Obituaries of Famous Snack and Fast Food Innovators
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The Iconic "Little Debbie" logo.
Inspired by the recent demise of noodle legend Momofuku Ando I’ve put together a fond remembrance of a few other great stars in the snack and fast food firmament. Too often the shifting sands of time and the vagaries of fickle public taste wash our creative endeavors away. Let’s take a moment to honor those innovative entrepreneurs who came before us.
O.D. McKee
O.D. McKee died at the age of 90 in the early 1990’s [exact date lost]. McKee founded the McKee Bakery in Chattanooga, TN in 1934 or ’35 [date seems to be in dispute] after selling his car for collateral. McKee was always searching for “a better way” to do things and so when he made changes to his oatmeal cookie formula [making it softer] he created one of America’s most beloved snack foods. He put two of his soft cookies together with a fluffy filling in between and sold the cream pies for a nickel. It stands to reason that what started as a job selling snack cakes out of his 1928 Whippet would result in the development of “Little Debbie” snack cakes [named after his granddaughter]. Today, O.D.’s business, began in the back seat of his car, has sold billions of all 75 varieties of his snack cakes in all 50 states, Canada, and Mexico. Who among us hasn’t tasted a Little Debbie? McKee Foods Corporation is the largest private employer in the Chattanooga area with more than 5,000 workers.
For more information about the famous snack cakes, please visit www.mckeefoods.com.
Ruth and O.D. McKee
The real Little Debbie
Victor Dorman
Victor Dorman [1915-1995] was a Brooklyn native and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at New York University in the mid 1930’s. He was responsible for putting paper between slices of cheese. Dorman took over the Dorman Cheese Company, which had been founded by his father Nathan in the late 19th Century. The company was sold to the Beatrice Foods Conglomerate in 1986.
Until the late 1940’s, cheese had been sold in bulk. In the 1950’s, the U.S. Slicing Machine Company developed the interleaver, a machine that cut a slice of cheese, placed it on a conveyor belt and then, with mechanical fingers, laid down a sheet of paper or parchment. Victor Dorman was the first person to do that. With the advent of supermarkets and self-service, there was a need for packaged products with longer shelf life. Mr. Dorman’s company became known for its registered trademark slogan “The Cheese with the Paper Between the Slices”.
Mr. Dorman died of heart failure related to muscular dystrophy in Delray Beach, FL at the age of 80.
Frank Dorsa
In 1953, capitalizing on the “fad” for frozen foods, Frank Dorsa [1907-1996] took his family’s successful waffle batter and invented the process and machinery for producing frozen waffles. Overnight, homemakers everywhere went from “slaving” over hot waffle irons to popping “Eggos” out of the toaster! Mr. Dorsa’s son Frank and his wife Marilyn own the Delta Queen carwash in Los Gatos, Ca.
