The Unexpectedly Traditional Italian Origins Of Chef Boyardee

Cans of Chef Boyardee pasta are practically a rite of passage for American children. By no means are the pastas considered haute cuisine (although we love the mini pasta shells with meatballs), but they heat up quickly, are mildly flavored, and coated in cheesy tomato sauce. Despite its simplicity, the company is steeped in traditional Italian food from the motherland. It all started with a man named Ettore "Hector" Boiardi, otherwise known as Chef Boyardee.

Boiardi was born in 1897 in Piacenza, Italy, a town located 44 miles south of Milan. When he was 16 years old, he and his family immigrated to America where they settled in New York City and Boiardi and his brother found work in the kitchens of the Plaza Hotel. It wasn't long before Boiardi became head chef of the renowned establishment. After working for President Woodrow Wilson, Boiardi relocated to Cleveland, Ohio where he opened his own Italian restaurant in 1924 called Il Giardino d'Italia, which was immediately a success.

Customers were so smitten with the rather new concept of Italian food that they wanted to know more, so Boiardi began sending patrons home with sauce, cheese, pasta, and instructions on how to make pasta dishes themselves. This is when the Boiardi family began to consider if they could successfully jar and sell pasta dishes. It turned out, they certainly could.

In 1927, Ettore Boiardi and his brother, Paolo, began to process and jar the family's pasta sauces which was followed by other products including canned spaghetti. More and more people across the country were enjoying the canned Italian food. By 1938, the company had outgrown its production plant and moved the operation to Milton, Pennsylvania where it started growing its own produce to use in its products. This was about the time when the Boiardi brand became "Chef Boyardee" so customers could better pronounce the name.

In the 1940s as the country was facing World War II, Chef Boyardee was approached by the United States military to produce rations for the fighting soldiers. Suddenly, the production plant in Milton was operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep up with wartime demand. When they could, Boiardi and his employees would participate in local patriotic parades that were held for morale. In 1946, Boiardi was awarded The Gold Star for his wartime efforts, one of the highest honors a civilian can receive from the country. In order to keep all the extra workers who'd been hired during the war employed once the war had ended, he sold his company to a larger corporation.

Today, of course, you can find Chef Boyardee products on the shelves of nearly every American grocery store with Ettore Boiardi's image still smiling on the labels, complete with his tall white chef hat. It may not be the best Italian food you've ever tasted, but its roots are strong.