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Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope

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Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Guess what, Mango, what's that? Well, you know I love numbers,

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Speaker 2: so I'm going to start out with a big number here.

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Speaker 2: Did you know that there are over three hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty different pasta shapes? Mango, I didn't know that, which

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Speaker 2: means there are over three hundred and fifty different pasta

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Speaker 2: shape names. That's really what I'm getting at here, each

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Speaker 2: with its own backstories. So you want to hear one

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Speaker 2: of my favorites.

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Speaker 1: Obviously I want to hear because this would have been.

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Speaker 2: A very short episode if you're like, no, not really

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Speaker 2: really in the mood for one of those this today?

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Speaker 2: Not the carbs, Yeah, not carbs today. All right, So

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Speaker 2: this story is all about Kava Tapi, which is that long,

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Speaker 2: loose spiral, and it turns out it was originally called Chillin'

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Speaker 2: Tani after an Italian pop star, So tell me, what.

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Speaker 1: Does a pop star have to do with pasta?

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Speaker 2: So cell and Tani was originally created by the company Gorilla,

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Speaker 2: but it was a mistake. It happened because of a

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Speaker 2: problem with aposthadize that they were using. So those are

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Speaker 2: the molds that you feed the dough through to give

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Speaker 2: the final producted shape. And so in the nineteen sixties,

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Speaker 2: Brilla had some dyes that were supposed to have these

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Speaker 2: very straight lines but accidentally ended up with curvy ones.

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Speaker 2: So workers fed the dough through and out came this

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Speaker 2: new corkscrew shape. Now, because the shape was springy, it

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Speaker 2: reminded people of the company of the singer Andreano Cellantano,

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Speaker 2: who was known for his high energy bouncy dancing. So

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Speaker 2: Brilla trademarked the name cell and Tani and they are

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Speaker 2: selling it under that name today. And the shape became

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Speaker 2: so popular that other companies wanted to get in on

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Speaker 2: this game, but they actually couldn't use Gorilla's trademark, so

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Speaker 2: they called it Kava tapi, which comes from the Italian

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Speaker 2: word for corkscrew. But actually, here's a little bon this

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Speaker 2: fact for you. The most popular pasta shape in the

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Speaker 2: United States is something much more straightforward than a corkscrew. It's,

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Speaker 2: of course, spaghetti, which can be translated as little strings.

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Speaker 1: Well, first of all, I want to say how amazing

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Speaker 1: it is. The Brilla tried to make a straight pasta

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Speaker 1: and it ended up permed total.

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Speaker 2: Perm must have been a humid that day.

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Speaker 1: But I also love the idea that spaghetti translates as

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Speaker 1: little strings. Does that mean that like a single piece

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Speaker 1: of spaghetti is actually a spaghetto?

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Speaker 2: That is absolutely what it means. So now you can

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Speaker 2: go to Italy and order a single noodle, just like

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Speaker 2: all the locals do there.

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Speaker 1: I don't think anyone can stop at just one foodle

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Speaker 1: But in addition to being delicious, all this pasta is

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Speaker 1: packed with history, which is the best flavor of all.

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Speaker 1: So today on the show, we've gotten nine fact about

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Speaker 1: Italian pasta. So grab your fourth and that's not even an.

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Speaker 2: Hey, their podcast listener is welcome to part time Genius.

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Speaker 2: I'm Will Pearson Ennis Always. I'm here with my good

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Speaker 2: friend Mangush hot ticket here and over there in the

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Speaker 2: booth dressed up. It took me a minute, but he's

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Speaker 2: dressed up like a Pizza Hut restaurant with a red

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Speaker 2: roof hat. It's really it's impressive. Actually, it's our pal

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Speaker 2: and producer Dylan Fagan, always surprising us.

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Speaker 1: I think that's from the Pizza Hut stunt where they

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Speaker 1: claimed they were changing their name to Pasta Hut.

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Speaker 2: Do you remember I actually actually don't. But is that

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Speaker 2: a real thing?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? It was an April Fool's joke and they talked

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Speaker 1: about changing all their names, and people were outraged or excited,

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Speaker 1: depending on how much they love pasta. But I love

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Speaker 1: that Dylan picked up on it.

