'Cream Of Wheat' Man Gets Grave Marker

'Cream Of Wheat' Man Gets Grave Marker

Frank L. White (born c. 1867 — February 15, 1938) was an African American chef best known as the model featured on Cream of Wheat breakfast cereal boxes. White was born in Barbados in 1867 before immigrating to the U.S. in 1875 and becoming a citizen in 1890. White lived much of his life in Leslie, Michigan, and was working as a master chef at a Chicago restaurant at the time he was photographed for the cereal box in 1900. White died on February 15, 1938 and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. In June 2007, his grave, which was previously unmarked, received a headstone.

AP

A Delayed Tribute

LESLIE, Mich. -- A man widely believed to be the model for the smiling chef on Cream of Wheat boxes finally has a grave marker bearing his name.

Frank L. White died in 1938, and until this week, his grave in Woodlawn Cemetery bore only a tiny concrete marker with no name.

The headstone of Frank L. White was shown in Leslie, Mich., on Wednesday. White died in 1938 and for the past 69 years he has been largely forgotten. Inset: The chef on the Cream of Wheat logo.
CHRISTINE ROOK
Lansing State Journal On Wednesday, a granite gravestone was placed at his burial site. It bears his name and an etching taken from the man depicted on the Cream of Wheat box.

Jesse Lasorda, a family researcher from Lansing, started the campaign to put the marker and etching on White's grave.

"Everybody deserves a headstone," Lasorda told the Lansing State Journal. He discovered that White was born about 1867 in Barbados, came to the U.S. in 1875 and became a citizen in 1890.

When White died Feb. 15, 1938, the Leslie Local-Republican described him as a "famous chef" who "posed for an advertisement of a well-known breakfast food."

White lived in Leslie for about the last 20 years of his life, and the story of his posing for the Cream of Wheat picture was known in the city of 2,000 located between Jackson and Lansing and about 70 miles west of Detroit.

The chef was photographed about 1900 while working in a Chicago restaurant. His name was not recorded. White was a chef, traveled a lot, was about the right age and told neighbors that he was the Cream of Wheat model, the Jackson Citizen Patriot said.

Long owned by Kraft Foods Inc., the Cream of Wheat brand was sold this year to B&G Foods Inc.

Cream of Wheat is a hot breakfast cereal invented in 1893 by wheat millers in Grand Forks, North Dakota[1]. The cereal is currently manufactured and sold by B&G Foods. Until 2007, it was the Nabisco brand made by Kraft Foods. It is similar in texture to grits, but made with farina (ground wheat) instead of ground corn. The product made its debut at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

Cream of Wheat is prepared by boiling water and slowly pouring in the farina while stirring. As it's stirred, the farina starts to thicken and mix with the water, creating a mixture that thickens depending on the ratio of liquid to farina. Some choose to use milk instead of, or in addition to water, to give the resulting food a creamier taste. Currently there are three available original mixes, the difference being in the time it takes to prepare — 10-minute, 2 ½-minute or 1-minute. Cream of Wheat is also sold in single-serving instant packets. These are prepared by mixing with hot water and allowing to set in a bowl (about two minutes).

It is common to customize the hot cereal with the addition of sugar, fruit, or nuts. As a result, several flavors are sold of the instant variety: Original, Apples 'N' Cinnamon, Maple Brown Sugar, Strawberries 'N' Cream and Cinnamon Swirl. Some people break up toast and stir it into the hot cereal.

In addition to its wheat-based products, the rice-based Cream of Rice is also produced as part of the product line, and is often a recommended early food for infants and toddlers.

Original icon design from 1895

The original boxes of Cream of Wheat were hand-made and lettered, and emblazoned with the image of a black chef produced by Emery Mapes. The character was named Rastus, and the image was included on all boxes and advertisements until 1925, when it was replaced by the more stylized version used on today's boxes. Using a stereotypical black icon was fairly common for U.S. commercial brands at the time of the cereal's creation; for other examples, see Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. It has long been thought that a black chef named Frank L. White was the model for the chef shown on the Cream of Wheat box. White, who died in 1938 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Leslie, Michigan claimed to be the model for the Cream of Wheat box. In June 2007, a headstone was erected for Mr. White. The headstone contains his name and an etching taken from the man depicted on the Cream of Wheat box.

In 2005, Cream of Wheat was at the center of a major controversy in Major League baseball. San Francisco, California radio host Larry Krueger went on a tirade against the San Francisco Giants, comparing manager Felipe Alou's mind to Cream of Wheat. The tirade, which also included numerous disrespectful comments about Caribbean hitters, attracted great ire from the fans, the media, and the Giants themselves.