As a kid, we were not a family of means as well as a single parent household, so my mom home cooked most of our meals with what she could afford. Every once in a while, when we had some extra money, she would bring home Chef Boyardee Ravioli and "make them fancy" for us by putting dried parsley on top, and baking stale hotdog buns in the oven with butter and garlic salt. I always thought to myself: "Man...this must be how rich people eat everyday!". Oh, to be a kid again.
Anyone growing up in Cleveland knew that Chef Boyardee was a real person as Mr Boiardi used to visit elementary schools in the area all the time just to tell his story and discuss American exceptionalism during the Cold War. We also knew that the stuff in the cans wasn’t the real genius of Mr Boiardi, but the recipes he would make on the local morning shows that were much more involved and delicious that truly showed this man knew how to cook.
nothing wrong with that. win-win situation both for him and for his workers. i myself would take the hundred mil to give those workers celebration gifts and funnel the rest to prepare for my old days.
on occassion among the dregs and assholes, you will find out about a corporate man who was actually decent, rspectable person. This man was one of them.Absolute legend
My father was the only child of Hector Boiardi, growing up I was able to to eat the most delicious food freshly prepared. It has been a privilege to be part of this well loved family
I thank your grandfather for making really fantastic food. The world would be entirely different without him. Also it sounds a bit of stretch 😅 but did you get to meet Hector Boiardi?
As a retail worker I can confirm the Chef sells extremely well. We go through cases everyday and the pizza kits? We cannot keep them on the shelves due to selling out so quickly. Plus I buy a can every once and a while for lunch for the nostalgia.
After eating homemade pasta, sauce, and cheese, yes my mother made cheese, Boyardee sucked so bad I refused to ever subject my son to it. He thanks me for sparing him to this day.
@@sallyskellington3024 Different products serves different purposes. Same could be said for bread, you could learn to make'em, or go to specialty shop and pay 10 bucks for a loaf. But that will never replace 2 dollar breads that fed millions of people. Not everyone has the luxury or time to cook food from scratch.
@@RAM-im1xf Not Everybody realizes, until COVID, that buying flour, yeast, etc. Is cheaper than buying a cheap loaf of bread that has so little food value. As for time, both myself and my mother worked full time jobs and still had time to do such things. Priorities.
The Chef helped me and my little family get through very difficult and turbulent times. You don’t get sick of anything when it’s all you’ve got to eat. People these days hate it But the same people who criticize it, were never in a position in where that was their only option. Food is food.
I know it wasn't truly his company anymore by the time my family came around, but he helped my family a lot too. my little brother was a notoriously picky eater and would only eat the spaghetti and meatballs. My parents bought it by the case. I would help myself to a can every now and then and we didn't have to worry about the house burning down. and then when I joined the military, i loved that it traveled well, didn't need to be heated, and was just a nice little creature comfort from home. it really just is the little things sometimes
Fun fact: Hector Boiardi is my great uncle. My father (who is now 80) grew up knowing him personally. Sometimes the family would get together and make Italian sausage (I recall a picture where the sausages were hanging in a basement and there is my dad in his early 20s alongside his brothers and the Chef himself). And no, we never got any money. His son Mario blew millions of his inheritance on B.S. real estate scams lol Another Fun Fact: my great uncle Hector is also the *only* American to have received the Order of Lenin for helping feed the WWII Soviet soldiers (who were allies at the time). Only recently did Russia redact that historical fact from public record, I suppose to rewrite history in any way possible to discount America's role in their nation's history or something, given Ukraine and all. Anyways, just thought I'd share these related tidbits about my family and the Chef. There's tons more stories my dad has told me over the years that I'm just forgetting at the moment, like how at Christmas time he would always bring the best cheesecake (I think it was cheesecake) and that his son, Mario, would do the same. Straight from Italy sorta cheesecakes. Real fancy stuff, I sometimes wish I had been alive to taste it. Also, had it not been for his factory, neither my great aunt Helen and he would have met, nor my grandma and grandpa. In other words, Chef Boyardee is the reason I'm alive today 😂 (boy I hope I'm remembering these stories correctly... would really suck to get thousands of upvotes and my dad find out I was wrong!)