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Speaker 2: That's pretty amazing.

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Speaker 1: So will are you a big pasta eater?

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Speaker 2: I love pasta so so so much, how about you?

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Speaker 1: So much that every time I go for a business lunch,

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Speaker 1: I tell myself I'm gonna order the salad, and then

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Speaker 1: I just end up with like a bowl of bread.

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Speaker 2: It's too hard not to have.

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Speaker 1: No willpower for the stuff. But here is my first fact.

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Speaker 1: So I want to address a question I know people

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Speaker 1: would be asking, which is what is the difference between

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Speaker 1: pasta and noodles. Now I've heard some folks say that

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Speaker 1: pasta is Italian and noodles are from other cuisines, like

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Speaker 1: Chinese rice noodles or Korean sweet potato noodles. But for

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Speaker 1: the purposes of this episode, we are going with the

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Speaker 1: Oxford English Dictionaries definition, and the OED defines a noodle

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Speaker 1: as quote a string or ribbon like piece of pasta

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Speaker 1: or similar flour paste, sometimes containing egg, typically cooked in

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Speaker 1: liquid and served either in a soup or as an

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Speaker 1: accompaniment to another dish.

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Speaker 2: So noodles can be a type of pasta, but they

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Speaker 2: aren't always.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So the oed goes on to define pasta as quote,

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Speaker 1: especially an Italian cookery thin strands, sheets, or other shapes

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Speaker 1: of dome made from Durham wheat and water, sometimes enriched

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Speaker 1: with egg, usually sold dried and cooked in boiling water.

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Speaker 2: All right, So by this definition, spaghetti is a type

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Speaker 2: of noodle and a type of pasta. And something like

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Speaker 2: pusilli obviously is a pasta, but not a noodle, is

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Speaker 2: that right?

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Speaker 1: That's right? And rice noodles are noodles, but they're not

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Speaker 1: pasta because they're not Italian and they're also not made

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Speaker 1: from this particular type of wheat.

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Speaker 2: Got it understood?

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Speaker 1: So we might get some emails about this, but that's

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Speaker 1: where we stand. And speaking of strong opinions, we ask

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Speaker 1: people to tell us about their favorite pasta shapes. And

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Speaker 1: this is so much fun. A lot of folks talked

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Speaker 1: about sauce grabability as their number one factor in determining this.

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Speaker 1: Our friend Doug Mack, who writes the Great Snackstack Newsletter

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Speaker 1: which everyone should subscribe to said he loves fettuccini because

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Speaker 1: you can wrap it around a fork, but unlike spaghetti,

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Speaker 1: it's flat, so sauce sticks to it better. Over on

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Speaker 1: Blue Sky, someone with the user named gravel Influencer, which

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Speaker 1: I also really love, describes themselves as a hardcore fan

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Speaker 1: of Jammelli. Again for sauce reasons. Stacey chose Campanelle, and

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Speaker 1: I have to admit I'd never heard of that one.

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Speaker 1: It is a cone with ruffled edge and the name

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Speaker 1: means little bells, but it's also known as trumpetti or

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Speaker 1: trump bits and I actually have a picture of this.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing. You can see how sauce would really get

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Speaker 1: right down there in the horn part. Man, I want

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Speaker 1: to eat that, I know I want. I actually want

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Speaker 1: like a pasta Biles Davis, steady kind. Another one I

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Speaker 1: had to look up was Strozza Preete, which actually was

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Speaker 1: mentioned by a few folks on Blue Sky. Strotza prete

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Speaker 1: means priest strangler.

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Speaker 2: Priest strangler, what? Why does it mean? That?

