opened a restaurant there by the name of Il Giardino d . 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. He worked in a variety of top restaurants in New York as a chef, eventually working until he reached Chef. Your Privacy Rights And that picture on the product labels, of course. Turns out Chef Boyardee wasnt just a mascot for canned raviolihe was a real boy(ardee)! [2] He decided to anglicize the name of his product to "Boy-Ar-Dee" to help Americans pronounce his name correctly. 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. At this point in history, fine dining was synonymous with French food, according to NPR. Once he arrived, he landed a job at the famous Plaza Hotel. 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). 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. The rest is history. Famous Fake Food Figureheads - The Daily Meal By clicking submit you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. But he remains one the most recognized faces of TV, thanks to his legacy of advertisement. What other brands are on the list? Fictional. Advertising Notice If ever a man was fit for that title, it was Boiardi. Chef Boyardee Was a Real Person Who Brought Italian Food to America 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. 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. In the episode "The Rye", Kramer is allowed to operate a Hansom cab for a week, and feeds the horse excess cans of Beefaroni, which causes frequent and foul smelling flatulence. The Most Iconic Food Mascots Of All Time - The Daily Meal 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. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. From the Chef Boyardee website: . He named the business after his mother, claiming that no one would want to buy from a place called Dons Pies.. And, perhaps most importantly, who is Chef Boyardee? From there, he worked his way up the ranks and became the head chef. The drink was named by Aldertons boss, Wade Morrison. So in order to make the fledgling business more palatable to American eaters, the company became Chef "Boy-Ar-Dee" to phoneticize the spelling. 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. 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. 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. 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. Boiardi was an immigrant who went on to live the American Dream when he created a whole Italian food empire. They spell the name phonetically to keep American tongues from twisting on the Italian pronunciation. So basically, Chef Boyardee cans are just normal cans. Their product labels stated that they contained no preservatives, yet they contained citric acid. As a result of the request, the name was changed to "Beef-a-reeno". Real. He later started a successful flooring and tile company. The Man, The Can: Recipes Of The Real Chef Boyardee : NPR Converted Rice Inc. supplied rice to the American military during World War II, and the owners wanted a new brand name and image when they started focusing on civilian consumers towards the end of the war. 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). By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. About Us | Chef Boyardee The Real Chef Boyardee - GenealogyBank Blog (Boiardi Family) So we salute you with a tip of the cap and a chef's kiss, Chef Ettore "Hector" Boiardi/Boyardee. He's become a household name, but few people actually know the chef behind the brand. That inspired Boiardi to start assembling homemade meal kits for customers, which featured dried pasta and milk bottles filled with marinara alongside a set of instructions. 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. And in 1928, the Chef Boyardee food company was born.. He even got a Gold Star for it. However, demand for his sauce became too great and soon Boiardi realized that perhaps it was this "take-home" industry that was his future. The company, which is today known for its canned meals, especially its ravioli, has changed hands a number of times since. Famous Grave of Chef Boyardee All Souls Cemetery Chardon Ohio From Italian immigrant to selling his company for millions, Boiardi's story is the very embodiment of the American dream. (Clearly, the spelling change was to help consumers know how to pronounce his name.) What is Chef Boyardee? [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. [6] American Home Foods turned its food division into International Home Foods in 1996. While business was going well, Boiardi encountered a minor issue: salesmen and customers couldn't really pronounce his name. [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. His name was Hector Boiardi, and he was born in Italy in 1897. The take-out business got big enough that the family started thinking about selling their sauce on a larger scale. Real. Boiardi was survived by his wife Helen Wroblewski Boiardi, who eventually died in 1995, and his son Mario Boiardi, who in turn died in 2007. That's thanks to Chef Boyardee adding high fructose corn syrup to their sauce. [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]. The Chef Boyardee brand was created by a real Italian chef, Ettore Boiardi. Who Was Chef Boyardee? A Real, Italian-American Icon - Allrecipes 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. 