Comments on: Rock The Vote: Favorite Fake Culinary Icons

By: Jen Montgomery

Jen Montgomery — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 04:46:52 +0000

There is a great little coffee table book called Meet Mr. Product with an array of product mascots–some well known, others less so. Many of them are food mascots.

http://blog.oup.com/2007/05/food_icon

By: Ash Huzenlaub

Ash Huzenlaub — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:00:10 +0000

Here is additional background on Uncle Ben’s:

http://huzenlaubunclebens.blogspot.com/

By: Mother Tongue Annoyances » Quintessence

Mother Tongue Annoyances » Quintessence — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:37:21 +0000

[...] Who do you think is the quintessential culinary icon that never lived? [reference] [...]

By: Brian Clayton

Brian Clayton — Wed, 16 May 2007 09:43:28 +0000

Out of these four, Aunt Jemima gets my vote.
Buuuut, Little Debbie is the queen! Even if she was based on a real person…

By: Andy Smith

Andy Smith — Mon, 14 May 2007 20:45:48 +0000

Laura and many culinary professionals don’t like Rachael Ray.

I’ve always wondered why. She makes no pretense to culinary knowledge and she doesn’t think she’s the greatest gift to the culinary world (unlike a number of other television personalities). She is perky and a good entertainer. Moreover, she has a good business sense and she’s made millions. I’d tip my chef’s hat to her, if I had one.

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 14 May 2007 19:57:35 +0000

How ’bout LEAST favorite FAKE food icon?
I vote for Rachael Ray, nobody’s more fake and talentless than the queen of over exposed.

By: Storm

Storm — Sun, 13 May 2007 16:38:50 +0000

Ahhh Aunt Jemima… just look at her. So happy in her work. So loving and full of life. She is the one who’s cooking I’d most like to try.

By: Andy Smith

Andy Smith — Sat, 12 May 2007 09:50:26 +0000

Frank Besner mentioned Chef Boyardee, also one of my childhood favorites. However, unlike Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemima, and the Quaker Oats Man, Chef Boyardee was a real person. The Italian immigrant Hector Boiardi (1897-1985) was a chef in New York’s Plaza Hotel before he moved to Cleveland, where he first canned his spaghetti (as far as I know he was the first to can spaghetti, but if anyone has information to the contrary, please let me know…).

Frank also mentioned the Kool-Aid jug face– and I like that too. For better and worse, it was converted into the smiley face that appears everywhere today, so unlike the other culinary icons, it graduated from a commercial symbol into a broader cultural icon.

By: T Bone

T Bone — Sat, 12 May 2007 02:59:54 +0000

Chef Boyardee was a real person.
He changed his name from Boiardi.
He also pioneered uniformity in the canning process.

By: toby

toby — Fri, 11 May 2007 20:15:55 +0000

Apple pie is the answer to the first question.

The Ty-D-Bol Man – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPPBnciNAqI