ROUSES_JanFeb2019_Magazine

SOUP’S ON! PROGRESSO SOUP by Helen Freund

By the 1930s, the brand had earned a reputation for its high-quality toma- toes and tomato paste, and eventu- ally expanded the selection to include olive oils, anchovies, roasted peppers and a variety of other premium Italian products. It wasn’t until WorldWar II that Progresso’s business model shifted and — facing a shortage of costly European prod- ucts — the company began canning and bottling foods domestically. It was around this time that Progresso launched a line of soups, a venture aimed at keeping the factory busy during the winter months when produce was scarce and out of season. Those first soups emerged from a list of recipes handed down from the workers’ families, including minestrone, lentil and split pea soup. Over the years, the compa- ny’s soup line rapidly expanded, and the next several decades saw the creation of a hearty repertoire of favorites that still exist today. Years later, a can of New England Clam Chowder or Creamy Mushroom might feel worlds away from those first tarnished tins of tomato paste Giuseppe Uddo peddled, but it’s probably fair to say that he’d be very proud of the way things turned out.

Uddo had a stroke of fortune one evening when a fellow merchant and friend, Jacob Cusimano, approached him on Chartres Street and offered his merchandise on credit for Uddo to sell.Those first few tins of tomato paste gave the young salesman a fresh and much-needed opportunity to build his business anew. Uddo began by selling his goods — a selection of olives, cheese and tomato paste — from a horse- drawn cart in the rural neighbor- hood of Kennerville. Some of the cans were rough and blemished, so in the evenings Uddo and his wife would polish them rigorously with brick dust, then re-attach the labels before selling them to customers on his route. The budding business eventually blos- somed into a successful larger operation, expanding to include a warehouse and a small grocery store that Uddo ran in the French Quarter. As the company contin- ued to grow, the operation moved to a factory in California, which was reputed to be the first in the country to specialize in imported Italian canned foods. Sens- ing that even bigger and better opportuni- ties awaited him on the East Coast, Uddo moved the business to New York City, where the burgeoning Italian community embraced the products of their homeland.

CREAMY CHICKEN NOODLE. TOMATO BASIL. BROCCOLI CHEESE. BEEF BARLEY. Many of the most popular Progresso soups are practically household names, cold- weather staples synonymous with comfort and ease. What perhaps isn’t common knowledge is that the national soup giant has humble roots — its modest beginnings go all the way back to the early 1900s in New Orleans and an immigrant entrepre- neur with big dreams: Giuseppe Uddo. Even as a child, Uddo demonstrated a passion for the merchant’s trade, sell- ing cheeses and olives from a cart as he traveled around the villages near his home in Sicily. In 1907 Uddo and his wife, leanora Taormina, immigrated to Amer- ica. They arrived in New Orleans, part of the massive wave of Italians who left their homeland in search of better economic opportunities during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Uddo initially intended to work with his in-laws in the grocery importing business, but those plans faltered within a few years when the national credit market collapsed, and the operation eventually fell into bankruptcy, according to historian Justin A. Nystrom, whose book Creole Italian: Sicilian Immigrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture , chronicles some of Uddo’s earliest ventures in the city.

35 www. rouses .com