It'll be a short post today.. just wanted to throw a little bit of information out there that I thought most people might not have known.
I was finished with work today in Florida, and came back to my hotel room to relax before dinner. I turned on the tv, and the History Channel popped up, and it happened to be a history behind America's favorite foods (how Chef Boyardee is one of America's favorite foods, I'll never know, although I do love the ravioli..). I continued to watch it, and found out that Chef Boyardee is a real person!
Hector Boiardi is the original Chef Boyardee. He came from Italy at age 17, and started working in New York. His brother worked in the kitchen at The Plaza Hotel, and actually landed him a job there, as well. Hector cooked in multiple states before opening up his own restaurant in Cleveland, OH, called Il Giardino d'Italia. His spaghetti sauce was so darn good that customers requested to have some in a jar to take home. He'd package it in a milk bottle and send them on their way. Soon after, Boiardi started assembling packages of dry spaghetti, crumbled cheese, and his special sauce for customers to take home and cook on their own. He became so popular that he moved his operations to Pennsylvania and joined with American Home Foods. They began canning his products, and they still sell them today.
What's interesting to me is how a product notorious for being so delicious ended up being so cheap and processed. Knowing Chef Boiardi's history now actually makes me a little sad.. he had such a good product that turned into a fabricated "Italian" canned meal.
Oh well... I still eat it :)
Here's Hector Boiardi doing what he loved best. He died in 1985.
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