Morrie Robert Yohai (pronounced yo-high; March 4, 1920 – July 27, 2010) was an American food company executive best known for his creation of

Cheez Doodles Cheez Doodles are a cheese puff produced by Wise Foods. Originally developed and manufactured in 1964 by King Kone Corp. of the Bronx, New York, it became the prevalent cheese puff snack on the East Coast. Description Cheez Doodles are a chees ...

, a cylindrical baked

cornmeal Cornmeal is a meal (coarse flour) or a cell membrane ground from dried corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', ...

puff most often with a

cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese (or simply cheddar) is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white (or orange if colourings such as annatto are added), and sometimes sharp-tasting. Cheddar originates from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset. Ched ...

flavor. Yohai was born on March 4, 1920, in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

to Jewish immigrants from

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and grew up in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1941 from the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a Private university, private Ivy League rese ...

.Hevesi, Dennis
"Morrie Yohai, 90, the Man Behind Cheez Doodles, Is Dead"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', August 2, 2010. Accessed August 3, 2010. He worked for

Grumman Aircraft The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 ...

after graduating from college and enlisted in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He pursued flight training, assuming that since he knew how to build planes he would know how to fly them. He was shifted to the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

and piloted planes in the South Pacific. Yohai was the president of

Old London Foods Old London Foods, a subsidiary of B&G Foods, is a company best known for its Melba toast products. Originally based in the Bronx and called the King Kone Corporation, the company changed its name to Old London Foods in May 1960 to match their be ...

, a food products company originally established in the 1920s by two men, Robert J. Yohai and Robert A. Yohai (his father and his cousin), as King Kone. The company had manufactured ice cream cones and would later produce cheese crackers, popcorn and

Melba toast Melba toast is a dry, crisp and thinly sliced toast, often served with soup and salad or topped with either melted cheese or pâté. It is named after Dame Nellie Melba, the stage name of Australian opera singer Helen Porter Mitchell. Its name is ...

. The company was looking for a new snack in the 1950s and had a machine that could

extrude Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex ...

under pressure through a narrow hole that would be cut to three-inch lengths by a blade. Baked with orange

and flavorings, Yohai gave them the name "

". The name came to him while he sat around the table with other employees sampling different alternatives for the cheese flavoring.Barrios, Jennifer
"Morrie Yohai, 90, helped create Cheez Doodle"
''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

'', August 1, 2010. Accessed August 3, 2010. In 1965, the company was bought out by Borden, which also made

Cracker Jack Cracker Jack is an American brand of snack food that consists of molasses-flavored, caramel-coated popcorn, and peanuts, well known for being packaged with a prize of trivial value inside. The Cracker Jack name and slogan, "The More You Eat The ...

and Drake's cakes. In April 1967, Yohai was named as group vice president at Borden Foods and as chairman of the firm's Old London Foods and

Wise Potato Chips Wise Foods, Inc. is a company based in Berwick, Pennsylvania, that makes snacks and sells them through retail food outlets in 15 eastern seaboard states, as well as Vermont, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C. Best k ...

divisions.Staff
"Borden's Fills Division Posts"
''

'', April 28, 1967. Accessed August 3, 2010. Yohai recalled that one of his responsibilities involved making decisions as to which tiny toys would be included as prizes in packages of Cracker Jack. Yohai was proud of his association with Cheez Doodles, and fondly retained a photograph of

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...

eating from a bag. Attending a 2004 display of a work by

Sandy Skoglund Sandy Skoglund (born September 11, 1946) is an American photographer and installation artist. Skoglund creates surrealist images by building elaborate sets or tableaux, furnishing them with carefully selected colored furniture and other objects, ...

at a

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...

museum depicting several life-size figures covered in Cheez Doodles, his wife proudly told the gathered guests that her husband had invented the product. Yohai left Borden after the company relocated to

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. He started teaching at the

New York Institute of Technology The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT or New York Tech) is a private research university founded in 1955. It has two main campuses in New York—one in Old Westbury, on Long Island, and one in Manhattan. Additionally, it has a cybersecu ...

and was chosen to serve as the associate dean of the college's school of management. In his later years Yohai became involved with

Jewish mysticism Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), distinguishes between different forms of mysticism across different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbalah, which emerged in 1 ...

and

Torah study Torah study is the study of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature, and similar works, all of which are Judaism's Sifrei kodesh, religious texts. According to Rabbinic Judaism, the study is done for the purpose of the ''mi ...

. An author of two books and 500 poems, he was one of the founders of the annual New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival. He was a resident of

Kings Point, New York Kings Point is a village located on the Great Neck Peninsula in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 5,005 at the 2010 census. History The Village of Ki ...

, where he lived in a luxurious home on

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

. His wife referred to it as "the house that Cheez Doodles bought". He died of cancer at age 90 at his home there on July 27, 2010. Surviving him were his wife, the former Phyllis Marcus whom he had married in 1947, a daughter, Babs, a son, Robbie, and a granddaughter, Jasmine Yohai.

References

External links

Sandy Skoglund Cheez Doodle installation piece photograph
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yohai, Morrie 1920 births 2010 deaths Jewish American military personnel United States Marine Corps pilots of World War II Businesspeople from New York City Deaths from cancer in New York (state) New York Institute of Technology faculty People from the Bronx People from Kings Point, New York United States Navy personnel of World War II Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American Jews