Wow Michael your comment about my father blowing millions on real estate scams is pretty shitty really. The fact that he made millions in many ventures that you do not know about is quite remarkable. You might not have received money, but I did, I received millions and millions and stock in Con Agra and now Pfizer! None of that came from Hector, it came from Mario and his investments, you know in those real estate scams. I also have in my possession the letter from the Soviet Union Embassy discussing the Order of Lenin. As for Ukraine, my company still is one of the largest importers of grain from Ukraine and our relationship with Ukrainian growers goes back to Hector and his son Mario. There is obviously much that you are not aware of. But a pleasure to meet you. Don’t worry about the money, it’s being well looked after.
The brand has been part of my entire life, so 60+ years. It was never gourmet food, but as a kid it was pure nectar! Great video, I knew absolutely NOTHING about this!
Also 60+. Loved it as a kid. Our children loved it! Still keep a few cans in the pantry for when the grand kids come spend the weekend ( they love it). Of course grandpa has to taste test it before putting lunch on the table.
Much respect. I ate Boyardee as a child, and then came back as an adult, eating these occasionally while working away. I love old Ma and Pa stories like this.
Everything said in this video agrees with my own family history: my grandmother, who was born and raised in central Pennsylvania, told me as a kid about how she knew Hector personally, as her farm was one of the ones that supplied tomatoes to him. (In fact, my mom was born just a few miles away from Milton.) Granny was always proud that her tomatoes had helped the war effort. Not long after WW2 ended, they sold the farm and moved to south Florida to help my grandfather’s ailing health. But Granny always remained a farm girl at heart, growing stuff in her garden and saying hello to the occasional wayward cow that would make its way into her yard from the nearby pasture.
One key thing left out of the story is that Chef Boyardee didn't have to sell the company. They scaled up and hired more employees to help with the war effort, but once the war ended the demand went down. Instead of firing the extra employees, Chef Boyardee cared so much about keeping them employed he sold the company.
I'm in my 60's now, and I still love me some Chef Boyardee ravioli. Regular, mini, overstuffed, you name it, I love it. It's been a favorite since I was only knee-high.
I'm 36 make a comfortable living and I always have Chef Boyarde in my pantry. I find it comforting after a really bad day and you want some nostalgic cozy feelings.
Chef Boyardee came out with retro cans of beefaroni and other pasta meals a few years ago. I actually liked the Beefaroni. It was supposed to have the old school ingredients, but it didn't really make much of a difference in taste. It was good though.
Mr. Boiardi was a legitimate Michelin-starred chef, and very proud of his family name. When he was approached to be the face of a canned food brand featuring his recipes, he insisted on using the phonetic spelling of his name so people would be saying it right. And yes, that is his face smiling at you from the label on the can even now.
The official story is that he started selling the sauce out of his own restaurant, and it did so well that eventually he closed the restaurant in order to focus on selling the sauce. As more products were added his company grew. And yet you are saying that he was approached by an existing company that wanted to license his name and image. Is that actually correct? Can you say more about this company and its history?
I'm in my 40's, and recently bought a few cans of the ravioli for my daughter to mix up her repetitive summer lunches. She wasn't interested in giving it a chance, so I ended up eating them, and while it may be the nostalgia talking, I still dig it.
I ate my share of Hector's grub. None of it sucked, either. I still enjoy a can of his ravioli from time to time. It's a convenience/comfort food for me these days. Not unlike fast food burgers - a rare treat.
Chef Boyardee, one of my personal favorite things to get for lunch at work, cheap and filling. Always easy to pop open a can or two of the Ravioli and dig in
I love this canned deliciousness!! Since i was a child and im 53 now and still love it. Fast delicious lunch is what it will always be too me. There's always a few cans in my pantry at all times lol.
I love it. Nobody could pronounce "Boiardi" and he is a real hero. Everyone else being gangsters when he arrived and he makes awesome food instead. So many kids love him!
I knew he was a real chef before, but good god I didn't know he was a top level chef who owned an empire and had presidential honors. I bet you anything the original canned product back then was pretty really good, especially with fresh mushrooms.
I think it would be cool have a video about how Chinese takeout became popular. I love me some takeout! Also, this was a great video! The beef raviolis was a staple in my college days. Thanks, Chef!! ☺️
LOL! "Chinese Take-out" became popular because it was one of the first "take-out" menus on the Planet. (Pizza probably being the first). But somewhere like NYC or LA, "Take-Out" anything, only makes sense. Not to mention, NYC has a HUGE Asian population, and they were some of the first, why? Cause they already had stuff like delivery and street-foods in their own country(s).
