Fact or Fiction?

     Some food brands utilize fictitious characters to sell products.  Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben really do not exist, or never did.  But what about Chef Boyardee?  We are all familiar with the iconic Italian-American meals in a can (formerly in a box).  They have been providing inexpensive, wholesome and quick meals to children and adults for nearly a century.  So what about the pitchman in the apron and tall chef's hat?  Was there really a Chef Boyardee?

     Turns out the answer is "yes."  Ettore "Hector" Boiardi was born in Piacenza, Italy in 1897.  He immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island at age 16 in 1914 and with the help of an older brother came to work at the famed Plaza Hotel in New York City, eventually becoming the head chef.  He went on to supervise the kitchen operations at the Greenbriar in West Virginia before opening his own restaurant, Il Giardin0 d'Italia, (The Garden of Italy) in Cleveland in 1926.   This was at a time when Italian food was not featured prominently in restaurants so he was taking quite a risk.  But his cuisine was such a success that patrons frequently asked for samples and recipes using his flavorful spaghetti sauce.  He filled cleaned old glass milk bottles with his signature sauce to provide take out service for customers. 


     Eventually Hector Boiardi opened a small canning operation in 1928 to keep up with the demand and soon after introduced his product publicly as a low cost healthy way to feed a family.  In 1938 production moved to Milton, PA to be closer to the tomato farms they owned.  The product was sold under the name "Chef Boy-Ar-Dee so American customers could pronounce his name correctly.  During the Second World War the company supplied canned rations to both the American and Russian armies, earning the chef both a Gold Star and the Order of Lenin.  In 1985, the year of Hector's death, the Chef Boyardee product line was producing 250,000 cans a day, grossing $500 million a year.

     So, yes Virginia, there is a Chef Boyardee.