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. by Audrey Engvalson BuzzFeed Staff 1. Hector Boiardi was born in Piacenza, in northern Italy. After working in New York's Plaza Hotel, he opened his own restaurant. He is the great uncle of American author Anna Boiardi, who wrote Delicious Memories: Recipes and Stories from the Chef Boyardee Family. This was too much for Boiardi and his brothers to handle. It wasnt long before the sale totals of these products surpassed his restaurant earnings, despite the restaurant itself doing booming business. 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. They changed the spelling of their name on the label, making it phonetic Chef Boy-Ar-Dee so people could pronounce it more easily. they serve chef at the olive garden so dont tell me its not real italian food. What Chef Boyardee real? 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. 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. While in this job, he took on the immense responsibility of catering the 1915 wedding reception of President Woodrow Wilson to Edith Bolling Galt. Four years later, International Home Foods was purchased by ConAgra Foods, which continues to produce Chef Boyardee canned pastas bearing Boiardi's likeness.[7]. The ad features a large group of children running through Venice singing, "Hoorayfor Beefaroni!" "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. Whats more: Hector Boiardi was a respected chef who even helped cater Woodrow Wilsons second wedding. Fictional. And, despite rumors to the contrary, Chef "Boy-Ar-Dee" was more Colonel than Betty - although that wasn't the correct spelling of his name. There was only one problem: customers had a tough time pronouncing Ettore Boiardi's name. In 1917, NPR writes, he moved to Cleveland, where in 1924 he opened a restaurant with his wife Helen Boiardi. This article is about the canned pasta product line. 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 then expanded when the production was moved to Milton, Pennsylvania, and there, the Chef Boyardee empire was born. So, using milk bottles, he packaged up the sauce and sent them off. Which of these company figureheads was a real person? - Getvoice.org Doesn't pancake syrup called Mrs. Butterworth's just sound delicious? At the time of his death in 1985, at the age of 87 years old, the Chef Boyardee line of food products was grossing over half a billion dollars per year. 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. A Real, Italian-American Icon In a world of fake food mascots, Ettore Boiardi was the real deal. With all that in mind, it's natural to be skeptical of the origins and credentials of any food company mascot. and "Hilltop" for Coca-Cola. Italian food wasnt on the radar. [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. Did you know this already? 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. They even hired a former slave, Nancy Green, to be the first spokesperson. Boiardi met his future factory superintendent when he approached the then employee of Vincennes Packing Co with the idea of canning his sauces. 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. We stan Ettore. The Unhealthiest Canned Foods on the Planet | Eat This Not That 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. American Home Foods was eventually acquired by the conglomerate ConAgra Foods, which still owns the Chef Boy-Ar-Dee brand today. Real. 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. And Uncle Ben's rice is still very cagey on whether Uncle Ben actually ever existed. 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. One of the more famous he worked at as a youth was New Yorks famous Plaza and Ritz-Carlton hotel. Chef Boyardee Cooked Up Success In Cleveland, Ohio - OnlyInYourState By age 11, he was working at a local restaurant. [9][10] His last appearance in a television commercial promoting the brand aired in 1979. Hard work, some luck, and being willing to recognized and act on an opportunity = the secret to success. Privacy Statement Boiardi sold his company for six million dollars in 1946 primarily due to the fact that he was having trouble managing the incredible rapid growth of the company (at this time annually grossing 20 million dollars worth of sales a year, which makes that 6 million dollar sale price a crazy good deal). For its founder, see, "The Man, The Can: Recipes Of The Real Chef Boyardee", "Your favorite food icons: Fact or fiction? Great story. [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. With his brother's help, he got a job in the kitchen at the Plaza. Lets talk about it. [18], In 2015, a class-action lawsuit was brought against the Chef Boyardee company. He worked as a cook at his first restaurant at the tender age of 10 years old in Italy. 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. 