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Speaker 1: It is a long hand rolled tube shape kind of

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Speaker 1: like cavatelli. Apparently the name reflects local opinions about greedy

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Speaker 1: priest from a time when the Catholic Church owned most

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Speaker 1: of the land and charge farmers high rent. There's also

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Speaker 1: the user ham Hawk, who shouted out cascatelli, which of

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Speaker 1: course is the curved ruffled shape invented by Dan Pashman

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Speaker 1: on his pcast. And I love this response from Faisal,

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Speaker 1: who said there is no best pasta shape. They're all

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Speaker 1: beautiful and it depends on the sauce. And although we

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Speaker 1: didn't ask about this, a few people did tell us

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Speaker 1: about their least favorite pasta shape. A listener named Oriole

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Speaker 1: wrote to say that spaghetti is just too thick, angel

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Speaker 1: hair and vermicelli are better, and over on Blue Sky,

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Speaker 1: user l nk Joe said the worst shape is obviously

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Speaker 1: rakeete or rackets, and he shared a photo and they

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Speaker 1: literally look like tennis rackets. Yeah, so even as a

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Speaker 1: tennis fan, it feels like more like a gimmick than

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Speaker 1: a proper delivery vehicle for all the red sauce I want,

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Speaker 1: so I agree with them.

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Speaker 2: I'm looking at this now it actually reminds me. I

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Speaker 2: don't know, I haven't thought about this in a while,

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Speaker 2: but like all the different shapes in the I probably

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Speaker 2: shouldn't be admitting this, but I ate a ton of

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Speaker 2: Chef Boyarty as a kid Mango. You know, all the

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Speaker 2: parents at were pull out those microwave Chef Boyardy all

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Speaker 2: sorts of fun, crazy shapes. I don't think I remember

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Speaker 2: like a sports win, but this feel like it would

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Speaker 2: fit right in. Do you have a favorite shape of pasta?

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Speaker 1: I mean, my shapes are so boring. I really love

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Speaker 1: taglia and buccatini because they are just from times in

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Speaker 1: my life when they were comfort food, you know, like

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Speaker 1: when we started Metal Flass, I was working at this

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Speaker 1: Italian restaurant in Durham called Tusca, and the chefs used

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Speaker 1: to make me this incredible Spanish tagle itally and it

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Speaker 1: was just really wonderful. And so I think about that

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Speaker 1: a lot.

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Speaker 2: All right, mego, since you cleared up the noodles versus

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Speaker 2: pasta controversy, I'm going to open up another can of

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Speaker 2: worms here, which sounds like an avant garden noodle dish,

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Speaker 2: But I'm going to tackle the question of where noodles

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Speaker 2: originated and how they came to be associated with Italian cuisine.

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Speaker 2: So for a long time, there was this myth that

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Speaker 2: persisted that Marco Polo brought noodles from China to Italy.

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Speaker 2: This was back during the thirteenth century. Now, this story

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Speaker 2: spread after it was published in nineteen twenty nine in

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Speaker 2: the Macaroni Journal, the United States official trade journal for

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Speaker 2: pasta manufacture. I can't believe, after all our years of

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Speaker 2: magazine publishing, we'd never heard of the Macaroni Journal.

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Speaker 1: I know, I both want to see a copy of

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Speaker 1: the Macaroni Journal, and I also can't believe that the

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Speaker 1: distinguished Macaroni Journal made an error.

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Speaker 2: I guess they didn't have a strong fact checking team.

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Speaker 2: But weirdly, the Marco Polo story is pretty easy to disprove.

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Speaker 2: Decades before Marco Polo embarked on his journey, Muslim geographer

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Speaker 2: Ali Dresi wrote about pasta being made in Sicily. Also,

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Speaker 2: noodles and pasta have been eaten for thousands of years,

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Speaker 2: so it's impossible to say for certain who invented them.

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Speaker 2: They hold an important place in cuisines across Europe, Asia

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Speaker 2: and North Africa. However, the oldest known direct evidence of

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Speaker 2: noodles does come from northwest China, where in two thousand

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Speaker 2: and five archaeologists found a four thousand year old bowl

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Speaker 2: of noodles. They were made of millet and had been

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Speaker 2: miraculously preserved in a sealed bowl. How cool is that.

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Speaker 1: I love that they found this like ancient tupperware with

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Speaker 1: like lunch leftovers in it. But tell me, if all

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Speaker 1: these people are eating pasta noodles, how did it become

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Speaker 1: Italy signature dish?

