The Hundred-Foot Journey Characters

Your Friendly Neighborhood Chef (and Narrator)As far as protagonists go, Hassan's about as decent a guy as they come. And while we can totally get down with a dark and twisted main character, in Ha...

Bad news: When we meet Madame Mallory she's pretty much a tyrant with a crazy streak, a woman who both has an iron grip on her life, but if pushed, totally falls apart. Good News: She makes a total...

Paul Verdun is a restaurant mogul in Paris whom Hassan befriends. And while he serves as a mentor for our main man—here we can think of him as filling Mallory's shoes once Hassan sets off on his...

The sweet-as-sugar sous chef of Le Saule Pleureur is Hassan's biggest love interest in the story. If we could personify her presence in the story, it'd be a calm and peaceful bright light: constant...

"If I were a rich man…"Papa is the emotional heart and soul of the story. He is larger than life, which is adequately described by his birth, which happens amid the explosions happening at the Bo...

Mama's pretty much a combination of the nicest qualities that a kid can remember his mom having; she's quiet and unassuming, yet very much present. The first time we meet her is when Hassan talks a...

The first thing we hear about Abhidha is that her name translates to "longing" (4.8). Unsurprisingly, then, she's Hassan's first love and first girlfriend—a.k.a. the first person he longs for. Ab...

We don't know a whole lot about Grandpa, but he plays a super important role in the story anyway. Here's how: He starts off the family story with his "great hunger" (1.3) in Chapter 1, which gets t...

Other than being Bapaji's right-hand-woman, Hassan says that he "cannot give her enough credit" (1.17) for what happened to him. He calls her "my Ammi" the first time we hear about her, which gives...

Bappu is the main servant in the family business in Mumbai and acts as Hassan's first mentor. As a kid, Hassan watches him slice, chop, and prepare all sorts of things in the kitchen. Bappu takes H...

Leblanc is Mallory's restaurant manager, her right-hand-man who basically acts like her public relations rep and her sidekick, in addition to taking care of her emotional state. It's not exactly an...

Hassan is one of six children. Other than Mehtab, we don't really get to know the others that well—they're kind of just a bunch of kids making noise as the family moves from one place to another....

Jean-Pierre is Mallory's chef de cuisine, which is a term for the head or executive chef. He's physically described as "darkly handsome" (6.22) when we're first introduced to him; we don't often he...

Le Comte de Nancy is a lovable and snooty aristocrat who is basically Hassan's sugar daddy. He furnishes Hassan with an awesome location for his new restaurant, and is a regular guest thereafter. H...

The Haji's relatives (from Mummy's side) represent the kind of melting pot of Eastern and Western cultures. When the Hajis join them, they've been in London for thirty years, and although they're...

Madame Picard—a.k.a. Widow Picard—works in the market in Lumière and is always caught in the crossfire of Papa and Mallory's competition. She's usually described as spitting or cussing while s...

Madame Verdun is Paul's wife. She does not warm up to Hassan or anyone, and seems super intolerant of Paul, both in his life and his death. When having tea with her after Paul's death, Hassan comme...

Mehtab is your typical bossy sister. She's younger than Hassan and since we hear more about her than the other siblings, she's a bit closer to him than the others. Hassan says that she "is really t...

Uday Joshi is the first glimpse we get of high society. He's at the top of the restaurant scene in Mumbai, and Papa and Hassan watch him from afar during one of their outings to Malabar Hill. He dr...

Hassan's aunt and uncle are part of the Haji caravan. They live with them in Mumbai, move with them to London, and settle with them in Lumière. They don't really have individual roles in the story...