Raji Jallepalli

Did You Know?

• Jallepalli's first marriage ended in divorce; she remarried to Louis Reiss in 1999.
• She died from gastric cancer at age 52.
• Her family included parents Radha and Ramakrishna and three younger sisters Padma, Sita and Vaijayanthi.

Early life

Raji Jallepalli was born Rajeswari Rampalli in Hyderabad in May 1949. Her father, a senior diplomat for Andhra Pradesh, took the family on frequent trips to Europe. She studied microbiology, then married Dr. Panduranga Jallepalli and relocated to the United States in 1969. There she found work as a medical technologist. After living in New York and New Jersey, the couple settled in Memphis, Tennessee, in the early 1970s. In Memphis, Raji raised her two sons at home, occasionally helping out at her husband's medical practice.

Career as a chef

Raji Jallepalli launched her first restaurant, The East India Company, in Memphis back in 1989. It started as a typical curry house, but she later overhauled the menu to blend French and Indian cooking, renaming the place Restaurant Raji in 1992. The revamped concept earned strong reviews, leading to six invitations to cook at the James Beard House during the 1990s. She also received James Beard Foundation Award nominations in the Best Chef: Southeast category in both 1996 and 1997. In 2000, the White House recognized her as part of its "Imagine the Future" millennial celebrations. That same year, HarperCollins published her cookbook, Raji Cuisine: Indian Flavors, French Passion, which featured her signature fusion recipes. Also in 2000, Avtar Walia tapped her to be executive chef at Tamarind, an upscale Indian restaurant in New York's Tribeca neighborhood. When Tamarind opened in January 2001, New York Times critic William Grimes hailed it as "a clear-cut victory for the cause of Indian food."