Ettore Boiardi

Ettore (Hector) Boiardi (October 22, 1897 – June 21, 1985) was an Italian-born chef who became famous for his eponymous brand of food products, named Chef Boyardee.

Ettore Boiardi was born in Piacenza, Italy, to Giuseppe and Maria Maffi Boiardi. On May 9, 1914, at the age of 16, he arrived at Ellis Island aboard the La Lorraine, a ship of French registration.

Boiardi became the head chef at the Plaza Hotel in New York, where his brother had worked; it was his brother's employment there that had enabled him to join its staff as well. In 1915, he supervised the catering for the reception of President Woodrow Wilson's second wedding at the Greenbrier, in West Virginia.

His entrepreneurial skill became fine-tuned when he opened his first restaurant, Il Giardino d'Italia, whose name translated as “The Garden of Italy,” at East 9th Street and Woodland Avenue in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1926.

Boiardi was quite proud of his Italian heritage. He sold his products under the brand name “Chef Boy-Ar-Dee,” allowing his American customers to pronounce his name properly, as boy-AR-dee.

Later, he sold his brand to American Home Foods, later International Home Foods, for approximately $6 million out of family concerns about the company's internal growth and its struggling cash-flow after having grown so rapidly.

Boiardi's company made and prepared millions of rations for the American and other allied troops during World War II, and for his efforts he was awarded a gold star order of excellence from the United States War Department. He then helped make new Italian food products for the American market until his death.