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Speaker 2: Well, Southern Italy grows a lot of Durham wheat, this

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Speaker 2: high protein wheat that makes dough that's easy to shape,

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Speaker 2: and pasta with a nice chewy bite to it. So

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Speaker 2: by the Middle Ages, pasta was an important part of

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Speaker 2: Italian cuisine, and Sicily was one of the world's largest

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Speaker 2: producers of dried pasta, But it was really a delicacy

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Speaker 2: for wealthy people. It was served at things like banquets

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Speaker 2: and festive meals. This changed by the seventeenth century, when

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Speaker 2: machines like the dough press made pasta easier to produce,

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Speaker 2: so at that point pasta became food for more common people,

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Speaker 2: especially since it was cheaper than meat.

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Speaker 1: I love watching how food filters down right, like peanut

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Speaker 1: butter was fancy and served at these elegant cafes and

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Speaker 1: things like that, And now everyone survives on peanut butter.

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Speaker 1: It's for the masses. But you know, pasta might be

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Speaker 1: easy to make, but it doesn't grow on trees. And

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Speaker 1: yet in nineteen fifty the BBC convinced a whole lot

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Speaker 1: of people that it does. So on April first of

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Speaker 1: that year, the TV channel aired their flagship news program Panorama.

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Speaker 1: But this broadcast was pretty unusual. It showed a family

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Speaker 1: in Switzerland doing their March spaghetti harvest where they were

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Speaker 1: pulling these strands of spaghetti from trees and according to

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Speaker 1: the voiceover of reporter Richard Dimbleby, this was a great

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Speaker 1: year for Swiss spaghetti harvesters thanks to a mild winter

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Speaker 1: and the disappearance of the spaghetti weavil. Wow, I think

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Speaker 1: it's just so funny. Eight million people watched this phony

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Speaker 1: broadcast and it said to be one of the first

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Speaker 1: times TV was used to play in April Fool's Day prank.

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Speaker 2: That is wild, but really, like, did anybody actually believe

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Speaker 2: this was real?

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Speaker 1: So many people, like hundreds of people called the BBC

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Speaker 1: to ask if they could buy a spaghetti tree, which

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Speaker 1: you know sounds ludicrous, But Richard Dimblebee was one of

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Speaker 1: the UK's most prominent reporters, so having his voice on

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Speaker 1: the broadcast gave it this real credibility. And the show's producer,

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Speaker 1: David Wheeler put it this way. Dimblebee had quote enough

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Speaker 1: gravitas to float an aircraft carrier.

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Speaker 2: So it's kind of like having Walter Cronk tighten on

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Speaker 2: your prank exactly.

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Speaker 1: And people also weren't eating a lot of spaghetti in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties in Britain. When they did, it often

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Speaker 1: came in a can, so they didn't spend much time

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Speaker 1: thinking about where it came from. Plus the broadcast looked

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Speaker 1: really incredible. The BBC went all out. They sent a

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Speaker 1: cameraman to Switzerland. He got great shots of like fake

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Speaker 1: spaghetti trees and people gathering the crop to put in

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Speaker 1: their wicker baskets. It's really amazing. But not everyone found

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Speaker 1: the hoax funny. David Wheeler actually explained that some people

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Speaker 1: were embarrassed when they believed it, and their friends and

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Speaker 1: families made fun of them. Other viewers, of course, thought

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Speaker 1: it was hilarious either way. It has since become one

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Speaker 1: of the most iconic April Fools pranks ever.

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Speaker 2: I love it all right, Well, we have to take

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Speaker 2: a quick break but when we come back, here's what

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Speaker 2: we've got in store. We've got his prison escape, we've

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Speaker 2: got the world's rarest noodle, and Italy's pasta purity law,

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Speaker 2: so don't go anywhere.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're counting down

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Speaker 1: nine facts about Italian pasta. But we do have some

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Speaker 1: exciting non pasta related news, which is that we have

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Speaker 1: a limited quality of official numbered Part Time Genius membership

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Speaker 1: cards and we are going to send one to you

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Speaker 1: for free if you send us your name, mailing address

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Speaker 1: and one fun fact. The fun fact is important. You

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Speaker 1: can send us a DM on Instagram or blue Sky.

