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| Vincent DeDomenico, Rice-A-Roni co-inventor, dies at 92 |
| 2007-10-22 |
| Vincent DeDomenico, co-inventor of Rice-A-Roni, whose catchy TV jingle paid homage to San Francisco and made the pasta dish known to every baby boomer, has died. He was 92. DeDomenico died Thursday with his wife, Mildred, by his side; he had kept working until the day before his death, his family said. Along with his brothers, DeDomenico, the son of Italian immigrants, created the packaged side dish of rice and pasta for their San Francisco-based family business. "The San Francisco treat" became known in the 1960s through TV commercials that featured the city's cable cars. In the 1930s he and his brothers were running their parents' pasta business in San Francisco's Mission District. Over the years, they experimented with recipes combining long-grain white rice, broken pieces of vermicelli and chicken broth. The dishes were inspired by a recipe one of their wives had originally gotten from a landlady. "It was a struggle," DeDomenico told the San Francisco Chronicle last year. "Times were hard and I knew if we were going to make any money, we were going to have to come up with something else." Rice-A-Roni, as it came to be called, became a national brand in the 1960s. The brothers sold the Golden Grain Macaroni Co. to Quaker Oats in 1986 for $275 million. By then the company also included such products as Ghirardelli Chocolate. In later years, DeDomenico bought 21 miles of railroad track in Napa Valley and several vintage passenger cars, creating a tourist attraction called the Napa Valley Wine Train. "He was a dreamer," said Mildred DeDomenico, 87. "He always had all these plans. He'd write them down on pieces of paper. He was a man who could never retire." Born in San Francisco in 1915, one of six children, DeDomenico went to work for his father's pasta company as a salesman while taking night business classes at Golden Gate College. His daughter, Marla Bleecher, said while her father loved his work, he relished traveling abroad with his family and spending time at his Sacramento Valley cattle ranch. "We would always laugh because he would ride around the ranch in his Cadillac," Bleecher said. "He drove that car like it was a Jeep. You wouldn't want to be in the car with him." Along with his wife, Mildred, DeDomenico is survived by his four children, Michael DeDomenico, Vicki McManus, Marla Bleecher and Vincent DeDomenico Jr., and seven grandchildren. A public memorial has been scheduled for Oct. 25 at the Napa Valley Wine Train station. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #5 "We would always laugh because he would ride around the ranch in his Cadillac," Bleecher said. "He drove that car like it was a Jeep. You wouldn't want to be in the car with him." Sounds like someone who was fun to be with. His preservation of Southern Pacific's old Northern Railway Line alone will expiate any sins he ever may have committed. Now, if only someone could rehabilitate the entire The Pacific Railway & Navigation Co. rail-line that runs up the Oregon coast. The tourist trade would be worth billions. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-10-22 21:41 |
| #4 One of their best jingles, sung to the triumphant march from Aida: Seventeen elephants loaded with Golden Grain - Simply boil and drain, Golden Grain, Golden Grain, Who could abstain? Heard it years and years ago & it still sticks in the mind. |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-10-22 21:31 |
| #3 he sounds like a helluva guy and the kind of entrepreneur we need |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-10-22 21:29 |
| #2 "He was a dreamer," said Mildred DeDomenico, 87. "He always had all these plans. He'd write them down on pieces of paper. He was a man who could never retire." My kind of guy. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2007-10-22 20:53 |
| #1 Awwwww, one of my faaavorite "anytime, anywhere" products and a US marketing icon - RIP. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-10-22 20:39 |