Rose Totino
Rose Totino was the daughter of Italian immigrants who settled in Minneapolis. Born in 1915, she worked in her early years cleaning houses to supplement the family income. After her marriage in 1951, she and her husband open a pizza take out operation which grew to become restaurant. Some ten years after she started the pizza business, Rose came upon the idea of making pizzas that were frozen for customers to bake at home. Her frozen pizza dough was patented in 1979, and in 1981 she sold Totino's pizza for $20 million to Pillsbury. She was also retained by Pillsbury as their first woman vice president. Rose Totino passed away in 1994.
Chicomecoatl Aztec Goddess of Food
References:
Women Invent:Two centuries of Discoveries that Have Shaped Our World by Susan Casey (Chicago Review Press, 1997) pp. 84-87, 92.Patently Female by Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek (John Wiley and Sons, 2002), pp.51-52.
Web Sites:
Rose TotinoTotino's Restaurant
Frozen Pizza Crust
Famous Inventors
Rose Totino
