The Enigmatic Chef Who Brought Curry to America, Then Vanished

One hundred and twenty-five years ago, in 1901, an Indian chef named Ranji Smile opened what was almost certainly the first Indian restaurant in the United States. Smile, a colorful and enigmatic figure, played a significant role in shaping the American food scene, though his own origins and true identity remain largely unknown.

Smile sailed from London to New York in the summer of 1899. His given name is uncertain; "Ranji" was likely a nod to the Indian cricketer K.S. Ranjitsinhji, and "Smile" may have been an anglicization of "Ismail." Upon arriving in New York and passing through Ellis Island, he adopted the name Joe, a more common American moniker.

He began his culinary career in the U.S. at Sherry's Restaurant, a prestigious establishment on Fifth Avenue. Previously, he had worked as a curry cook in London's Cecil and Savoy hotels. According to an 1899 profile in Harper's, the owner of Sherry's, Louis Sherry, was impressed by Smile's skills and invited him to bring his talents to America. At the time, London already had a nascent Indian dining scene, with Sake Dean Mohamed having opened the Hindostanee Coffee House in 1810.

Manhattan's culinary landscape in the late 19th century was beginning to show curiosity about Indian culture, partly due to figures like Swami Vivekananda, who captivated audiences with his lectures on Hindu philosophy. This growing interest, coupled with an increasing number of Indian sailors, students, and professionals arriving in New York, likely influenced Louis Sherry's decision to hire a curry chef.

Smile quickly became a notable figure at Sherry's, a restaurant that competed with Delmonico's for elite clientele. He prepared dishes such as Bombay duck and invented new creations like "Lettuce Ceylon." Dressed in a satin coat and a blue silk turban, Smile's service was theatrical, often beginning with a salaam and an inquiry about spice preference. His popularity grew, with newspapers featuring his image and headlines like "New York women go wild over him."

In 1901, Smile left Sherry's to establish his own restaurant dedicated exclusively to Indian cuisine. He secured financial backing from Roland R. Conklin, a prominent financier and inventor. The restaurant, named Omar Khayyam, opened in late 1901 at 325 Fifth Avenue, near the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

The establishment was decorated with Indian artifacts and staffed by Indian waiters in turbans and Indian musicians. However, despite the elaborate presentation, the restaurant struggled to attract customers and closed within a year. The New York Sun attributed its failure to a "passing fad" and public fatigue with Indian fare.

Following the closure of Omar Khayyam, Smile's public persona shifted from celebrity chef to one involving deception. He began claiming to be "Prince" Joe Ranji Smile, the son of the emir of Baluchistan—a fabricated title. Before opening his restaurant, he had visited Bombay, where he claimed to be attending the coronation of King Edward VII in London and recruited a retinue of staff, including valets, a dancer, and elephant handlers.

A subsequent federal case alleged that Smile illegally trafficked this staff into the U.S. to work at his restaurant, nearly leading to his deportation. While many of his retinue were deported, Smile managed to evade the same fate.

He continued to reinvent himself, marrying several American women and promoting Indian food as a secret elixir for female beauty. He conducted cooking demonstrations across the country, sometimes accompanied by performers. During these events, his fabricated identity evolved, with one newspaper reporting he claimed to be the brother of the "great Beglerberg of Baluchistan."

By the 1920s, Smile had apparently abandoned cooking, listing his occupation as a merchant. The last known evidence of him comes from 1937, when his fourth or fifth wife sought an annulment of their marriage, noting her husband had absconded. Ranji Smile vanished from public life.

Despite his inglorious end, Smile's efforts, however flawed, laid groundwork for the popularization of Indian cuisine in America. Other immigrants soon followed. In 1909, journalist Saint Nihal Singh introduced recipes for Indian dishes to readers of the Chicago Daily Tribune, even suggesting hamburger meat as a substitute for traditional pilaf ingredients.

Later, a young man from Ceylon named K.Y. Kira arrived in New York. Like Smile, Kira had a talent for reinvention, joining a Sinhalese dance troupe before opening his own Indian restaurant, the Ceylon India Inn, in Harlem in 1913. Unlike Smile's venture, Kira's restaurant was a success, attracting expatriate nationalists and eventually Broadway and Hollywood stars. The Ceylon India Inn operated until the late 1980s, claiming to be America's first Indian restaurant.

Ranji Smile may be largely forgotten, but 125 years after the brief existence of Omar Khayyam, his legacy endures in the thousands of Indian eateries that now flourish across the United States.