Rice-A-Roni, the iconic American food product also known as “The San Francisco Treat,” was inspired by and based on an old Armenian recipe provided by Pailadzo Captanian.

A survivor of the 1915 Genocide, Captanian was a neighbor of Tom DeDomenico, one of the owners of the Golden Grain Macaroni Company, and his wife, Louis, in San Francisco. After Louis served Captanian’s recipe at a family dinner, it became a favorite of the DeDemonicos.

In 1955, Tom and his brother, Vincent, who worked at Golden Grain Macaroni, used Captanian’s recipe to create the rice-and-macaroni mixture that would become Rice-A-Roni.