For over a century, a smiling chef appeared on every box of Cream of Wheat. Cream of Wheat never officially named the man behind that image, but the company did confirm one key detail: the chef on the box was based on a photograph of a real chef working at a Chicago restaurant. That man is widely believed to be Frank L. White.
Frank White was born in Barbados and immigrated to the United States in 1875. He became an American citizen in 1890. By 1900, when the photograph believed to be the basis for the Cream of Wheat chef image was taken, White was working as a master chef at a Chicago restaurant.
White told friends and neighbors in his community that he had served as the model for the well-known breakfast food advertisement. A local newspaper also reported that he had posed for the image before his death. Michigan’s university described him as a “well-traveled” chef, a fitting description for a man who had crossed an ocean to build a career in American kitchens.
In his later years, White left Chicago and settled in Leslie, Michigan. He lived there during the final decades of his life. He died in 1938 at around 70 years old. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Leslie, Michigan.
For years, a plain concrete marker sat over his grave. In June 2007, that marker was replaced with a proper granite headstone, giving White a more lasting memorial in the town where he spent his final years.
The question of who the Cream of Wheat chef really was remained tied to the brand’s identity for decades. The image itself went through changes over the years, but the smiling Black chef became one of the most recognized faces in American food packaging. The connection to Frank White gave that image a human story — a real man with a real career, not just an invented mascot.
In the summer of 2020, widespread protests against systemic racism pushed many companies to look closely at their branding. Logos, mascots, and packaging that carried racial stereotypes came under scrutiny across the food industry. Cream of Wheat’s parent company, B&G Foods, was among those that responded.
In September 2020, B&G Foods announced it would remove the chef image from all Cream of Wheat packaging. In its statement, the company acknowledged that the image might be based on a real Chicago chef named Frank White. However, it also noted that the image reminded some consumers of older, offensive depictions of Black people that were common in early American advertising.
“Thus, we are removing the chef image from all Cream of Wheat packaging,” B&G Foods stated. The decision ended more than a century of the chef’s presence on the box.
Frank White’s story is one that sat quietly in the background for a long time. He was a Barbados-born immigrant who built a skilled career as a chef in one of America’s biggest cities. Whether or not the exact photo used for the Cream of Wheat box was his, his own account — shared with the people around him — placed him at the center of that history.
He worked at a time when few Black chefs received recognition for their craft. His name did not appear on cereal boxes. His story was passed on through neighbors and local news, not corporate records. Yet for those who knew him in Leslie, Michigan, the connection between Frank White and one of America’s most familiar breakfast brands was a matter of local pride.
