'First' Celebrity Chef in the US: An Indian Immigrant With Desi Curries
Before there was Guy Fieri, Anthony Bordain and Julia Child, a young Indian Muslim immigrant changed the culinary landscape of America. Often deemed as America’s first celebrity chef, this boy, in his 20s, took the country by storm with his delectable curries, and incredibly good looks.
Smile—also referred to as Joe Ranji Smile or Prince Ranji Smile in some accounts—belonged to Karachi and arrived first in London in the late 1800s, where he worked for the Cecil Hotel, one of the largest hotels in Europe at the time. Here, he was spotted by Louis Sherry, a prominent restaurant owner, who ran Sherry’s in New York. Louis tried Ranji’s curry and immediately fell in love. He brought him, and his young English wife, to New York in 1899 to give American elites something new and “exotic” to swoon over.
In this day and age, Indian food may be a popular choice for takeout food in America but when Ranji first arrived in the country at the dawn of the 20th century, things were different. America at the time knew of Indian food more through the eyes of Britain’s own interpretation of the cuisine, making the recipes twice removed from their original variants. With the construction of the India Wharf in Boston in 1804, America could source these spices directly from India for the first time.
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Despite that, American cooks lacked authenticity in the preparation of these curries, even as late as the 1880s. This changed when Ranji arrived in America. But what truly shook America were his delicious dishes, which were a stark contrast to the coloured water and mushy rice that the country had been consuming at the time. The items on his menu included the Kalooh Sherry, Murghi Rain, Muskee Sindh, Curry of Chicken Madras, Indian Bhagi Topur, Bombay Duck, or Lettuce Ceylon.
Describing what it was like to eat Ranji’s food at Sherry’s, the New York Letter journalist said, “The fancy for curries…has taken possession of everyone who has eaten them. You take a seat at one of the dainty tables, look over the Indian menu with a sort of fear and trembling of what’s to come, with a delightful uncertainty pervading your soul.”Ranji was not oblivious to his own prowess, and the effect he had on a country obsessed with ‘exoticism’ and ‘orientalism’. He was given full autonomy and a separate space to work in the kitchen, with other chefs given strict orders to let him function independently.
Ranji toured the country to give cooking demos and classes in various department stores and food halls and offered cooking lessons to American housewives. In fact, he would continue to do so and be documented by America’s press for the next 15 years.
The fame seemingly got to his head because he was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct and broke federal laws when he brought 26 Indians with him to the US with a promise of providing them work. He told the press he had never claimed to be a prince, and that the 26 Indians were simply tourists. To the courts, he insisted he never promised employment to the workers, but that some were his friends, and maybe recruited to work in a restaurant he had been planning to start.
What stands out here is that for years, Americans failed to notice that he was an undocumented immigrant. In 1904, Ranji went to the US Supreme Court to seek citizenship, before the citizenship tests existed. Although the country spent years idolizing the charming and talented “bad boy” of the culinary world, he was denied. At the time, the only law that dictated the immigration scenario was the Naturalisation Act of 1790, which stated that “free white persons…of good character” would be the only ones allowed to seek citizenship by naturalisation.
Lohman provides a precarious reconstruction of his life in her book Eight Flavours: The Untold Story of American Cuisine. In a review of her book in the New York Post, it is said that despite Ranji’s chaotic life in the US, he left an undeniable mark on the culinary landscape of the country. After Ranji left and immigration laws eased (even if ever so slightly), there was an influx of Indian immigrants, of which many opened Indian restaurants, inspired by Ranji’s culinary journey. One of them was Bombay Masala, one of the oldest and most renowned Indian restaurants in America.
Today, there are over 5,000 Indian restaurants in America. So the next time someone walks into one and samples a curry here’s hoping they know of the dashing Indian who had his own hand in its making.
