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Oh No! Uh-Oh SpaghettiO’s Creator Dies
You know, we middle class smarty pants Americans didn’t always feed the kids organic micro-greens, line-caught fishes, and gruyere and Danish butter-laced macaronis for lunch. There was a time when mothers — or better yet, latch-key kids themselves! — cranked open cans of pre-made meals and sat down (in front of the TV) to eat.
Campbell’s SpaghettiO’s were once a classic lunch. You probably ate them too, perhaps even well into college. So you’ll be at the very least wistful of news that the creator of these bloated, tomato sauce soaked pasta rings has died.
Donald E. Goerke was 83.
Goerke created more than 100 products for the Campbell company. He was known in the 60s as the Daddy-O of SpaghettiOs (so corny!) for coming up with simple-yet-genius prepared food product. According to his LA Times obituary, there was a yearlong debate at the company over the shape of the pasta.
Goerke became impatient and finally put his foot down: “Enough already! We’re gonna do something that’s simple,” he told the Seattle Times in 1990.
Goerke credited the product’s success with the fact that it was spoonable for kids and easy for moms. But timing was also critical: when SpaghettiOs were introduced, the Baby Boom was at its peak. There were more than 20 million kids in the U.S. under the age of 5.
Another product with Goerke’s imprint: Chunky Soup.
If he had anything to do with Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli, the guy should be a legend. Taste of love, people, taste of love.
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Photo: LA Times
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4 Comments
[...] we squad rape which person.” • Donald E. Goerke, the SpaghettiOs author once well known as “the Daddy-O of SpaghettiOs,” has died. • A European charge force recommends which flood doctors refuse IVF to women who drink some-more [...]
Party Crashers Slammed In Sin City • Michelle Obama Reflects On The Past Year [Leftovers] | GOSSIPGOSSIP.INFO commented on Jan 20 10 at 3:02 am[...] Creator of Famous (and Barely Edible) Childhood Treat Dies [...]
Woman Finally Gives Birth After 25 Years of IVF | Strollerderby commented on Jan 20 10 at 2:30 pm[...] food community: three food pioneers died recently – the inventor of the Quarter Pounder, the inventor of Spaghetti-O’s and the founder of Taco [...]
NYT Opposites, another local foodie, a trio late visionaries and a McMiracle. « commented on Jan 26 10 at 11:33 amcheri commented on Jan 19 10 at 4:04 pmeww. Taste of love? eww. Spaghettios have always smelled like vomit to me. Even as a kid, utterly inedible. Thank god we were too poor for convenience foods.
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