Jazz musicians played a big part in popularizing Chinese food in the states. Jazz men were night owls…and since they were almost exclusively black men, in the early days of jazz, they had issues finding restaurants open in the late evenings and early mornings willing to serve them…so they began frequenting Chop Suey Houses! These restaurants kept later hours, to cater to immigrate labors who worked graveyard shifts…and the Chinese owners didn’t take issue with the race of the their patrons.
@@millsykooksy4863 "In Search of General Tso", maybe? It's about finding the origin of Gen. Tso Chicken but also gives a lot of insight into Chinese immigrant history and Chinese restaurants. I thought it was pretty cool.
I used to make Chef Boyardee pizza at home all the time, we all loved it. Pepperoni was always my favorite, with the little pepperoni's in the sauce, but I eventually could only find the cheese and then it was gone for good. I don't know why they don't sell it here anymore, but I miss it.
@@swy334 It's so good! Many years ago, almost 20, when I was pregnant with my first son I would take full size pepperoni's, a banana pepper and the pizza sauce and make little sandwiches while I made the pizza lol.
One thing I can say about Chef Boyardee is consistency. The only difference between all of his tomato-based canned pasta are the optics...same taste....same texture....everything from the beefaroni to the ravioli and everything in between. They all have the same flavor. One thing is for sure though! There is a marked difference between the Chef Boyardee brand and other name bands, as well as store bought brands. The proof is in the pasta! The quality is definitely there!
The quality has dropped across the board on the products though, they changed it awhile ago and it just hasn’t been the same. Huge spaghettio fan, also like the spaghetti and meatballs, recently had the ravioli, theve all dropped in quality sadly
I couldn't disagree more. Never in my life have I ever met anyone who didn't agree that Boyardee stuff has a literal vomit taste. That sour, acid-y taste that lingers in your mouth after you vomit...that is their sauce.
Just the other day I was looking up old toys from cereal boxes I had as a kid in the 80s and I came across "The Soggies", which were the villains of the Cap'N Crunch extended universe🤣 I had those glow in the dark toys back in the day
Growing up in a partially Italian family we never had canned or jarred sauce, but we would occasionally have Chef Boyardee cans in the pantry. The only ones I remember were ravioli and the pizza kits. And since microwaves weren't invented until I was nearing my teens, we had to wait MINUTES (can you belie it?!) for that stuff to heat up in a pan on the stove, so I would usually eat it right out of the can.
Their pizza wasa staple in my home. We were poor and as a cost efficient treat, my mom would have living room picnics with me snd my sis, with the pizza and we would watch the newlywed show (mid 80s). Good times....My mom was the best, made me appreciate the small things.
One of my first taste memories in the early 1950's was Chef Boyardee spaghetti. In the 1960's we assembled their pizza kits every Friday night. 7 decades later, I have cases of Chef Boyardee as survival food. I see no problem at all eating their raviolis straight out of the can cold. I often create some pretty good dishes myself like a short order cook. A few years ago I started calling my home dishes Chef Boy-Am-I.
Eating ravioli straight out of the can when I was piss drunk or just tired from cooking food all day will always be a part of my most cherished memories of my early 20s.
its a shame that the company did not keep the quality that the chef originally put into the recipes. my kids ate it when they were little, but none of us eat it now.
It’s not the same. You’re better off going to a real Mom and Pop restaurant to get the same stuff with more favor. Making tomato sauce is not really hard tho, it takes some time and You have to cook the sauce for about a hour before making the noodles. I normally make my sauce from scratch from blended tomato’s with seasons in a blender and cook it afterwards. Most real Italians only used salt and tomatoes to make sauce. But that’s their style.
It's crazy that the spaghetti, ravioli, lasagna, and beefaroni all have different tastes, but one bite and you feel good inside. You know it's Chef Boyardee's
I learned about Chef Boiardi as a young child in the 70s from the lady who did my mothers hair. She was older then and had grown up in Cleveland. Her family had some connection to the Chef and she spoke highly of him. I thought it was so cool that he was a real person and a famous Chef. I always enjoyed her stories about him, and Cleveland in general.
OMG. I love Chef Boyardee! I love the spaghetti and lasagna kits. Every Sunday we would have one or the other for lunch. They still have pizza kits around but I cannot find spaghetti or lasagna kits anywhere. Bring back some of the old stuff!!!!!
Canned Chef Boyardee singles of beefaroni, Vienna sausages, Campbell's Soup-at-Hand, pouches of tuna/chicken, black coffee, MREs & Reese's Pieces got me through my deployment. I rarely got an ACTUAL hot meal, but honestly the nostaligia is something else for something so simple. 🥰🥰
When I first moved out on my own, this was a large part of my diet. Now that I'm older, I still use it for dirty bulking. It's cheap and loaded with, well, everything. Love it.