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Speaker 1: You can email High Geniuses at gmail dot com. That's

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Speaker 1: Hi Geniuses at gmail dot com. Or you can leave

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Speaker 1: us a message at three oh two four oh five

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Speaker 1: five nine two five, and we will probably share your

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Speaker 1: fact on an upcoming episode, but we will not share

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Speaker 1: your contact infus. So that is a promise we can

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Speaker 1: make to our listeners and it's just between us and

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Speaker 1: the post office.

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Speaker 2: All right, Well, that's pretty exciting stuff. And actually what

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Speaker 2: do these membership cards do?

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Speaker 1: Well, First of all, they show you a member. They

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Speaker 1: also look cool in your wallet, on your bulletin board

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Speaker 1: or in a frame over your couch.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the options are so many options, and all

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Speaker 2: that for zero dollars. I mean it's a real bargain,

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Speaker 2: all right, Mega. Now that the self promotion is over,

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Speaker 2: I think it's time to get back to.

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Speaker 1: The PASTA great, what do you have, Froze next?

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Speaker 2: I've got one word. Casanova said, you know much about

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Speaker 2: this guy?

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Speaker 1: I just know you know this modern meaning as kind

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Speaker 1: of a ladies man.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think that's true of many people. And that's

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Speaker 2: a shame, because before Jacomo Casanova got reduced to his

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Speaker 2: dating life, he was really interesting. He was born in

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Speaker 2: Italy in seventeen twenty five, went on to have these

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Speaker 2: crazy adventures. He traveled all over Europe, worked for Frederick

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Speaker 2: the Second, was a spy, introduced the lottery to Paris,

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Speaker 2: and created a notable translation of the Iliad. All along

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Speaker 2: the way he hobnobbed with Voltaire, Catherine the Great, Benjamin Franklin.

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Speaker 2: I mean, this is kind of a wild background. He's

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Speaker 2: often described as an adventurer, which is a descriptor we

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Speaker 2: just don't see enough in modern times. But I should

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Speaker 2: copy out that most of what we know about Casanova

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Speaker 2: comes from his own writing, and so experts say some

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Speaker 2: of it might be just a tad embellished.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like he genuinely had this impressive life.

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Speaker 1: It's weird that he was like gilding his stories.

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Speaker 2: The point is this next anecdote comes from Casanova, so

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Speaker 2: take it with a grain of salt. But here is

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Speaker 2: what he tells us. It was seventeen fifty five, he

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Speaker 2: was thirty years old, and Casanova was sentenced to five

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Speaker 2: years in a Venetian prison for being a con man,

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Speaker 2: slash astrologer, slash gambler, slash a bunch of other disreputable

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Speaker 2: stuff in the eighteenth century worldview. So a lot going

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Speaker 2: on here. But luckily, in prison he has access to

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Speaker 2: a sharpened iron bar, which he then uses to start

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Speaker 2: chipping a hole in the wall of his cell you know,

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Speaker 2: Shawshank redemption style and everything. But as he's about to finish,

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Speaker 2: he gets moved to another cell. So now in order

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Speaker 2: to make his escape, he has to bring an accomplice,

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Speaker 2: a disgraced friar who's willing to keep working on the

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Speaker 2: hole in the wall. But Casanova has to get him

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Speaker 2: the iron bar somehow. So first he tries hiding it

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Speaker 2: in a Bible, but the book doesn't quite cover the

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Speaker 2: ends of it. So he fixes up this massive plate

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Speaker 2: of macaroni, parmesan, cheese, and butter to put on top

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Speaker 2: of the bible, and he hands the whole thing to

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Speaker 2: a guard to deliver to his friend. Now, the guard

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Speaker 2: is so focused on trying to keep the pasta from

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Speaker 2: spilling that he doesn't notice what's going on under the plate.

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Speaker 2: I have no idea how this would go unnoticed.

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Speaker 1: I know, instead of just asking for a bigger Bible,

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Speaker 1: right right exactly. I also love that, like inmates in

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Speaker 1: Italian prisons are just making plates of pasta whatever they want.

