Chef Boyardee

June 21, 2011 8:34 PM

26 years ago today, we said goodbye to Ettore Boiardi - who fed the Plaza Hotel, Woodrow Wilson, millions of GIs, and - more likely than not - you.

Famous Italian Dishes, published in the 1930s, is part of the Szathmary Recipe Pamphlet collection - one of the many interesting collections viewable at the Iowa Digital Library.

posted by Trurl (17 comments total)

Some supplemental info on Boiardi from our friends at snopes.

I'd be much more of a staunch defender of his product had he managed to invent that most perfect of foodstuffs: Spaghetti-O's, however.
posted by ShutterBun at 9:28 PM on June 21, 2011

I had no idea there was a real Chef Boyardi! Thanks for the post.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 9:29 PM on June 21, 2011

I have real genuine affection for Chef Boyardi. Turtle pasta (with meatballs!), a glass of milk, and a potato roll was my routine Saturday lunch throughout my childhood. Cartoons + chef boyardi is like happy brain crack for me.

Never was much of a fan of spaghetti-o's though.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:37 PM on June 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Blasphemer!

The "Chef Boiardi was a real person" was first introduced to me when this commercial came out in the early '90s. (poor quality, best I could find) Granted, commercials are no strangers to inventing real-life backstories for their fictitious founders, but this one was (more or less) the real deal.
posted by ShutterBun at 9:44 PM on June 21, 2011

Oh man, do I have vivid memories of that commercial.

But yeah, spaghettiOs always had a distinctly foul taste to me--the sauce wasn't as sweet, and was so . . . orange. Though FrancoAmerican did have a line of spiral "gourmet" canned pasta for awhile that I liked.

Man, do I have opinions about canned pasta.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:55 PM on June 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Beefaroni would be high on my short list of things to have on a desert island.
posted by The Potate at 10:17 PM on June 21, 2011

My house was more of a Mamma Leone house.

Do they still make that stuff? My afterschool snack for years.
posted by madajb at 10:49 PM on June 21, 2011

Growing up, I thought the Spaghetti-Os were rank. But the beef ravioli were divine!

Grazie, Chef Boiardi!
posted by darkstar at 12:03 AM on June 22, 2011 [3 favorites]

I used to love love love their ravioli. I will not even think about eating it now for fear that I will hate hate pity hate my former self.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:57 AM on June 22, 2011

Loved Beefaroni and the beef ravioli. Can't eat it today due only to allergies, but I would always have a can on the shelf just in case of emergency. Spaghetti-Os always seemed too watery and syrupy to be real food.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:02 AM on June 22, 2011

I'm actually a little surprised to learn that he died so relatively recently. I would have guessed that he died in the 1970s.
posted by briank at 6:34 AM on June 22, 2011

Yes he did feed me.

And gave me the poos.
posted by stormpooper at 7:03 AM on June 22, 2011

The ravioli, plus melted cheddar cheese, plus mustard. As a latchkey kid I would make myself a big dish of this and then take a book and a quilt out to my backyard and have a Chef Boyardee picnic. Good times...
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:00 AM on June 22, 2011

The ravioli, plus melted cheddar cheese, plus mustard. and your lived?
posted by stormpooper at 9:52 AM on June 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Try it. TRUST ME.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:15 AM on June 22, 2011

Here he is in the flesh. 1953 and 1980s (scroll ahead sixty seconds.)
posted by evilcolonel at 12:34 PM on June 22, 2011

But this is the commercial I remember most vividly.
posted by evilcolonel at 12:35 PM on June 22, 2011