Real. He made quite the impression amongst diners as Italian food wasnt quite as widespread as it is today. 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. Afterward, Bioardi ended up moving to Cleveland, Ohio, where he opened up his very own restaurant. Real Or Fake: 21 Famous Brand Namesakes Revealed - Purple Clover 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. After immigrating to America at the age of 16, he got a job at New Yorks Plaza Hotel, And during those years, Boiardi also directed the catering for Woodrow Wilsons. Fictional. 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.". Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli: A Delicious And Convenient Meal. We stan Ettore. Betty. Who Was the Real Chef Boyardee? - YouTube [16], Chef Boyardee is one of the only brands to request to be removed from an episode of Seinfeld. Known affectionately as 'Chef Boyardee,' he founded his food franchise of products with his wife, Helen. They even hired a former slave, Nancy Green, to be the first spokesperson. 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.) They came in agreement to sell the company and factory to American Home Foods for nearly $6 million. [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. Boiardi used to grow his own tomatoes and mushrooms in the basement of the factory where his product line was produced. In 1928, the Chef Boyardee Company was born. Chef Boyardee was a very real, very successful chef. 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. In 1917, NPR writes, he moved to Cleveland, where in 1924 he opened a restaurant with his wife Helen Boiardi. And he's just one of the 33 grocery store brands named after real people. There was only one problem: customers had a tough time pronouncing Ettore Boiardi's name. By clicking submit you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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. It was famous for spaghetti and meatballs. He later started a successful flooring and tile company. 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. And in 1928, the Chef Boyardee food company was born.. 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. When Hector opened his Italian restaurant in the 1920s, Italian food was foreign to Americans. Fictional. After immigrating to America at the age of 16, he got a job at New Yorks Plaza Hotel, according to NPRs All Things Considered. It then expanded when the production was moved to Milton, Pennsylvania, and there, the Chef Boyardee empire was born. DUNCAN HINES CAKE MIXES. The Chef behind the brand: the true face and life of Ettore Boiardi A real persona and a real legend. Their product labels stated that they contained no preservatives, yet they contained citric acid. 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. 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. 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. Yes, Chef Boyardee was an actual person, and for more information about him, look below for a detailed answer on his past. biggest importers of olive oil and Parmesan cheese from Italy. 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. Then, a lucky break came in the way of a local grocer helping Boiardi start canning his sauce. [3] The first product to be sold was a "ready-to-heat spaghetti kit" in 1928. Some other real people behind brands, besides Chef Boyardee, were Uncle Ben; KFCs Harland Sanders; popcorns Orville Redenbacher; and McDonalds Dick and Mac McDonald. From the Chef Boyardee website: . The classic ready-made pastas are iconic and well known. 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). 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. While it might seem like that smiling face on the box must be that of the inventor, don't forget that the concept of idealized domesticity is still very powerful in the marketing world, and there are plenty of products that are still playing it up, albeit in a slightly more politically correct way. 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. That would be one Ettore "Hector" Boiardi, a very real Italian-American chef. One of the more famous he worked at as a youth was New Yorks famous Plaza and Ritz-Carlton hotel. Had Chef Boyardee created the worlds first perpetual motion machine? Chef Boyardee REAL:An Italian immigrant, Chef Ettore Boiardi had a restaurant in Cleveland. 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. Before Tim and Nina Zagat, there was Duncan Hines, a traveling . Also, if you give her a bag of Takis she will be your best friend. 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. 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. To woo potential clients, hed send them packages of his home-made cookies. 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. Boiardi continued developing new Italian food products for the American market until his death in 1985. 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. At first, the revised name was Boy-ar-dee, a phonetic spelling of how the family name was pronounced. [13], In June 2000, ConAgra Foods acquired International Home Foods. 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. 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. Question: Which of these company figureheads is not a real person? 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. Everyone is proud of his family name but sacrifices were necessary for progress, Boiardi said, according to History.com. Who Was General Tso (And Why Does He Have His Own Chicken)? By the time the war ended, the company employed five thousand people and production far exceeded what they were doing in the 1930s. 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. Behind the scenes at Chef Boyardee - The United Food & Commercial Thanks. 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. But his facelike his name, or at least the phonetic spelling of itendures on the label of every can. Kat Eschner is a freelance science and culture journalist based in Toronto. And in 1928, the Chef Boiardi Food Company was born, launched by Hector, Helen,and Hectors brothers Paul and Mario. While business was going well, Boiardi encountered a minor issue: salesmen and customers couldn't really pronounce his name. American Home Foods was eventually acquired by the conglomerate ConAgra Foods, which still owns the Chef Boy-Ar-Dee brand today. 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. 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. 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. His face is familiar to anyone who has ever eaten canned ravioli, but you might not know his story. Chef Boyardee Was a Real Person Who Brought Italian Food to America The best. 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. 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. 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. But what about the chef behind the raviolis. As a kid, I had so many questions. 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. In a world of fake food mascots, Ettore Boiardi was the real deal. As of 2021, the following products are no longer in production. Chef Hector retires from his consultant position. You know his raviolis. Lets try!. Based on that strength, Consolidated Foods adopted the name Sara Lee for the whole corporation. He supervised the preparation of the homecoming meal served by Woodrow Wilson at the White House for 2,000 returning World War I soldiers. Believe it or not, Chef Boyardee was a real live chef, and Chef Boyardee's history is pretty amazing. At this point in history, fine dining was synonymous with French food, according to NPR. 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. Weird History Food will follow Chef from his humble beginnings as an 11-year-old apprentice to the iconic figure he is today. He and his wife would hand them out using old milk bottles. Famous Fake Food Figureheads - The Daily Meal Thank You! With his brothers Mario and Paul, Chef Hector starts the Chef Boyardee Company. He opened the first Famous Amos store in Los Angeles in 1975 and then began supplying cookies to grocery stores around the country. Chef Boyardee Was a Real Person - Today I Found Out Anastasia Arellano. But the real Chef Boyardee? He named the business after his mother, claiming that no one would want to buy from a place called Dons Pies.. But not all brands involving a person's name have origins that are so cut and dry. The company was founded by Italian immigrant Ettore Boiardi in Milton, Pennsylvania, U.S., in 1928. [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. 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. 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. Real. He was still a teenager. Chef Boyardee was born Hector Boiardi in 1897 in Piacenza, which.

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