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Speaker 2: As soon as I saw that, it was like, so,

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Speaker 2: how did he have access to all this stuff? I mean,

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Speaker 2: if they didn't good solos, they might have been able

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Speaker 2: to do it in the old days too. But you know,

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Speaker 2: like I said, we don't have the most reliable sourcing

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Speaker 2: for this. And whether or not the pasta story is true,

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Speaker 2: it is true that Casanova and his friar were the

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Speaker 2: only people ever known to escape that prison.

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Speaker 1: How ridiculous would you feel if you're the guard who

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Speaker 1: got fooled by the old plate of macaroni truck. Yeah

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Speaker 1: under the macaroni. Well. Another important eighteenth century figure in

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Speaker 1: the world of pasta is Francesco Leonardi, who gets credit

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Speaker 1: as being the first person to combine pasta with tomato sauce.

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Speaker 1: Obviously genius, and this comes from his cookbook Lapicchio moden

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Speaker 1: or No. The recipe is called macaroni in the style

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Speaker 1: of Naples, and in the first edition of the book,

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Speaker 1: published in seventeen ninety, the recipe reads quote, cook macaroni

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Speaker 1: with water and salt, and when it's three quarters done,

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Speaker 1: grain and mix it in an earthenware terine with grated parmesan,

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Speaker 1: crushed pepper, and a sauce of veal or other beef

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Speaker 1: or a good broth from a stew, either plain or

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Speaker 1: with cloves strained through a sieve.

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Speaker 2: Now centuries later, that still sounds delicious, but he doesn't

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Speaker 2: mention tomatoes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so history was actually made with the second edition,

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Speaker 1: which came out eighteen years later, and in that version

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Speaker 1: of the recipe, after the cloths and before the straining,

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Speaker 1: Leonardo added the groundbreaking phrase made with tomato sauce, So

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Speaker 1: that note changed pasta forever.

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Speaker 2: We all owe him a great dead Now, as long

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Speaker 2: as we're talking about noteworthy recipes, let me tell you

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Speaker 2: about the rarest most challenging pasta recipe in the world.

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Speaker 2: It's called Threads of God.

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Speaker 1: I feel like they plagiarized that name from my fashion

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Speaker 1: label that I'm starting, but I love how intimidating it sounds.

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Speaker 2: Well, it is intimidating. So the dish comes from the

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Speaker 2: village of Lula in Sardinia, where it's known as sufielin Deu. Now,

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Speaker 2: for three hundred years, only women in that region knew

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Speaker 2: how to make this pasta. The recipe was passed down

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Speaker 2: from mother to for centuries. As far as how it's made,

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Speaker 2: it starts with semolina flour made from local Durham wheat,

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Speaker 2: and they combine that with salt and water. Then they stretch, fold,

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Speaker 2: and loop the dough until it becomes two hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty six individual threads that are extremely delicate, even thinner

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Speaker 2: than angel hair. Now, after this time consuming process, the

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Speaker 2: threads get layered to form a sort of a like

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Speaker 2: a woven sheet. Now, then the sheets get dried in

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Speaker 2: the sun, smashed up, cooked in mutton broth, and served

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Speaker 2: with cheese.

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Speaker 1: So I get where the threads come from. But what

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Speaker 1: is the religious significance.

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Speaker 2: Well, traditionally those noodles are only made for the Feast

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Speaker 2: of San Francesco. The dish was served to Christians who

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Speaker 2: made the pilgrimage to Lula for these celebrations. So it's

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Speaker 2: a special occasion meal, which makes sense given how difficult

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Speaker 2: it is to make. Now, I'm sure you're wondering, how

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Speaker 2: can I try this dish? But the bad news is

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Speaker 2: gorilla engineers once tried to build a machine that would

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Speaker 2: produce the noodles commercially, and it was a total failure.

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Speaker 2: Remember back to when they try to just make a

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Speaker 2: straight pasta ended up curly. That was always a way

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Speaker 2: too confusing. So the good news is that the women

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Speaker 2: who know how to make the threads of God have

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Speaker 2: begun sharing their recipe so that it doesn't die out.

