July 29, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Chef “Hector” Boiardi was just 16 years old when he arrived at Ellis Island. What happens after his landing is remarkable!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue here with our American stories. And this
next story comes from a listener in Los Angeles, Joe Garabadi.
And before there was a can, there was this man.
And Greg Hengler is about to bring us the story
of Chef boyar D, whom Joe told us in his email,
(00:31):
putting us on to this great story that he last
saw Chef Boyard at his own grandmother's funeral back in
Cleveland in the nineteen sixties. Here's Greg with the story
of Chef boyr D.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Chef Boyard is one of the most familiar figures in
the supermarket isles, but you may be surprised to know
that the smiling stash shield character in the white apron
and towering chef's hat was in some corporate marketing concoction
like Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. The man
who graces cans of beef Erronian spaghetti and meatballs, Hector
(01:15):
Boyardi was a real person. And yes, that's his real picture.
Here he is in a nineteen fifty three television commercial.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Hello may I command I am CHABOYARTI. Perhaps you have
seen my picture on SHABOYARTI products at two grocers.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Born in eighteen ninety seven in the northern Italian region
of Piazzienza, Boyarti supposedly used a wire whisk for a rattle,
and by the age of eleven was working as an
apprentice chef at a local hotel. In nineteen fourteen, sixteen
year old Boyarti set sail for a new life with
better opportunities in America and arrived at Ellis Island. He
(01:57):
entered the kitchen at New York City's prestigious Plaza hotel,
where his older brother Paul was a materer d, and
within a year, at just seventeen years of age, he
assumed the position of head chef. So talented was Boyardi
that he directed the catering for the wedding reception of
President Woodrow Wilson and his second wife, Edith that same year.
(02:21):
Two years later, the chef moved to Cleveland to run
the kitchen at the Hotel Winton, and in nineteen twenty
four Boyarty opened a restaurant of his own with his.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Newlywed wife, Helen.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Chef Boyarti's grand niece is Anna Boyarti. She's a TV
producer and cookwear designer who took on the role of
family historian when she published Delicious Memories, Recipes and Stories
from the Chef boyar Di Family in twenty eleven. Here's
Anna and cookbook author Nathan Mierbold.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
My name is Anna Boyardi boiard I. Chef Boyardi was
a real person. The man that you know on the canon,
Chef Boyarty was my great uncle.
Speaker 6 (03:08):
Boyardi was a food revolutionary because he made it possible
for people that could never have gotten to his restaurant,
wouldn't have cooked a pasta sauce themselves, but they could
buy a can of it.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
The company was actually founded by my grandfather and my
two great uncles. Italian food in the twenties was not
as common as it is today. People were always asking, well,
how do I make this at home? And they would
give customers some pasta to take home and a little
tomato sauce and give them a little cheese and explain
(03:42):
how to properly cook the pasta. Everyone thought it was great,
and they decide that they are going to start canning
their tomato sauce and selling it in supermarkets across America.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Boy already recognized this business opportunity when his takeout revenue
began to eclipse the dining revenue. A couple of the
chef's regular patrons, who owned a local grocery store chain,
helped him design a canning process and find a national
distributor To meet the growing demand. Boyarti and his brothers
built a small processing plant and launched Chef Boyartes's Food
(04:21):
Company in nineteen twenty eight. The company's first product was
a prepackaged spaghetti dinner in a cardboard carton.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Today, I want to tell you about a wonderful dinner
for three, A dinner the only cost about fifteen cents
a survey. It's my own Chef Boyartes paghetti dinner with
mid sauce or mushroom sauce. It all comes in mont
carton a fall half pounds or tender quick cooking spaghetti,
ten full ounces of rached tasty sauce, and the top
(04:49):
of all a whole can of Zippi grated cheese. A
wonderful food.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The products sold well, but Boyarti soon discovered a problem.
His American customers and salesmen struggled with the pronunciation of
his last name, so the chef decided to change it
to the phonetic boy R D. Boyarty said, everyone is
proud of his own family name, but sacrifices were necessary
(05:15):
for progress. The company's low cost but tasty meals became
popular during the Depression and helped to make Italian food
a mainstay in the United States. But it wasn't the
chef's sauce that made boyar D the household name that
it is today. We can thank the US military for that.
Here's food historian Jack Turner in Anna BOYARTI.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
We are going to win this war.
Speaker 7 (05:42):
World War two was a hugely significant event in the
food chain because these ration pecks, all of these processed
foods were, if you like, developed to meet a need
to meet a native armies that were far away that
needed to be fed.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
At the beginning of World War Two, Chef Boyardy is
granted the commission to produce rations all of what's considered
civilian production, so that supermarket production is halted and the
factory is converted to aid in the war effort and
(06:15):
is now running twenty four hours a day.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
By the end of the war, Chef Boyarty had become
the largest supplier of rations to the US and Allied forces.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
He was awarded the Gold Star.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Order of Excellence from the United States War Department, one
of the highest honors a civilian can receive in honor
of the company's wartime efforts. But the question was now
without the demand, what were they going to do with
their supply, their workforce, and their massive factories. Chef Boyarty
(06:49):
made the difficult decision to sell the company in nineteen
forty six to the American Home Products Conglomerate for nearly
six million dollars. Here's food historian and f smith and
Jack Turner.