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'. Few people are aware that Chef Boyardee, the iconic mustached man on the can of ravioli, was a real person with an amazing story. Boiardi's product was soon being stocked in markets nationwide the company had to open a factory in 1928 to meet the demands of national distribution. 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. He eventually took jobs in Paris and London, learning various restaurant skills to complement his Italian upbringing. Could spaghetti be canned? The future superintendent responded with, You can can almost anything, but I dont know what it would taste like. Sir Henry Morgan sailed the high seas during the 17th century as a privateer. Soon enough, patrons were asking if they could start making the recipes at home themselves. We've all had at least one meal from Chef Boyardee. Chef Boyardee pasta products contain no artificial ingredients, no artificial colors, and no preservativesjust the time-tested taste your family loves. Not only that, patrons were asking to take home his sauce to use at their own family dinners. Weird History Food said, Chefs significant contributions to Milton, Pennsylvania were never forgotten. He opened the first Famous Amos store in Los Angeles in 1975 and then began supplying cookies to grocery stores around the country. Behind The Man On The Can: An interview with Chef Boyardee's Grandniece 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? Also, if you give her a bag of Takis she will be your best friend. Afterward, Bioardi ended up moving to Cleveland, Ohio, where he opened up his very own restaurant. The History of the Hydrox, the Cookie the Oreo Once Aspired to Be, The Only Ranch Dressing I've Ever Needed Comes from a Steak House I've Never Eaten At, 6 Ways to Make Jarred Pasta Sauce Taste Homemade, What Happens If You Don't Pop Microwave Popcorn With 'This Side Up', The Surprising (and Speculative) History of Chili, Stanley Tucci Launched His First Recipe Kit for You to Make His Holiday Pasta, Real Or Not? 2023 Smithsonian Magazine It was famous for spaghetti and meatballs. The classic ready-made pastas are iconic and well known. Behind the label is a whole impressive history, beginning with the origins of Ettore Boiardi, who became Hector Boyardee . Did all the can move on their own? Chef Hector retires from his consultant position. From Duncan Hines to Chef Boyardee, here are 33 grocery store items named after real people. 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. 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. Chef Boyardee REAL:An Italian immigrant, Chef Ettore Boiardi had a restaurant in Cleveland. To capitalize on their hometown popularity, they started branding their products with Oscars name when they expanded their business. Ettore "Hector" Boiardi was born in Italy and immigrated to Cleveland in 1914. From Chef to "King of the Spaghetti Dinner", How to Know if Your 'Italian' Ingredients Are Actually Italian. Anastasia Arellano. 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. The classic ready-made pastas are iconic and well known. Fields began franchising in 1990 and then sold the business while staying on as the companys spokesperson. Today I found out Chef Boyardee was a real person. ", SLEEPYTIME TEA AND THE LITTLE-KNOWN RELIGION BEHIND IT, THE NOT-SO-AMERICAN HISTORY OF CHEEZ WHIZ. There are now more than 650 Mrs. Fields stores in the U.S. Real. Ettore Boiardi was an Italian-American immigrant born in 1897. By the time the war ended, the company employed five thousand people and production far exceeded what they were doing in the 1930s. ", 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. After struggling with cash flow, compounded by internal family struggles over the ownership and direction of the company in managing rapid internal growth, he sold his brand to American Home Foods, later International Home Foods. He is buried at All Souls Cemetery in Chardon Township, Ohio. Chef Boyardee - Wikipedia [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. Gotta watch out for gold diggers (especially today) but I also think he was his own man and wanted to be known for himself and not the family 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. REAL: An Italian immigrant, Chef Ettore Boiardi had a restaurant in Cleveland. | READ MORE. Who Was Chef Boyardee? Newlyweds Chef Hector and Helen open the restaurant Il Giardino d'Italia, where his Italian cooking becomes the talk of the town. Hector Boyardee himself died a millionaire in 1985. The Welsh sailor made his name defending British interests and raiding Spanish ships and towns throughout the Caribbean. Chef Boyardee is an American brand of canned pasta products sold internationally by Conagra Brands. 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. Real Or Fake: 21 Famous Brand Namesakes Revealed - Purple Clover Ettore Boiardi was an Italian immigrant who worked as a chef in New York and West Virginia hotels (where he supposedly catered Woodrow Wilsons second wedding) before opening his own restaurant in Cleveland. And he's just one of the 33 grocery store brands named after real people. Chef Boyardee History: The Real Man Behind the Famous Canned Empire