"Fortune Cookies": the history and secrets of creation

Photo: depositphotos.com

In almost all Chinese restaurants in America, after the main courses, fortune cookie is served. These sweets are more than 100 years old.

Now the story of this unique dessert can make a sharp turn: the main writer of predictions at Wonton Food (the largest, by self-determination, the company-manufacturer of cookies with predictions in America) Donald Lau retired in early February.

In connection with possible changes, the company told the story of this interesting product to the publication. Timeby inviting journalists to a factory in Brooklyn, New York, where 4,5 produces a million units a day.

The main writer of predictions over the past 30 years has been Donald Lau, a former banker. But if earlier he composed 100 forecasts a year, then in the latter he made only a few dozen. “I have a creative crisis,” says Lau, whom 30 had chosen to write predictions for the factory in Brooklyn years ago, not because of his writing talent, but because he knew English better than all the company's employees when it was founded, writes CNN.

After Lau left, his place was taken by James Wong, whom his predecessor had trained for six months. Wong is 43 and the nephew of the founder of Wonton Food.

History in brief

There are several versions of the origin of cookies with predictions. Lau likes the one that starts with the Ming dynasty. In those days, people gave each other moon cakes with secret messages. Some researchers believe that the "cookies of happiness" come from Japan - delicacies of a similar shape used to be popular in the Kyoto area. In the United States, this “Chinese dessert” arrived at the end of the 19th century, at the time of the California “gold rush”.

American missionaries in China talked a lot about what was happening on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. The most adventurous Chinese poured into the United States in the hope of getting rich in gold. In 1870, the Chinese made up almost 10% of the population of California and about 20% of the state workforce. At first they worked on farms and helped build railways. But in 1882, Congress banned Chinese manual labor and the granting of citizenship to working immigrants from China. Because of this, many Chinese have moved to work in the service sector: they opened the laundry and restaurants.

At the same time, the Japanese began to arrive in the US - though not so much, so the 1882 law of the year did not touch them. Many Californian Japanese also worked in the service industry. At the beginning of the twentieth century, they realized that their native cuisine was too exotic for Americans, so they began to open Chinese restaurants, which at that time were already popular in California. The Japanese brought some traditions of their people to these places. It is not known for certain who invented cookies with predictions, but one can say for sure that the American version of the product is the result of the fusion of Japanese and Chinese cultures in the vast expanses of the United States.

Фото: Depositphotos

That all changed after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941. President Roosevelt ordered the creation of camps for Japanese Americans. Many restaurants of Japanese owners have closed. It was during this period that the prediction cookies mysteriously suddenly ceased to be considered Japanese and began to be considered a Chinese product.

During World War II, the demand for predicted cookies increased. Soldiers returning from California to other states brought it as a souvenir. So this delicacy spread throughout America and became a symbol of the Chinese community of the country. It remains to them today, when the Chinese are considered the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States.

On the taste and color

Fortune Cookies are an exclusively American phenomenon. In 1990, Wonton Food tried to enter the Chinese market, but failed. The Chinese, for whom the product was unfamiliar, constantly ate notes with a forecast. Americans, according to research, often leave cookies uneaten after reading the prediction (about 25% of consumers).

Experts believe that China’s modern history is to blame. In 1950-1960, the communist government even regulated what the Chinese eat. As a result of the “reforms”, people often lacked ordinary rice, so when decades later a cookie with predictions came to China, many perceived it as an unnecessary and incomprehensible luxury item. Even today, when China’s economy is growing rapidly, prediction cookies have not become popular here.

Sweet impression

The Japanese believe that the “older” the prediction, the more valuable it is. However, American copywriters must always come up with new, unique messages. Lau says that when he became the chief writer of predictions in 1980, he got a stack of yellowed texts, most of which were like horoscopes (“You will meet a new friend tomorrow”). Today, there are almost no predictions in predictions - as a rule, there are sayings that lift people’s mood. Lau says that he tried to interweave political nuances in the texts (for example, during the presidential elections in the United States), but they either do not pass the approval of the Wonton Foods staff committee, or, as events unfold, quickly lose their relevance.

Sometimes the company holds contests to compose predictions online, as well as regularly monitor consumer responses. With the predictions hiding in cookies, different stories happen. For example, in 2005, Wonton Foods became the object of a state investigation after several people won $ 19 million in the lottery, indicating the numbers from the prediction turnover. One abandoned wife wrote a complaint that her husband caught a cookie predicting a romance on a business trip. And one satisfied client shared a story about how he got a job after the prediction that new opportunities await him.

Wong, who raises an 10 year old daughter, often writes lyrics based on personal experience.

“I'm thinking about what I want to tell her. Recently I was reminded of an old Chinese saying: failure is the mother of success. I want my daughter to understand this: failures are normal if you learn from them. Then you can succeed. It’s quite possible that what I want to tell my daughter is important for other people,” he said.

And Lau believes that good messages make people happier customers. Sounds quite practical from a business point of view.

“When customers open their fortune cookies and read the text, I want them to smile and leave the restaurant happy. So they can come again next week,” he says.

Wonton Foods also cooks custom fortune cookiesthat can deliver to the customer home. You can choose from 3 types: vanilla, chocolate and citrus, and in addition you can order the manufacture of kosher sweets. One cookie costs 40 cents.

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