I lived for Chef Boyardee meals as a child. I love the Overstuffed Ravioli. Hot, cold, in the can, I don't care. Boiardi is a hero, a true cultural icon.
I grew up on Beefaroni and love it to this day. I was so happy when they brought the Throwback Series as there was a noticeable difference in taste and it reminded me of my days as a boy eating straight out of the can! Thanks for a great documentary.
Is Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Ravioli actually objectively GOOD? No, not really. Do I unashamedly love it all the same? Yes, please, can I have some more? A great American success story.
I cant help but feel the mass production somewhere along the lines changed the quality and authenticity just a little. Im betting the original cans were amazing
Not having grown up eating Chef Boyardee I nearly gagged when out of curiosity I tried a can of beefaroni many years ago. The mushy, overcooked “pasta” and putrid sauce turned me off the brand forever. The real chef however was certainly fascinating and I’m sure his actual food must’ve been pretty darn amazing. He probably wasn’t a fan of the canned interpretation of his culinary skills, but it sounds like it helped a lot of people out and did much for the local economy, so kudos to him. Thanks for the very interesting video, I’ll never look at those cans of food-like substance the same way again!
For people who think that Chef Boyardee canned products taste alike (they do lol) try the sauce that comes with the spaghetti kits. It’s worlds better than the sauce in the more well-known Chef products. Good stuff. I’ll even eat a box of it nowadays if I’m feeling emotional or lazy lol.
Back in the mid 1900’s I met that man. He was a good man. He told me I would go on to do big things. I never did. I feel like I let him down. RIP Big BRDee
Is that Bryan Cranston, in the Prep H commercial clip at 8:29? 😎 I've never liked Chef Boyardee products but was still super curious, so thanks for the video, WHF🙂
At 32 I still get cravings when I see those cans and have to pick some up. Lunch for work a lot of the time. Still good and stayed the same since I was a kid. Always feel a bit of nostalgia
Wanna know how much this food is a staple? I remember going to the store to stock up right before they officially announced lockdowns and the Chef Boyardees were CLEANED out. It took months before you could walk into the store and find more than two or three cans.
It's actually not bad. It's not something you eat every day, or seek out because of it's taste, but it has it's use. I keep a can or two in my office in case I forget to bring a lunch and get too busy to pick something up from a restaurant. Sometimes you only have 15 minutes to eat a meal and the canned spaghetti fills a niche.
When I was a broke college student with no money, this, cup ramen, water and coffee were my fuel and easier to make when too busy with work, school work and homework.
I ate a pizza kit mix every day after school from grade 4 to end of high school. I was level 9 picky child. If the family wanted to go eat at a restaurant that I didn't like I would sit in the car. I'm eating a red baron pizza right now so I guess I still have issues.
One of my favorite sitcom lines ever is from the Golden Girls: Rose: Sofia, this is so delcious that it tastes like Chef Boyardee. Sofia starts to smile thinking she is being complimented; but then stops and stares, and then huffs off with the pot.
My husband and I grew up eating Chef Boyardee spaghetti. It was a treat for us and our Moms would but the boxed ‘kits’. Later our first pizza were made with the pizza ‘kit’. We still use Chef Boyardee spaghetti and pizza sauce. The canned spaghetti sauce is hard to find but when we do, find it we buy several cans. Best pizza sauce ever. The spaghetti sauce may not be considered the best by many but we love it. Just wish the other options were available.
Back when I worked a different job and I didn't have time to make lunch, I'd grab a can of ravioli and a fork and just eat it room temp. Not a bad meal.
I remember eating Chef Boyardee as a kid in the 90s, I still eat it today in my 30s. I appreciate that it has alway been a reasonable price and quick meal.
I work in the kitchen at this plant in Milton. I’ve cooked every type of sauce in the Chef Boyardee line. I love my job and am very proud of this product.
When I saw your intro, it reminded me of something- What do Frosted Flakes and The Grinch have in common? Thurl Ravenscroft. He was both the voice of Tony the Tiger and sang the original song, 'You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch'.
that beef ravioli was my go-to when I had strep throat… never was allowed to have it before then, so it was extra special to me at the time. The beefaroni was my work wife’s go-to during strip season in a corporate grooming salon. We both kept cans in our work lockers, in the event one of us managed to get a lunch break.
