Friday, October 22, 2021

Chef Boyardee Pizza

Ever buy it, make your own pizza back in the day, 60 years ago?  I did.  Don't recall how I and others in rural Minnesota even became aware of it.  TV ads, probably.  

My first real pizza (1962), at a small restaurant in Moorhead, MN was sheer delight.  OMG, it was good!  Couldn't wait to bite into it, burned the roof of my mouth several times.  

I thought the rapid growth of pizza restaurants and grocery store frozen pizzas would wipe out Chef B's business in short order.  I was wrong.  Most grocery stores have it in stock.

Hector Boiardi started his pizza and pasta business in 1928, changing his last name to a more phonetic version.  He built a factory in Milton, PA, and hit the jackpot in WW II, producing 250,000 cans a day for the troops.   The C-rations I ate in Vietnam probably included some products from that factory.  The brand is now owned by Conagra Foods: https://www.chefboyardee.com/