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Speaker 2: There's even a restaurant in West Hollywood called Stella that

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Speaker 2: actually serves it.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, we need to make a trip. That's right

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Speaker 1: near the Daily Zeikai studio. That's right, okay. So I

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Speaker 1: am glad you mentioned Semlina flower because my next fact

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Speaker 1: is all about how Italy cracked down on pasta ingredients.

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Speaker 1: So as ladies in Lula know Semolina flower is ground

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Speaker 1: from Durham wheat, and that ends up being the gold

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Speaker 1: standard for pasta. It's this coarse flower that's considered hard

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Speaker 1: because of its high protein content. But the truth is

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Speaker 1: you can make pasta from other types of flour, and

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Speaker 1: that's why in nineteen sixty seven, Italy passeda pasta purity

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Speaker 1: law that required all dried pasta sold in Italy to

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Speaker 1: be made with Durham wheat.

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Speaker 2: So it was literally against the law to sell any

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Speaker 2: other kind.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and this actually lasted until the late nineteen eighties

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Speaker 1: when this German pasta manufacturer named three Glocan got hit

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Speaker 1: with a fine for selling pasta. Their pasta contained a

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Speaker 1: mixture of Durham wheat and a common wheat, and they

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Speaker 1: were selling it in Italian stores. Now three Glocan took

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Speaker 1: the Italian government to court in what became known as

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Speaker 1: the Pasta Wars, and in nineteen eighty eight, the European

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Speaker 1: Economic Community's Court of Justice sided with three Glocken. They

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Speaker 1: ruled that the pasta purity law couldn't ban foreign pasta imports,

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Speaker 1: though it could impose Durham wheat requirements on Italian pasta makers.

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Speaker 1: So in twenty twenty one, Italy doubled down with the

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Speaker 1: Italian Presidential Decree number one hundred and eighty seven, which

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Speaker 1: affirms that Italian made drive pasta must be made with

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Speaker 1: Durham wheat semolina. That's actually been a boon for Italy's

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Speaker 1: wheat growers, because today Italian pasta contains about seventy percent

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Speaker 1: domestic Durham wheat and only thirty percent imported.

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Speaker 2: I'll keep that in mind if I ever decided to

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Speaker 2: open a pasta business in Italy, of course. But we've

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Speaker 2: got one last fact, and it involves food mascots, so

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Speaker 2: you know, like the Jolly Green Giant, the kool Aid

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Speaker 2: Man and mister Peen out of course, none of whom, unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: are real people. But there's one food mascot who was

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Speaker 2: a real person. Mentioned him earlier, Chef Boyrd. So his

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Speaker 2: real name was Ettore Boyardi. His last name is spelled Boiardi,

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Speaker 2: and you'll notice the emphasis on the middle syllable, not

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Speaker 2: the last. So Ettore, who went by the name Hector,

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Speaker 2: was actually born in northwest Italy in eighteen ninety seven.

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Speaker 2: By age eleven, he already had a job working at

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Speaker 2: a hotel, and after immigrating to the US at age sixteen,

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Speaker 2: he got a job at the Plaza hotel in New York.

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00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:48,239
Speaker 2: Within a year, he was the head chef there. I mean,

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00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:50,679
Speaker 2: this is sixteen years old or seventeen, I guess by

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00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,040
Speaker 2: the time he had this Jesob It's crazy. So he

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00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:57,160
Speaker 2: started incorporating Italian dishes into the menu, which was pretty

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00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:00,199
Speaker 2: unusual during this time when French food was considered the

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00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:03,639
Speaker 2: epitome of gourmet cuisine. Because his career took off, Hector

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00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,160
Speaker 2: even catered President Woodrow Wilson's second wedding when he got

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00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:09,640
Speaker 2: married to Edith Glt in nineteen fifteen.

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00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,280
Speaker 1: That feels like such an incredible success story. So how

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00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:16,520
Speaker 1: did Chef Boyardi become Chef Boyardi?

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00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,280
Speaker 2: Hector moved to Cleveland and opened a restaurant with his wife, Helen.

