E. E. Knous

E. E. Knous

Hoffmann-Hayman Restaurant Specialist — selling H and H blend coffee to the restaurant trade. Profiled in the 26 August 1923 San Antonio Light employee series (page 64) under the headline “He Is a Booster.”

The article reads: “Selling the restaurant H and H blend coffee and hearing their praise has made Mr. Knous a boosting-salesman of H and H products.”

Knous’s specialist role pre-dates the documented 1927 hotel-trade origin of the Master Chef brand by about four years. The hotel-and-restaurant trade was therefore an established H&H sales channel before the Master Chef wordmark was created to formalize it — Master Chef was a packaging/branding decision layered over an existing commercial-trade business.

Open questions

• Full vitals, San Antonio directory citations
• Did Knous transition into the Master Chef commercial-supply business when that brand launched c.1927?
• Specific restaurant accounts he handled (Mi Tierra Cafe is on the customer list — was Knous the salesman?)

See also

• Master Chef Coffee — the hotel-trade brand whose 1927 origin postdates Knous’s restaurant role
• Mi Tierra Cafe — known H&H restaurant customer
• Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company