Inventor of Rice-A-Roni Dies

The inventor of one of the most well-known and popular brand icons has died. Vincent DeDomenico, inventor of Rice-A-Roni, died on Thursday of natural causes at his home in Napa, California.

In 1958, DeDomenico created the mix of vermicelli, macaroni and flavorings while working at his parent's pasta business. It eventually became best known for its advertising slogan: "The San Francisco Treat."

With its legendary advertising campaign from the 1960s, featuring scenes of San Francisco and its cable cars, "Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat" promoted the easy-to-make dish with a catchy jingle that generations could uniformly recite.

"It's a brand that's been great for the city and is a vestige of my childhood," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle last year. "Just the sight and sound of the cable car bell evokes the old jingle."

From Reuters:

"My uncle Tom's wife got the recipe from an Armenian neighbor and served it one night for dinner," Bleecher said. "My dad had been making dried soups for the Army ... When he tasted it he said maybe we can make something like this in dry form."

"He went back to the plant and they started messing around with it, starting with the soup base they made for the Army," she said.

The DeDomenico family sold their firm, the Golden Grain Macaroni Company, to Quaker Oats in 1986. It is now owned by PepsiCo.

As of this morning, no reference to DeDomenico's passing was posted to the Rice-A-Roni website.