Speaker 8 (07:02):
Chef Boyardy puts the spaghetti and meatballs together and puts
them in a can. What's a picture of it on
the outside of this. Here's this professional saying you can
serve this in your home, and it becomes one of
the more successful products that are made in America.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Jin Chin.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
That's a great story.
Speaker 7 (07:18):
After the war, the sort of main arguments, if you like,
of the food industry, what do you needed to do?
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Was open a can?
Speaker 7 (07:24):
Cooking was for the past.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Boy Already remained a consultant with the company until nineteen
seventy eight and continued to appear in advertisements. In fact,
Boyarty became one of the first celebrity chefs to appear
in print advertisement and television commercials, and with no artificial flavors, colors,
or preservatives in the classic pasta dishes such as beef
(07:49):
ravioli and lasagna. Chef Boyarty is a meal you can
serve with the same pride the chef did in World
War Two.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So ask your grocer for Chef boys pugetted dinner with
Nita mushroom sauce, wouldn't you? And look for other Chef
Boyarties products that also delicious, that are also flourishing, and
they helped keep the cost through your meals down. Chef
Boyartes products on at best Grocers, ask for Chef Boyarti
spaghetti dinner only about fifteen cents of serving.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
The chef died of natural causes on June twenty first,
nineteen eighty five, at the age of eighty seven. Today,
Chef Boyardi defines Italian cooking in America, so much so
that Italian food hardly registers as ethnic cuisine for most Americans.
Hector Boyardi was a big part of that, and on
(08:43):
supermarket shelves around the world.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
His smiling face lives on.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And great job as always to Greg Hangler and thanks
to Joe Garabaudi and my goodness, we learned a lot
about well, somebody we didn't even know actually really existed.
And indeed, Chef boyardid couple of big ones. He changed
his name really smart. He also helped popularize Italian food,
but how he did it was helping our boys, feeding
(09:08):
our boys in World War Two. He won a gold
Star Order of Excellence for being one of the largest
suppliers in the war effort in World War Two. Jeff
boy Ardi's story here on our American Stories.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Don't cook lunch Yer
And we continue here with our American stories. And this
next story comes from a listener in Los Angeles, Joe Garabadi.
And before there was a can, there was this man.
And Greg Hengler is about to bring us the story
of Chef boyar D, whom Joe told us in his email,
(00:31):
putting us on to this great story that he last
saw Chef Boyard at his own grandmother's funeral back in
Cleveland in the nineteen sixties. Here's Greg with the story
of Chef boyr D.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Chef Boyard is one of the most familiar figures in
the supermarket isles, but you may be surprised to know
that the smiling stash shield character in the white apron
and towering chef's hat was in some corporate marketing concoction
like Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. The man
who graces cans of beef Erronian spaghetti and meatballs, Hector
(01:15):
Boyardi was a real person. And yes, that's his real picture.
Here he is in a nineteen fifty three television commercial.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Hello may I command I am CHABOYARTI. Perhaps you have
seen my picture on SHABOYARTI products at two grocers.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Born in eighteen ninety seven in the northern Italian region
of Piazzienza, Boyarti supposedly used a wire whisk for a rattle,
and by the age of eleven was working as an
apprentice chef at a local hotel. In nineteen fourteen, sixteen
year old Boyarti set sail for a new life with
better opportunities in America and arrived at Ellis Island. He
(01:57):
entered the kitchen at New York City's prestigious Plaza hotel,
where his older brother Paul was a materer d, and
within a year, at just seventeen years of age, he
assumed the position of head chef. So talented was Boyardi
that he directed the catering for the wedding reception of
President Woodrow Wilson and his second wife, Edith that same year.
(02:21):
Two years later, the chef moved to Cleveland to run
the kitchen at the Hotel Winton, and in nineteen twenty
four Boyarty opened a restaurant of his own with his.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Newlywed wife, Helen.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Chef Boyarti's grand niece is Anna Boyarti. She's a TV
producer and cookwear designer who took on the role of
family historian when she published Delicious Memories, Recipes and Stories
from the Chef boyar Di Family in twenty eleven. Here's
Anna and cookbook author Nathan Mierbold.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
My name is Anna Boyardi boiard I. Chef Boyardi was
a real person. The man that you know on the canon,
Chef Boyarty was my great uncle.
