Rao's - Frozen Pizza

The roots of Rao's trace back to 1896, when Italian immigrant Charles Rao opened a small neighborhood restaurant in East Harlem, New York City. The restaurant started as a modest Italian eatery serving pasta, meatballs, and traditional Southern Italian dishes to local residents and workers in the neighborhood. Over time, Rao’s developed a reputation for its simple, carefully prepared recipes and tight-knit dining room atmosphere. Unlike most restaurants, Rao’s became famous for being nearly impossible to get into. With only a handful of tables and a long-standing tradition of regular patrons holding the seats, the restaurant developed an almost legendary status in New York dining culture. Its tomato sauce and meatball recipes became especially well known among diners who were lucky enough to secure a reservation. In the early 1990s, the Rao family began expanding beyond the restaurant. They started packaging their tomato sauce so fans could recreate the restaurant’s flavors at home. That decision turned out to be transformative. Rao’s jarred sauces quickly gained popularity in grocery stores and eventually became one of the most recognizable premium pasta sauce brands in the United States. As the grocery brand grew, the Rao’s name expanded into additional Italian-style foods, including frozen meals and eventually frozen pizza. The pizzas were developed to reflect the same culinary identity associated with the restaurant: straightforward Italian recipes, familiar ingredients, and sauces inspired by Rao’s original kitchen. Today the brand operates within a much larger food company after being acquired by Campbell Soup Company in 2023 through its purchase of Sovos Brands. Despite the corporate ownership, the frozen pizzas remain closely tied to the restaurant’s legacy. They draw heavily from the sauces and flavor profiles that helped transform a small East Harlem restaurant into a nationally recognized Italian food brand.