453327 Tue Oct 23 10:14:05 -0700 2007 0 33 Food Media and News 0 3059492 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/business/23dedomenico-backf-obt-34-07.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin Here is an excerpt: Vincent DeDomenico, an Inventor of Rice-A-Roni, Dies at 92 By SAUL HANSELL Vincent M. DeDomenico Sr., who with his brothers invented Rice-A-Roni, one of the classic kitchen helpers of the 1960s, died Thursday at his home in Napa, Calif. He was 92. His death was confirmed by his daughter Marla Bleecher. The DeDomenicos invented their signature product in 1958 after watching a sister-in-law mix a can of Swanson’s chicken broth with rice and vermicelli, according to an account in “Napa: The Story of an American Eden,” by James Conaway (Mariner Books, 2002). They concocted a version that used dried soup. Rice-A-Roni transformed the business of the Golden Grain Macaroni Company, which was started by Mr. DeDomenico’s father, Domenico. After leaving Sicily in 1890 at 19, he settled in San Francisco, initially starting a vegetable store, then opening a factory that sold pasta to Italian stores and restaurants. Tue Oct 23 10:14:05 -0700 2007 10914 PaulF