What happened to Franco American?

 

    What is Franco American? Well, have you ever heard of Campbells? Apparently, back in the 60's Franco American was popular for giving us pastas in their cans as well as their sauce

    

 When did this company start? Well apparently, in the 1880's by a man who immigrated to the US from France. His name was Alphonse Bilardot. He and his two sons opened a commercial kitchen making their own foods like soups, pastas and even gravy.

 The company was acquired by Campbells soup in 1915, but kept the branding name. They were kind of the Campbells wannabee. They were even trying to even make better soups than Campbells could.

   Using their homemade recipes from their native French style soups, Biardot was trying to make Campbell's like soups with a Franco American label on it. They were good at the time, but later, around the 1950's Franco American was known for something else even greater than soups. Pastas.

With Chef Boyardee becoming known to America, Franco-American wanted to get on the game and not just make soups. They started with making their own homemade sauce and pastas like spaghetti. But soon, they came up with a great invention that would make eating spaghetti easier. 

  Starting in 1965, parents wanted to have a pasta that was a little less messy for their children to eat. Soon, an invention using tomato soup and noodle rings were created to make SpaghettiO's . Everyone loved it, even me when I was little of course. Now I've grown up to eating regular spaghetti.

 Donald Gorke, who worked with Franco American, was the creator of SpaghettiO's by adding noodle rings to tomato Sauce. Trying to find out what letter shape would be the best, he settled with O because it sounded as if it would fun to say as well as it was to eat. He worked for the Campbell's soup company until he retired in the 90's and passed away in 2010. Every child and parent has been grateful to know there was a man that answered the question of how fun Spaghetti would be in another way.

   SpaghettiO's soon became different with shapes an characters like Star Wars, UFO shapes, Life with Louie, Where's Waldo and many more. Campbells who is now required Spaghettios , is still doing that today as well as well as their soups to attract kids attentions with what is new today.

    Franco American was sold to Campbell's name around the mid 2000's why? Maybe the sons of the original creator have passed away and Campbells got the right to the Franco American. Changing the name to Campbells and using their recipe, I guess to make Spaghettios, and their own Spaghetti. I haven't had Spaghettios in years. I don't really eat that stuff because it's too salty.

   The Franco American label might be gone, but the memories the company gave us stay strong. In some Campbell's Spaghettio products, you can see a very tiny Franco American logo behind the can. Even though SpaghettiO's themselves have gone through a recall and a twitter issue, people will never forget that it wasn't just Campbell's that came up with the idea. It was one man, Franco American and even children who wanted a better spaghetti.