Columbus Craft Meats (variously known as Columbus Salame, Columbus Sausage Company, and Columbus Foods, Inc.) is an American food processing company specializing in

salami Salami ( ) is a cured sausage consisting of fermented and air-dried meat, typically pork. Historically, salami was popular among Southern, Eastern, and Central European peasants because it can be stored at room temperature for up to 45 days ...

and other prepared

delicatessen Traditionally, a delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessen originated in Germany (original: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the m ...

meats, founded in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 1917. Their current headquarters are in

Hayward, California Hayward () is a city located in Alameda County, California in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as of 2020, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda Coun ...

. Their products are sold at supermarkets locally and nationwide, including

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...

Cost Plus World Market, formerly Cost Plus World Market until 2021, is an American chain of specialty/import retail stores, selling home furniture, decor, curtains, rugs, gifts, apparel, coffee, wine, craft beer, and international food products. The bran ...

and

Trader Joe's Trader Joe's is an American chain of grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. The chain has over 569 stores across the United States. The first Trader Joe's store was opened in 1967 by founder Joe Coulombe in Pasadena, California ...

. Their

artisanal An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...

products, including specialty

salumi Salumi (singular salume) are Italian meat products typical of an antipasto, predominantly made from pork and cured. Salumi also include bresaola, which is made from beef, and some cooked products, such as mortadella and prosciutto cotto. The ...

, have been praised by food critics.

History

Columbus Craft Meats Charcuterie Trio combination open

Italian immigrants Peter Domenici and Enrico Parducci founded what was then the San Francisco Sausage Company in 1969. The company moved their production facilities to

South San Francisco South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is colloquially known as "South City". The population was 66,105 at the 2020 census. ...

in 1967. They introduced deli meats to their product line in 1974. Albert Piccetti was president of the company for 40 years, and died in 1998. Columbus Salame hired Studio Hinrichs, in association with

Pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aroun ...

, to revamp their company logo, emphasizing their Italian heritage, including use of the

Bodoni Bodoni is the name given to the serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) in the late eighteenth century and frequently revived since. Bodoni's typefaces are classified as Didone or modern. Bodoni followed the ideas o ...

typeface. On August 28, 2009, a leak at their South San Francisco facility sent 200 pounds of

anhydrous ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous was ...

into the air, sickening more than two dozen people. The company paid $850,000 in penalties, and agreed to facility upgrades to settle a lawsuit filed by

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...

. They opened a new $31 million processing facility in Hayward in 2011, replacing their former facility in

, which had been devastated by a fire. Endeavor Capital, a private equity firm, acquired majority control of the company in 2006. In 2012, the company was sold to another private equity firm, Arbor Investments. On November 27, 2017 Austin, Minnesota based Hormel Foods purchased the company for $850 million.

John Piccetti

Co-owner John Piccetti has coauthored a book, ''Salumi: Savory Recipes and Serving Ideas for Salame, Prosciutto, and More'', with cookbook author

Joyce Goldstein Joyce Goldstein (born July 17, 1935) is an American chef, who is a two time James Beard Foundation Award winner. She ran the influential San Francisco-based restaurant Square One between 1984 and 1996. Career Joyce Goldstein worked as executive c ...

Charcutier Charcuterie ( , also ; ; from french: chair, , flesh, label=none, and french: cuit, , cooked, label=none) is a French term for a branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, ''galantines'', ''ball ...

Francois Vecchio, and

David Rosengarten David Rosengarten (born January 25, 1950) is an American chef, author and television personality, who hosted or co-hosted more than 2500 television shows on the Food Network from 1994 to 2001. Personal life Rosengarten was born in New York City ...

References

External links

Columbus Foods websiteColumbus Craft Meats Blogweblog featuring a facility tour, 25 October 2011
{{Hormel Food and drink companies established in 1917 1917 establishments in California Companies based in Hayward, California Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area Sausage companies of the United States Food and drink companies based in California Hormel Foods 2017 mergers and acquisitions

History

John Piccetti

See also

References

External links