Uh-Oh: A story of SpaghettiOs and forgotten history

🌈 Abstract

The article explores the history and cultural context of the snack food SpaghettiOs, as well as the story of Betty Ossola, an innovative food industry executive who helped popularize Italian-American foods in the mid-20th century.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The History and Cultural Context of SpaghettiOs

1. What was the cultural context surrounding the rise of convenience foods and packaged foods in the 1960s?

• There was a contrast between the rise of convenience foods like SpaghettiOs, which were mass-produced and high in preservatives, and the growing prominence of culinary celebrities like Julia Child who championed traditional, high-quality cuisine.
• Food industry "revolutionaries" focused on the technical aspects of food, while "purists" saw themselves as defenders of haute cuisine against the tide of TV dinners and SpaghettiOs.

2. What was the origin story and marketing strategy behind the creation of SpaghettiOs?

• SpaghettiOs were invented in 1965 by Donald Goerke, a marketing executive at Campbell's, who created the circular pasta shape to make the product more convenient and less messy to eat.
• The early TV ads heavily promoted SpaghettiOs as a technological innovation that would end the "trauma" of eating long spaghetti strands, calling it "the greatest invention since the napkin."
• Campbell's marketed SpaghettiOs as a versatile ingredient that could be used in many different recipes, though the author suggests most consumers likely just heated and ate them straight from the can.

[02] The Forgotten Story of Betty Ossola

1. Who was Betty Ossola and what were her contributions to the food industry?

• Betty Ossola was an executive at the J. Ossola Company, a food import company founded by her father, in the 1940s and 1950s.
• Under her leadership, the company developed innovative food products for the American market, including olive condite, canned minestrone soup, and the idea of selling olive oil and vinegar in paired bottles.
• Ossola also capitalized on the pop culture trend of "pasta fazool" by developing a canned pasta e fagioli product that became widely popular.

2. Why is Betty Ossola's story less well-known compared to other food industry figures of the era?

• Despite her many accomplishments and her prominence in the food industry in the 1950s, Betty Ossola's name has largely faded from history, with no Wikipedia page or major obituary.
• The author suggests this may be due to the sexist attitudes of the time, with many profiles of Ossola focusing more on her appearance and gender than her business achievements.
• In contrast, figures like Donald Goerke, the inventor of SpaghettiOs, and others like Margaret Rudkin and Lily Bollinger have maintained more lasting fame and recognition.