The President That The Real Life Chef Boyardee Cooked For

Chef Boyardee is famous for producing canned Italian food, commonly found populating grocery store shelves. However, before Chef Boyardee graced grocery store shelves with things like Beefaroni and the now-discontinued Pac-Man pasta, there was a man simply known as Hector Boiardi. The chef was much more than canned goods; he was a passionate chef who worked with his family to create convenient but tasty Italian food. Initially consumed by families early on, Chef Boyardee products were later used to feed soldiers abroad in World War II.

The chef's claim to fame began when he opened a restaurant with his wife and later established the company that the world knows today in 1928. Boiardi's story of success is unfortunately somewhat buried today, but there is one noteworthy moment in the chef's life that often goes unnoticed. When he was only 17 years old, he catered for the wedding reception of none other than President Woodrow Wilson.

It may be surprising to many that the chef and the president ever crossed paths. After all, Boiardi was never a White House Chef and Wilson's preference for Virginia country ham was hardly synonymous with Italian cuisine. Still, the stars did align during the chef's early days, nearly a decade before he would go on to create the company that would lead him to fame.

1915 was an important year for both Hector Boiardi and President Wilson. The young chef was a rising star in his industry and had just taken over the role of head chef at the Plaza Hotel. Meanwhile, Wilson announced he would be marrying his second wife, Edith Galt, after a three-month courtship just a year after the passing of his first wife.

The exact reason as to how Boiardi ended up catering to President Wilson and his new wife are not known. Nonetheless, the chef was in charge of directing the entire catering process. Serving a head of state is already an honor, but serving a presidential wedding reception, especially one as publicly talked about as the quick wedding between Wilson and Galt, was an impressive feat. Still, the chef pulled it off at only 17 years of age, further adding to his status as a great chef.

Ironically, Boiardi and Wilson had actually crossed paths previously without the two knowing it. Exactly one year before he started work in New York City and cooked for the president, Boiardi was part of the staff at the Greenbrier luxury resort in West Virginia. In that very same year, Wilson and his first wife vacationed at the Greenbrier during Easter. It is unknown if this is when the chef and president first met, eventually leading to Boiardi cooking for the president a year later, but it is still a wondrous coincidence worth pondering.