Package Design - April 2014 - 22

The 1959 photo of chef Terry Pirro on
his mother's lap is a hit with
consumers and has made him
something of a celebrity at product
demos."I can't tell you how many jars
I've signed," he says.

Labor of Love
Simple packaging conveys European sensibility and American practicality.
By Steve Werblow

T

here's something about a group
of friends and family gathered
around a huge bowl of pasta
that's the very picture of timelessness, joy and nourishment. For 14
years, Terry Pirro and his wife, Mary, provided the place and the pasta for their
family, friends and neighbors around idyllic Woodstock, IL, where they
established Pirro's Ristorante.
From the very start, Pirro
met his loyal customers' enthusiasm for his homemade sauces
by sending them home with
takeout cups full of lush marinara, piquant puttanesca and
rich Bolognese. Now the Pirro's
sauces are available on grocery
shelves.
Getting them there wasn't easy. In
addition to the usual challenges of product development, the recession torpe22

APRIL 2014

doed Pirro's restaurant and a cancer
diagnosis forced him into a desperate
fight. Undaunted, Pirro-surrounded by
family and friends-took six months of
aggressive treatment and bed rest to battle his cancer before presenting his labor
of love to an enthusiastic market. Today,
you can often find him doing product

demonstrations at Whole Foods markets
and local groceries, delighting as shoppers snatch up his sauces.

Confidence and certainty
The pasta sauce aisle in most supermarkets is a crowded place, loaded with
drawings of ripe tomatoes and glowing
white garlic, woodcut-style drawings of
abundant fields, and old-fashioned
depictions of chefs and Renaissance
angels. Roman-flavored serif typefaces
dominate the category, often festooned on colorful banners and
flags for a classic feel. Most of
those sauces are produced on a
massive scale, fighting for sales in a
brutal slugfest of coupons and
price cuts.
Terry Pirro took a different
approach. Each 500-gallon batch
starts with whole tomatoes in a
lengthy, expensive process of simmering to perfection, which means Pirro's
sauces are about the closest thing to
homemade you can find in a jar. At $6.00
Package Design - April 2014

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