Chef Boyaredee: Rags to Riches

[TheS0c!0p@th]

You know those canned pastas labeled "Chef Boyardee". There's a story behind this company & its that you probably never knew, someone who could be considered an entrepeneur & should be given some respect. Chef Boiardi is his name, spellings different than the name for marketing reasons, Americans had trouble pronouncing his & the name of the company. Born in Italy in the late 1800s, started a job as an apprentice chef when he was 11. At 16, his family immigrated to the US, got a job at the Plaza Hotel in NY, became the head chef at 17, he also catered for President Woodrow Wilson's wedding, the first of many. At 27, he moved to Cleveland to set up an authentic Italian restaurant called "The Garden of Italy" in Italian. The thing is, even though he was doing what he loves, this wasn't a bad thing for the time & for what he was doing as he ended up creating his own market for Italian cuisine. His food was popular enough that people wanted to make it at home themselves. You know uber eats? Chef Boiardee was doing it in the 20s, without internet. He not only sold the recipes but the ingredients too. He packed together some premade sauce, grated cheese & uncooked spagetti. This was more of a side gig, the tomato sauce came in a glass milk bottle for example. The sale of these dinner kits ended up passing the sales of the restaurant (scale). Have you ever had trouble with people having trouble trying to pronounce the name of your company, well Boiardee did so he changed the name of the company to Boy-Ar-Dee because its a huge bonus if your customers are able to pronounce & recognize your name. During the Great Depression he moved his business from Cleveland Ohio to Milton PA because it was a good place to get tomatoes for his sauce, local farmers grew tomatoes for him & it helped the local economy. During this time, his dinner kits only grew in popularity because having a decent meal that is affordable & easy to make is very much appreciated. During WWII, he was hired by the US to make food for the army. Canned pasta dishes probably made for some decent rations, but idk. He could barely keep up, after the war, he was faced with 2 choices: sell the company or shrink it. He chose to sell, his workers got to keep their jobs & he got a cash of money (liquidation). After that, he was an advisor in regards to the company & appeared in commercials. He died in 1985.

 

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