Pailadzo Captanian ( hy, Փայլածու Գաբտանեան), was a survivor of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...

and an author. She is also credited with inspiring the creation of Rice-A-Roni which is based on her own recipe of Armenian pilaf.Birth Of Rice-A-Roni: The Armenian-Italian Treat
- National Public Radio, 2008

Life

During the Armenian Genocide in 1915, Pailadzo, while pregnant, was forced to march through the Syrian desert to Aleppo. After the Genocide, she wrote her memoirs, which were published in 1919 in French translation, entitled ''Memoires d'une deportee armenienne''. They are considered an important contribution to Armenian Genocide research, since they were penned shortly after the events. The book contributed to Raphael Lemkin's research and his understanding of the Genocide.What you see before your eyes: documenting Raphael Lemkin's life by exploring his archival Papers, 1900–1959
- ''Journal of Genocide Research'', 2005 Also in 1919, Mrs. Captanian was reunited with her two other sons whom she had entrusted to a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

family before the deportations. Afterwards, Pailadzo and her sons moved to the United States, where she worked as a seamstress and sewed draperies for President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

's home in Hyde Park, New York. In 1922 she published the Armenian original of her memoirs. After

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 opposing ...

, Pailadzo and her family moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. While in San Francisco, she rented a room to Lois and Tom DeDomenico. Pailadzo taught Lois how to make Armenian pilaf and in 1955 Tom and his brother

Vincent Vincent ( la, Vincentius) is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, which is derived from the Latin word (''to conquer''). People with the given name Artists *Vincent Apap (1909–2003), Maltese sculptor *Vincent van Gogh ...

, who worked at the Golden Grain Macaroni pasta company founded by their father, came up with the initial recipe for the rice-and-macaroni mixture they called Rice-A-Roni.

Notes

References

Birth Of Rice-A-Roni: The Armenian-Italian Treat
*Captanian, Payladzo A. "Memoires d'une deportee armenienne" (Paris: M. Flinikowski, Editor, 1919) American people of Armenian descent Armenians from the Ottoman Empire Armenian genocide survivors Witnesses of the Armenian genocide Armenian refugees Syrian emigrants to the United States Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{Armenia-genocide-stub