From Duncan Hines to Chef Boyardee, here are 33 grocery store items named after real people. The plant runs 24/7, and after the war hes awarded the Gold Star, one of the highest military honors a civilian can receive. So, he changed the product's name to the phonetic Chef "Boy-Ar-Dee." 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's become a household name, but few people actually know the chef behind the brand. Which of these company figureheads was a real person? - Getvoice.org Before Tim and Nina Zagat, there was Duncan Hines, a traveling . 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. Chef Boyardee is an American brand of canned pasta products sold internationally by Conagra Brands. Real. Based on that strength, Consolidated Foods adopted the name Sara Lee for the whole corporation. He is the great uncle of American author Anna Boiardi, who wrote Delicious Memories: Recipes and Stories from the Chef Boyardee Family. 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. Real. Also, if you give her a bag of Takis she will be your best friend. 14 Discontinued Canned Foods You'll Never See Again There, he started selling bottles of his pasta sauce, and soon expanded the operation with a factory in Pennsylvania. 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. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. 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. [2] At its peak, the company employed approximately 5,000 workers and produced 250,000 cans per day. The 17 Real People Behind Your Favorite Food Brand Names Slideshow. Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli: A Delicious And Convenient Meal. Required fields are marked *. Joined by Paul and his other brother Mario from Italy, Hector launched the Chef Boiardi Food Company in 1928. Soon enough, patrons were asking if they could start making the recipes at home themselves. Chef Boyardee Real. Real. 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. 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. Soon, he moved up to the ranks of matre d', becoming one of the most well-known hosts in the city. The Chef Boyardee line was later sold, in 2000, to ConAgra Foods. 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. 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. The wedding, which took place after a brief courtship, was held at Galts Washington, D.C. home. While business was going well, Boiardi encountered a minor issue: salesmen and customers couldn't really pronounce his name. In 1914, Hector Boiardi made the trip to America on the French ship La Lorraine, landing at Ellis Island. Juan Valdez of these company figureheads is not a real person.Thus, option B is correct.. What is a company? 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. As Anna Boiardi told NPR in 2011, they were the largest importers of Parmesan cheese from Italy. Weird History Food will follow Chef from his humble beginnings as an. So in order to make the fledgling business more palatable to American eaters, the company became Chef "Boy-Ar-Dee" to phoneticize the spelling. After immigrating to America at the age of 16, he got a job at New Yorks Plaza Hotel, according to NPRs All Things Considered. That image is instead said to be based on the matre d' of the restaurant where Harwell and his business partners sometimes met. Italian food wasnt on the radar. 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. Who is Chef Boyardee? With his brothers Mario and Paul, Chef Hector starts the Chef Boyardee Company. 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. We've all had at least one meal from Chef Boyardee. 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. Your email address will not be published. Newlyweds Chef Hector and Helen open the restaurant Il Giardino d'Italia, where his Italian cooking becomes the talk of the town. 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. Famous Fake Food Figureheads - The Daily Meal 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.) 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. After working in New York's Plaza Hotel, he opened his own restaurant. Your Privacy Rights Chef Boyardee: Chef Boyardee The famous canned pasta is named after its founder, Hector. Kat Eschner Turns out Chef Boyardee wasnt just a mascot for canned raviolihe was a real boy(ardee)! 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'. 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. Dorann Weber / Contributor / Getty Images. In Milton, the company exploded. Boiardi met his future factory superintendent when he approached the then employee of Vincennes Packing Co with the idea of canning his sauces. It was also around the time that Boiardi sold to the conglomerate American Home Products. So, who was Chef Boyardee? He supervised the preparation of the homecoming meal served by Woodrow Wilson at the White House for 2,000 returning World War I soldiers. By the time the war ended, the company employed five thousand people and production far exceeded what they were doing in the 1930s. By age 11, he was working at a local restaurant. Privacy Statement 1. Doesn't pancake syrup called Mrs. Butterworth's just sound delicious? The Chef behind the brand: the true face and life of Ettore Boiardi Does Chef Boyardee Still Make Chili Mac? | Greengos Cantina Others, like Mr. Coffee, well, we don't think they were trying to fool anyone with that one. Anastasia Arellano. Early life [ edit] Boiardi was born in Piacenza, Italy, in 1897, to Giuseppe and Maria Maffi Boiardi. Did you know that Chef Boyardee was a real person? Advertising Notice Chef Boyardee products are available in cans or single-use microwavable cups. At this point in history, fine dining was synonymous with French food, according to NPR. In some cases, the name simply sounds good. ", SLEEPYTIME TEA AND THE LITTLE-KNOWN RELIGION BEHIND IT, THE NOT-SO-AMERICAN HISTORY OF CHEEZ WHIZ. 33 Grocery Store Staples Named After Real People He was born Ettore Boiardi (or Hector as he was called in English) in Piacenza Italy in 1897. [19] The lawsuit was dismissed in 2016.[20]. [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. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. 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. To woo potential clients, hed send them packages of his home-made cookies. With all that said, it's pretty clear that Chef Boyardee was the real deal. 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? In short, Chef Boyardee was a real person. 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. However, a version of . Debbi Fields and her then-husband Randall opened their first bakery in 1977. [18], In 2015, a class-action lawsuit was brought against the Chef Boyardee company. 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. I actually talked with Chef Boyardee on the phone when I was 10 years old. 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. 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. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. These names are probably all over your kitchenbut did they belong to real people? [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. 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. Ettore Boiardi was an Italian-American immigrant born in 1897. She loves spicy snacks, Oreos, baking bread, teeny tiny avocados, and trying new foods whenever she can. In other cases, they were created by advertising agencies to give a friendly face to a faceless company. The company specialized in three flavors of sauces: traditional, mushroom, and spicy Naples-style. 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. The classic ready-made pastas are iconic and well known. This was too much for Boiardi and his brothers to handle. Chef Boyardee History: The Real Man Behind the Famous Canned Empire 16 Foods You've Probably Eaten But Didn't Know They Were - BuzzFeed Aunt Jemima-esque mammy characters have been used as racial caricatures for ages. My friends dad put me on the phone to speak with him and I still remember his accent. 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. Real Or Fake: 21 Famous Brand Namesakes Revealed - Purple Clover The name, Boiardi. 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. In 1927, Boiardi met Maurice and Eva Weiner who were patrons of his restaurant and owners of a local self-service grocery store chain. Born Ettore (Hector) Boiardi, Chef Boyardee was a real man and a real chef (unlike Mrs. Butterworth or Betty Crocker). When World War II erupted in Europe, the food company was put to work making Army rations. Did Trader Joe's Just Release a Cheaper Momofuku Instant Noodle Dupe? The Unhealthiest Canned Foods on the Planet | Eat This Not That 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. Ettore Boiardi was an Italian-American immigrant born in 1897. From there, he worked at a variety of high end restaurants in New York as a cook, eventually working his way up to Chef. In 2013, the town erected a statue honoring him at the entrance to the factory. In 1917, NPR writes, he moved to Cleveland, where in 1924 he opened a restaurant with his wife Helen Boiardi. 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. 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. Does Absinthe Actually Make You Hallucinate? 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. 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. In 1938, the company moved to Pennsylvania where it is still today. 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. I love the part about the guy keeping his familys wealth secret until he was sure. This forced them to scale up and have the factory operate 24 hours a day. Not only that, patrons were asking to take home his sauce to use at their own family dinners. Businessman. 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 company, which is today known for its canned meals, especially its ravioli, has changed hands a number of times since. They also procured distribution across the United States through their grocery's wholesale partners. Lets try!. From there, he worked his way up the ranks and became the head chef.