Boiardi sold ravioli and spaghetti to Americans who’d never tasted Italian food.
Americans know him as Chef Boyardee, the smiling face on cans of spaghetti and ravioli. But before he made it big, Ettore Boiardi was a teenager who left his home behind.
Ettore Boiardi served pasta to soldiers and launched a multi-million dollar business. How did the 16-year-old immigrant become the infamous Chef Boyardee?
Immigrating to America
In 1914, weeks before war broke out in Europe, a sixteen-year-old boy crossed the Atlantic on his way to Ellis Island. He was one of more than four million Italians who immigrated to the U.S. between 1880 and 1920.
Most of these immigrants came from Southern Italy and Sicily, where they had lived in rural communities. They were farmers looking for agricultural work––but many could not find jobs. Within five years of coming to the U.S., as many as half of Italian immigrants returned to Italy. For these immigrants, a trip to America was about making money before going home.
But many others stayed.
Ettore Boiardi was born in Italy and launched his career as a chef at only eleven years old. By sixteen, Boiardi had already worked in restaurants in Paris and London. But Boiardi believed that America would be his land of opportunity.
Like millions of other immigrants, Boiardi entered America through Ellis Island. Stories of the immigration station had spread back to Italy. The island became known as “L’Isola dell Lagrime,” or the Island of Tears.
After making it through Ellis Island, Boiardi applied for a job at the famous Plaza Hotel in New York City. The young chef’s skills helped him rise through the ranks quickly.
By the end of World War I, Boiardi was supervising the welcome home meal for veterans that President Woodrow Wilson hosted at the White House. After eating Italian food during their time in Europe, the veterans dined on ravioli back home.
The Garden of Italy
In his 20s, Boiardi opened his own restaurant in Cleveland. He named it Il Giardino d’Italia, or “the Garden of Italy.”
Patrons marveled over Boiardi’s spaghetti sauce. The sauce became so popular that the chef began filling old milk bottles with his sauce and selling it.
In 1927, Maurice and Eva Weiner asked Boiardi to consider canning his sauce. The Weiners ran a grocery store chain and saw the endless opportunities with Boiardi’s recipes. Within a year, Boiardi’s product was sold across the country. Ettore’s brothers Paul and Mario joined him to found a new company that opened its own factory in 1928 to meet demand.
What did Boiardi sell? At first, he distributed spaghetti sauce. Next, Boiardi sold a pasta meal kit that included dry spaghetti, a jar of sauce, and a small container of Parmesan cheese. It proved so popular that Boiardi’s company became the largest importer of parmesan cheese in the country.
Within a decade, Boiardi was overseeing a massive operation that included farms growing tomatoes and a factory churning out products.
From Ettore Boiardi to Chef Boyardee
As an immigrant entrepreneur, Boiardi wanted to reach as many American consumers as possible. So he modified his company name to make it easier to pronounce. And that’s how Ettore Boiardi became Chef Boyardee.
At the time, few Americans ate Italian food regularly. Chef Boyardee helped introduce millions to foods like ravioli for the first time. And the business was so successful that the company became the largest importer of Parmesan cheese in the U.S.
The Chef Boyardee company opened a factory in Milton, Pennsylvania. In order to meet demand for their sauces, the company reached out to local farmers to ask them to plant more tomatoes. At its peak, the factory pumped out 250,000 cans of tomato sauce each day.
It didn’t take long for Chef Boyardee to become a major brand. During World War II, Boiardi’s factories produced rations for the Allied troops. The chef received a Gold Star in recognition of his contribution.
After the war, the Boiardi family sold the company. The chef lived until 1985, the face of a brand that brought in around $500 million per year. From his humble beginnings as a sous chef in Italy to the face of an international brand, Chef Boiardi proved that America was a land of opportunity.
Discover more true stories about immigrants in America with Bruce Wilson’s Welcome to America: Stories of the Immigrant Experience in American History, available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook.