January 15, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Chef “Hector” Boiardi was just 16 when he arrived at Ellis Island. What happens after his landing is remarkable!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 Boyard, 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 stashield character in the white apron and
towering chef's hat wasn't some corporate marketing concoction like Betty Crocker,
Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. The man who graces cans
(01:12):
of beef Erronian spaghetti and meatballs. Hector 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 Place, a
hotel where his older brother Paul was a maj D,
and within a year, at just seventeen years of age,
he assumed the position of head chef. So talented was
Boyarti that he directed the catering for the wedding reception
of President Woodrow Wilson and his second wife, Edith that
(02:19):
same year. 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 newlywed wife, Helen. 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
(02:42):
Delicious Memories, Recipes and Stories from the Chef boyar D
Family in twenty eleven. Here's Anna and cookbook author Nathan Mierbold.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
My name is Anna Boyarti boiard I. Chef Boyardi was
a real person. The man that you know on the canon,
Chef Poarty was my great uncle.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
Boyardy 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 4 (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.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It is today.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
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 how to properly cook the pasta.
Everyone thought it was great, and they decided 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 Boyarti'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 pagetted dinner with
mid sauce or mushroom sauce. It all comes in one
carton a fall half pounds or tender quick cooking spaghetti,
ten full ounces of rached tasty sauce. At the top,
(04:49):
it 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. Boy Already said, everyone
is proud of his own family name, but sacrifices were
(05:14):
necessary 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 6 (05:42):
World War two was a hugely significant event in the
food chain because these ration packs, all of these processed
foods were, if you like, developed to meet and need
to meet a native armies that were far away that
needed to be fed.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
At the beginning of World War Two, Chef we already
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 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.
He was awarded the Gold Star 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
(06:42):
they going to do with their supply, their workforce, and
their massive factories. Chef Boyarty 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 Andrew F. Smith and Jack Turner check.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Boyardy puts the spaghetti and meatballs together and puts them
in a can.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Spectra on the outside of this.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Here's this professional saying you can serve this in your home,
and it becomes one of the more successful products that are.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Made in America.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Ten tin.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
That's a great story.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
After the war, the sort of main arguments, if you
liked the food industry, what you needed to do was
open a can. Cooking was for the past.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Boardy 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 classic pasta dishes such as beef ravioli
(07:50):
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 boyetted dinner with need
the mushroom sauce, wouldn't you? And look for other Chetboyarties
products that also delicious, that're also nourishing, and they helped
keep the cost of your meals down. Chef Boyarti 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
(08:42):
supermarket shelves around the world. His smiling face lives on.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And great job as always to Greg Hangler and thanks
to Joe Garabadi and my goodness we learned a lot
about well, somebody we didn't even know actually really existed.
And indeed, Chef Boyardi did a 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 our boys in World War Two. He won a
(09:10):
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 2 (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 Boyard, 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 stashield character in the white apron and
towering chef's hat wasn't some corporate marketing concoction like Betty Crocker,
Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. The man who graces cans
(01:12):
of beef Erronian spaghetti and meatballs. Hector 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 Place, a
hotel where his older brother Paul was a maj D,
and within a year, at just seventeen years of age,
he assumed the position of head chef. So talented was
Boyarti that he directed the catering for the wedding reception
of President Woodrow Wilson and his second wife, Edith that
(02:19):
same year. 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 newlywed wife, Helen. 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
(02:42):
Delicious Memories, Recipes and Stories from the Chef boyar D
Family in twenty eleven. Here's Anna and cookbook author Nathan Mierbold.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
My name is Anna Boyarti boiard I. Chef Boyardi was
a real person. The man that you know on the canon,
Chef Poarty was my great uncle.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
Boyardy 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 4 (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.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It is today.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
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 how to properly cook the pasta.
Everyone thought it was great, and they decided 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 Boyarti'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 pagetted dinner with
mid sauce or mushroom sauce. It all comes in one
carton a fall half pounds or tender quick cooking spaghetti,
ten full ounces of rached tasty sauce. At the top,
(04:49):
it 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. Boy Already said, everyone
is proud of his own family name, but sacrifices were
(05:14):
necessary 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 6 (05:42):
World War two was a hugely significant event in the
food chain because these ration packs, all of these processed
foods were, if you like, developed to meet and need
to meet a native armies that were far away that
needed to be fed.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
At the beginning of World War Two, Chef we already
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 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.
He was awarded the Gold Star 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
(06:42):
they going to do with their supply, their workforce, and
their massive factories. Chef Boyarty 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 Andrew F. Smith and Jack Turner check.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Boyardy puts the spaghetti and meatballs together and puts them
in a can.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Spectra on the outside of this.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Here's this professional saying you can serve this in your home,
and it becomes one of the more successful products that are.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Made in America.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Ten tin.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
That's a great story.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
After the war, the sort of main arguments, if you
liked the food industry, what you needed to do was
open a can. Cooking was for the past.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Boardy 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 classic pasta dishes such as beef ravioli
(07:50):
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 boyetted dinner with need
the mushroom sauce, wouldn't you? And look for other Chetboyarties
products that also delicious, that're also nourishing, and they helped
keep the cost of your meals down. Chef Boyarti 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
(08:42):
supermarket shelves around the world. His smiling face lives on.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And great job as always to Greg Hangler and thanks
to Joe Garabadi and my goodness we learned a lot
about well, somebody we didn't even know actually really existed.
And indeed, Chef Boyardi did a 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 our boys in World War Two. He won a
(09:10):
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 2 (09:24):
Don't cook lunch Yer
Host
Lee Habeeb
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