What is your Chef Boyardee story?

[palusbuteo]

I seem to remember a number of years ago coming across a brief history of Chef Boyardee (Boiardi) and his impressive legacy, and I dunno, I came away from that impressed and he, Hector, just seemed like the World's Nicest Guy

A few moments ago, I came across this:
https://youtu.be/mvt9rU6ZqCw

And it does seem to corroborate my earlier inclination that the guy, his wife, and brother, made something special.

So, what is your Boyardee experience?
(the good & bad)

We didn't really eat much of the stuff growing up, I don't think. We of course being of Italian ancestry ourselves we had at last 2 generations' worth of Italian-Fusion/Americanized-Italian cuisine, and, we almost always seemed to be making our own pasta/spaghetti (not from scratch, but cooking our own pasta, etc)

I know I've had some canned pasta/beefaroni once or twice.

Every now and then my Dad would buy and eat a can of Boyardee or Spaghettios, although I don't exactly remember the circumstances, I think Mom said that Dad didn't really eat it when he was a kid, either, and then around College time he had some and it was almost a sort of "rebellious" thing for him to do, I guess it sort of upset his parents? Or that they thought the food didn't taste good, etc.
(I get the sense from fragmentary evidence and experience that my Grandfather was a bit of a Purist and maybe a little bit of a prude....In a totally unrelated story, I once asked Dad what Grampy thought about Elvis Presley and apparently Grampy wasn't thrilled and said, heavily paraphrased, "A man shouldn't be moving his hips like that")

I seem to also recall by HS and College Boyardee (and Spaghettios) had earned a sort of negative reputation and that if you're eating Boyardee then that meant you were "poor" or "unclassy", To be perfectly honest, I really don't remember what I thought about it, how much was peer pressure/culture or what.
...Or, that it was I found Spaghettios pretty unfavorable
(Yes, I realize Spaghettios are made by Campbell's)

Anyway, one time I did seem to give Dad a bit of grief about eating one of them, that one time, although I do seem to think it was Spaghettios and that an adult man shouldn't be eating a kid's food, at the time.
Years later (?) I guess I realized my stance wasn't a nice one and to drop it. Sometimes you just have to do/eat something you did once as a Kid, even if you're an adult. YOLO.

I haven't had either of these in several years. I dunno, maybe it is my upbringing where it's just as easy for me to make it all on my own rather than buy it in canned form. I'm not trying to say Boyardee is "wrong" or "below me", just that I'm coming from my own experience. If you love Boyardee (or even Spaghettios), then please continue to enjoy it.


Anyway, back on Boiardi himself - I dunno, I've seen some of the old commercials (and the packeging & marketing idea of a "simple and quick meal kit you can do in 15 minutes", dunno about you, but seems like fricken GENIUS), Hector just seems like the World's Nicest Guy and he seemed to genuinely be interested in having people enjoy a quality product. I was also sort of intrigued by his Wartime efforts and making rations for the Army, and it earned him a Gold Star and he was immensely proud of that.
(I was going to venture off in a long weird tangent there about immigrants and attitudes about becoming US Citizens yet retaining some level of their native "heritage", but it just doesn't seem to be viable here, maybe another post, maybe not)

So. What is your Boyardee experience?