The modern fortune cookie is often credited to Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant who managed the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in the early 1900s. Hagiwara is said to have served the cookies around 1914, adapting a traditional Japanese cracker called tsujiura senbei, which contained paper fortunes. Although some later claimed that Chinese restaurateurs in Los Angeles popularized the cookie, Hagiwara’s version is widely recognized as the first in the United States. His creation blended Japanese tradition with American novelty, eventually becoming a staple of Chinese-American restaurants across the nation.
Today they are a fixture at the end of nearly every Chinese-American meal, tucked beside the check or the takeout bag. Americans go through billions of them a year; a single Brooklyn factory reportedly turns out more than 3 billion annually, according to the Museum of Food and Drink.
Who can resist their crunch texture along with the joy of finding wise messages inside? Not us!
To make them at home: whisk 2 egg whites with ½ cup sugar, then fold in ½ cup flour, a pinch of salt, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and a little vanilla and almond extract. Spread into thin circles and bake at 350F for about 8 minutes. While each cookie is still hot and pliable, lay a paper fortune in the center, fold in half, then bend over the rim of a cup to form the classic shape.
Sources and notes: The modern fortune cookie is widely traced to Makoto Hagiwara at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco around 1914, adapted from the Japanese tsujiura senbei; a Los Angeles claim is also sometimes cited. (Wikipedia, Fortune cookie; Smithsonian Magazine.)
Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, where the fortune cookie originated.
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, Chinatown, San Francisco, CA
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Part of the Food of California series by Judy Doherty Studio, a Southern California food, beverage and CPG photography studio. See our food photography or book a free call.
