Ettore Boiardi

Ettore "Hector" Boiardi (October 22, 1897 – June 21, 1985) was an Italian-American chef. He was famous for his brand of food products, named "Chef Boyardee".  He was a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Boiardi was born in Piacenza, Italy. Boiardi was married to Helen Wroblewski from 1923 until his death in 1985. He had a son, Mario Boiardi. Boiardi died on June 21, 1985 in Parma, Ohio from natural causes, aged 87. “Hector Boiardi, founder of Chef Boy-ar-dee Foods, one of the first packaged Italian food businesses in the nation, died Friday night after a short illness. He was 87 years old.” “His company was first called Chef Boiardi, but Mr. Boiardi found that customers and salesmen had difficulty pronouncing his name, so he changed the brand name to the phonetic spelling, ‘Boy-ar-dee.’” “He came to the United States in 1917 and worked at hotels in New York and Greenbrier, W.Va., where he directed the catering at the reception for President Woodrow Wilson's second marriage,”

References

Other websites
 Boiardi, Hector, Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
 The Man, The Can: Recipes Of The Real Chef Boyardee, NPR.org
 Chef Boyardee at Findagrave
 1953 television commercial with Ettore Boiardi

Category:1897 births
Category:1985 deaths
Category:American chefs
Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States
Category:Businesspeople from Cleveland
Category:People from Piacenza
Category:People with foods named after them