Moms and kids know Chef Boyardee as a smiling face on a label, welcoming them to a warm, delicious bowl of pasta. But the sketch of a man in a chef’s hat is much more than an iconic symbol; Hector Boiardi was a real chef with a passion for quality ingredients. The Chef Boyardee pastas crafted today with no artificial flavors, no artificial colors and no preservatives would make Hector proud.
Chef Boyardee pastas are prepared in Milton, Pennsylvania, a location chosen by Hector himself. Hector knew that Milton’s proximity to tomato harvests would be ideal for his pasta-making business. Ripe red tomatoes started arriving by the bushel-full beginning in 1938. A mushroom plant was opened in the early 1950s. The plant was the largest of its kind in the United States and photos from that era show Hector personally inspecting a crop that yielded 1 million pounds of mushrooms annually.
That care and attention to great ingredients inspires the men and women who work for Hector Boiardi’s namesake company today. Chef Boyardee continues to make pastas with no artificial flavors, no artificial colors and no preservatives, with great tomatoes still at the heart of the Chef Boyardee sauce that so many have enjoyed over the years.
