Beloved '70s Frozen Pizza Brand Is Officially Discontinued After Decades On Shelves

There was a point in time when, if you desired pizza, a parlor or restaurant was the only place to pick up a pie to nosh on. Frozen pizzas forever changed the game when they started making the rounds and making some serious dough in the 1960s thanks to brands like Totino's and Tombstone (which initially got delivered in a 1959 Cadillac). While some of these remain on shelves today, many old-school foods have fallen by the wayside, like good old Jeno's Crisp' N Tasty Pizzas, Buitoni Instant Pizza, and MaMa Rosa's frozen pizzas. Sadly, we can add another Mama to that list — Mama Celeste.

Mama Celeste's current stewards, Conagra, had already put this mothballing move into motion earlier this summer but it has just publicly confirmed it in an earnings call on September 30. Conagra's CEO John Brase noted during the call, "There are certain brands and categories where we simply just don't see a future, and it just makes sense to exit those small, really unprofitable brands — or low-profit brands — as soon as possible." 

The writing was already on the wall for Mama Celeste and other sister brands back in June when Brase took over looking to slim down the company's vast and complex portfolio. But while the clock is running out on Mama Celeste Pizza, that doesn't mean it's too late to have one last bite. Rumor has it that the brand isn't set to phase out completely until early 2027. Check your local grocery store's freezer aisle or online retailers before then to grab a slice.

Today's Mama Celeste Pizza will soon be yesterday's news, but it was already a shadow of its former glory. The story all began back in 1937 when "Mama" Celeste Lizio and her husband Anthony Lizio opened Kedzie Beer Garden in Chicago. Patrons loved the fresh pastas and bountiful portions, which led the couple to sell the restaurant in 1962 to focus on creating frozen Italian foods under the Celeste brand.

Anthony died in 1968 and a year later Quaker Oats bought Celeste out. She stayed on as a consultant and most famously as a spokeswoman for the products that still bore her name. Her likeness would appear on boxes and she also appeared in ads smiling and sporting the catchphrase "Abbondanza!" She receded from the ads in the mid-'80s and was replaced by her fictitious little brother Giuseppe Celeste in some of the best commercials of the decade. Celeste Pizza remained a steady presence in grocery stores across the country in the ensuing decades, even when changing hands from Van de Kamp's to Aurora Foods then Pinnacle Foods Group and on to its final resting place, Conagra, which acquired it in 2018.

Mama Celeste has been name-dropped on "The Simpsons," "Golden Girls," and the 1991 teen film "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead." During the pandemic, Dave Portnoy even heated one up for his One Bite Pizza Reviews. He was flooded with middle school memories when he tried one and admitted to enjoying it while awarding it a decent score of 6.4. These are now moments frozen in time. We already miss you, Mama.