Does anybody remember those great old
TV commercials for Ragú
Spaghetti Sauce that featured the tagline “THAT's Italian!”? Like
the one where “Cousin Marco” came all the way from Italy and,
after feasting on linguine drowned in a potful of Ragú
poured over the top of the pasta in a way no Italian would ever dream
of doing, warmly proclaimed “It feels like home.” I do. But
based on the news I read earlier today, I guess we will all have to
start saying, “Sore wa Itariada.” (That's Japanese for “That's
Italian,” in case you were wondering.)
Signore
and signora Cantisano must be stirring in their graves.
Like
many things co-opted and corrupted by the American marketplace, Ragú
Spaghetti Sauce used to be the real deal once upon a time. Giovanni
and Assunta Cantisano were Italian immigrants living in Rochester,
New York. In 1937, they started making spaghetti sauce in their
basement and selling it out of the trunk of their car. This was just
a few years after Chef Ettore Boiardi, aka “Chef Boyardee,”
started sending patrons home from his restaurant in Cleveland with
little jars of his soon-to-be-eponymous sauce. Anyway, it wasn't long
before the Cantisanos set up a factory to mass produce the stuff for
a burgeoning American market. And then the corporate takeovers and
mergers began. Chesebrough-Ponds, a conjunction of the original
makers of “Vaseline Petroleum Jelly” and “Pond's Cold Cream,”
bought the brand in 1969. They were subsequently swallowed up by
Unilever, itself a conglomerate of the British soap maker “Lever
Brothers” and “Margarine Unie,” a Dutch manufacturer of
margarine. So now we have our “authentic” Italian ragù,
lovingly concocted from an old Italian family recipe,
being produced by people who make lubricants, face cream, and soap.
Oh, and margarine, which, when you think of it, is not all that far
removed from the other three chemical products. And if you have a really
sharp eye and an incredibly picky nature, you'll notice that the
diacritical mark over the “u” in the commercial sauce is an
acute accent, while the mark over the Italian word for the sauce is
a grave accent. Really. I don't know why; it just is.
Somewhere
in the middle of all that merging, Ragú became one of the
best-selling and most recognized brands of pasta sauce in America.
And the product's clever marketing campaign that began back in the
1970s indelibly established “THAT's Italian!” as a cultural icon.
And
now they have sold out to the Japanese. After an exchange of $2.15
billion, Ragú (and sister label Bertolli) now belong to Japan's
Mizkan, a major manufacturer of various forms of vinegar and other
condiments. I guess there is some consolation in the fact that the
new parent company is at least a food maker whose corporate motto is
“Bringing Flavor to Life.” The sale includes processing and
packaging facilities in Owensboro, KY and Stockton, CA. Unilever has
dumped a number of its food brands in recent months, including Skippy
Peanut Butter and Wish-Bone Salad Dressing. It also wants to slim
down and get rid of Slim Fast. The company is keeping Ben &
Jerry's, though. (You didn't really think the stuff was still made by
two guys at a gas station in Vermont, did you?) It's all part of
their efforts to “re-focus” their “food assets” and “reshape” their North American portfolio. Whatever the hell that means.
I've
always liked Ragú. It's the sauce I use when I don't make my own
sauce. Of course, I don't buy the junk with all the meats and cheeses
and vegetables and mushrooms and such already in it. I use the
“traditional” variety and add to it the fresh herbs, spices, and
other ingredients I need. From that standpoint, Ragú is okay as a
base sauce. The ingredients are fairly simple and straightforward:
tomato puree (water, tomato paste), soybean oil, salt, sugar,
dehydrated onions, extra virgin olive oil, spices, Romano cheese
(part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), natural flavor. I
just hope the new owners don't adulterate it with cheap or
unnecessary stuff to “improve” it. There are already a few
complaints among consumers that Unilever has “done something” to
the recipe affecting the flavor and/or texture. Could be. Like I
said, I never use it straight from the jar, so I can't really tell.
So,
the “traditional” “THAT'S Italian!” spaghetti sauce you grew
up on is now being made by a Japanese company. Just don't tell me if
De Cecco pasta sells out to China. I don't want to know.
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