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Speaker 2: It was called Il Giardino di Italia or The Garden

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00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 2: of Italy, and it was a hit. So their signature

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00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,639
Speaker 2: dish was spaghetti with sauce and cheese, which customers loved

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00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 2: so much that the restaurant started offering take home kits

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00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,240
Speaker 2: so people could cook it themselves at any time. Now

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00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,439
Speaker 2: the popularity of their takeout business led Hector, Helen, and

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00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:44,399
Speaker 2: Hector's brothers to launch the Chef Boyardy Food Company in

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00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:47,959
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty eight. Now, to make things simpler for American customers,

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00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:50,200
Speaker 2: they changed the spelling of their name to the one

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00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:52,720
Speaker 2: that we know today. But when the family wanted to

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00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,920
Speaker 2: open a factory for their ready made Italian meals, they

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00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:58,440
Speaker 2: had a little bit of a dilemma. So Italian food

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00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 2: still wasn't very common in the US at the time,

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00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:04,400
Speaker 2: so they had to pick a strategic location in order

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00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:08,400
Speaker 2: to access the right ingredients. They landed on Milton, Pennsylvania

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00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,840
Speaker 2: because there was a nearby tomato supplier, so they grew

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00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 2: their own mushrooms inside the factory and in the nineteen thirties,

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00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:20,440
Speaker 2: shep Boyarty was the country's largest importer of Italian parmesan cheese.

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00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:23,719
Speaker 2: So the brand grows and it grows, and in nineteen

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00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:27,880
Speaker 2: forty two, after the US military commission Boyarty for army rations,

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00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:31,639
Speaker 2: the Milton factory ran twenty four hours a day just

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Speaker 2: to meet demand. At its peak, the factory turned out

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00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:39,480
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty thousand cans of Shepeoyardy every single day.

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00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 2: That would have made thirteen year old Will's mouth water

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00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:43,160
Speaker 2: so much.

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00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:43,480
Speaker 1: Now.

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00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:47,240
Speaker 2: After the war, the family sold the company to American

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00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 2: Home Foods, but Hector continued to work for them as

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00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,960
Speaker 2: a consultant all the way until nineteen seventy eight. He

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00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 2: died a millionaire in nineteen eighty five. And you know,

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00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:57,960
Speaker 2: not bad for an immigrant kid who just wanted to

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00:24:57,960 --> 00:24:58,879
Speaker 2: share his spaghetti.

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Speaker 1: Oh, I love it. You know, I did not eat

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00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:04,159
Speaker 1: a lot of chefbardy as a kid, but I certainly

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00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,080
Speaker 1: lot the commercials. And I loved that this brought you

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00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 1: back to him before that. I'm going to give you

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00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 1: the trophy for today.

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Speaker 2: You know, I just wish I could share it with Hector.

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Speaker 2: He really did all the work. I'm just talking about it.

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Speaker 1: Well, Hem and Dylan. So that does it for us today.

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Speaker 1: If you enjoyed what you heard, be sure to subscribe,

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00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:26,480
Speaker 1: leave us a nice rating, and share the show with

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00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: a friend, maybe even over a plate of pasta. Today's

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00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 1: episode was researched and written by our goodpal Meredith Danko,

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00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,560
Speaker 1: whose favorite pasta shape is brotini. We will be back

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Speaker 1: next week with another new episode, and in the meantime,

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Speaker 1: from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary and myself. Thank you so.

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Speaker 2: Much for listening.

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Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: At His host by my good pal Will Pearson, who

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Speaker 1: I've known for almost three decades now. That is insane

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00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:11,080
Speaker 1: to me. I'm the Utaco host, Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our

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00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,920
Speaker 1: producer is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to fix that in post. Our writer is

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Speaker 1: Gabe Lucier, who I've also known for like a decade

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00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 1: at this point, maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth.

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00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 1: He is always dressed up, always cheering us on, and

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00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:30,840
Speaker 1: always ready to hit record and then mix the show

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Speaker 1: after he does a great job. I also want to

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Speaker 1: shout out the executive producers from iHeart my good pals

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00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 1: Katrina and Norvel and Ali Perry. We have social media

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00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:43,919
Speaker 1: support from Calypso Rallis. If you like our videos, that

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00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:48,840
Speaker 1: is all Calypso's handiwork for more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or tune in wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. That's it from us

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Speaker 1: here at part Time genius, Thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: listening