Speaker 6 (03:08):
Boyardi was a food revolutionary because he made it possible
for people that could never have gotten to his restaurant,
wouldn't have cooked a pasta sauce themselves, but they could
buy a can of it.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
The company was actually founded by my grandfather and my
two great uncles. Italian food in the twenties was not
as common as it is today. People were always asking, well,
how do I make this at home? And they would
give customers some pasta to take home and a little
tomato sauce and give them a little cheese and explain
(03:42):
how to properly cook the pasta. Everyone thought it was great,
and they decide that they are going to start canning
their tomato sauce and selling it in supermarkets across America.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Boy already recognized this business opportunity when his takeout revenue
began to eclipse the dining revenue. A couple of the
chef's regular patrons, who owned a local grocery store chain,
helped him design a canning process and find a national
distributor To meet the growing demand. Boyarti and his brothers
built a small processing plant and launched Chef Boyartes's Food
(04:21):
Company in nineteen twenty eight. The company's first product was
a prepackaged spaghetti dinner in a cardboard carton.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Today, I want to tell you about a wonderful dinner
for three, A dinner the only cost about fifteen cents
a survey. It's my own Chef Boyartes paghetti dinner with
mid sauce or mushroom sauce. It all comes in mont
carton a fall half pounds or tender quick cooking spaghetti,
ten full ounces of rached tasty sauce, and the top
(04:49):
of all a whole can of Zippi grated cheese. A
wonderful food.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The products sold well, but Boyarti soon discovered a problem.
His American customers and salesmen struggled with the pronunciation of
his last name, so the chef decided to change it
to the phonetic boy R D. Boyarty said, everyone is
proud of his own family name, but sacrifices were necessary
(05:15):
for progress. The company's low cost but tasty meals became
popular during the Depression and helped to make Italian food
a mainstay in the United States. But it wasn't the
chef's sauce that made boyar D the household name that
it is today. We can thank the US military for that.
Here's food historian Jack Turner in Anna BOYARTI.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
We are going to win this war.
Speaker 7 (05:42):
World War two was a hugely significant event in the
food chain because these ration pecks, all of these processed
foods were, if you like, developed to meet a need
to meet a native armies that were far away that
needed to be fed.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
At the beginning of World War Two, Chef Boyardy is
granted the commission to produce rations all of what's considered
civilian production, so that supermarket production is halted and the
factory is converted to aid in the war effort and
(06:15):
is now running twenty four hours a day.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
By the end of the war, Chef Boyarty had become
the largest supplier of rations to the US and Allied forces.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
He was awarded the Gold Star.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Order of Excellence from the United States War Department, one
of the highest honors a civilian can receive in honor
of the company's wartime efforts. But the question was now
without the demand, what were they going to do with
their supply, their workforce, and their massive factories. Chef Boyarty
(06:49):
made the difficult decision to sell the company in nineteen
forty six to the American Home Products Conglomerate for nearly
six million dollars. Here's food historian and f smith and
Jack Turner.
Speaker 8 (07:02):
Chef Boyardy puts the spaghetti and meatballs together and puts
them in a can. What's a picture of it on
the outside of this. Here's this professional saying you can
serve this in your home, and it becomes one of
the more successful products that are made in America.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Jin Chin.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
That's a great story.
Speaker 7 (07:18):
After the war, the sort of main arguments, if you like,
of the food industry, what do you needed to do?
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Was open a can?
Speaker 7 (07:24):
Cooking was for the past.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Boy Already remained a consultant with the company until nineteen
seventy eight and continued to appear in advertisements. In fact,
Boyarty became one of the first celebrity chefs to appear
in print advertisement and television commercials, and with no artificial flavors, colors,
or preservatives in the classic pasta dishes such as beef
(07:49):
ravioli and lasagna. Chef Boyarty is a meal you can
serve with the same pride the chef did in World
War Two.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So ask your grocer for Chef boys pugetted dinner with
Nita mushroom sauce, wouldn't you? And look for other Chef
Boyarties products that also delicious, that are also flourishing, and
they helped keep the cost through your meals down. Chef
Boyartes products on at best Grocers, ask for Chef Boyarti
spaghetti dinner only about fifteen cents of serving.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
The chef died of natural causes on June twenty first,
nineteen eighty five, at the age of eighty seven. Today,
Chef Boyardi defines Italian cooking in America, so much so
that Italian food hardly registers as ethnic cuisine for most Americans.
Hector Boyardi was a big part of that, and on
(08:43):
supermarket shelves around the world.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
His smiling face lives on.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And great job as always to Greg Hangler and thanks
to Joe Garabaudi and my goodness, we learned a lot
about well, somebody we didn't even know actually really existed.
And indeed, Chef boyardid couple of big ones. He changed
his name really smart. He also helped popularize Italian food,
but how he did it was helping our boys, feeding
(09:08):
our boys in World War Two. He won a gold
Star Order of Excellence for being one of the largest
suppliers in the war effort in World War Two. Jeff
boy Ardi's story here on our American Stories.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Don't cook lunch Yer
Host
Lee Habeeb
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