Chef Boy-ar-dee

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From the TELL US MORE section: Chef Boy-ar-dee

Here’s a blast from my childhood past: Chef Boy-ar-dee.



I always used to see him as I walked through the supermarket as a kid. His face appeared on cans of spaghetti sauce.

I couldn’t help wonder: who is that man? Is he real, or is he just another marketing invention, similar to fictional characters like Aunt Jemima and Betty Crocker?

Well, Ettore (Hector) Boiardi was very real indeed.

He was born in Piacenza, Italy in 1898 and moved to the United States when he was sixteen years old. After honing his cooking skills in the catering business, he opened his own restaurant and his spaghetti sauce was supposedly to die for.

Realizing just how popular his spaghetti sauce was - he gave samples to customers in old milk bottles - he decided to can it and start selling it himself.

That was about the time he created the brand Chef Boy-ar-dee, a gimmick aimed at helping Americans pronounce his last name correctly.

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Vocabulary:

To hone. Perfeccionar

To die for. If something is “to die for,” it’s extremely good.

To can. Enlatar

Published by: Drew Crosby