The history of fortune cookies

The short answer

The fortune cookie as we know it was created by Japanese immigrants in California in the early 1900s, based on a traditional cracker from the Kyoto area. It moved into Chinese restaurants during World War II and spread from there around the world. In China, on the other hand, hardly anyone knows it.

Kyoto, 19th century: tsujiura senbei

Bakeries around Kyoto have made a cracker called tsujiura senbei for generations. It is larger and darker than the restaurant version, and it tastes different, flavored with sesame and miso rather than vanilla and butter. It is also folded while hot, but the fortune is tucked into the outside of the fold rather than hidden inside.

The oldest clue was found by Japanese researcher Yasuko Nakamachi: an 1878 woodblock print in a book of stories, showing a man baking these crackers in a small shop. A few family bakeries near the Fushimi Inari shrine still make them by hand with iron molds.

San Francisco or Los Angeles?

In the late 1800s thousands of Japanese immigrants settled in California and brought their recipes with them. The version that became the modern fortune cookie appears in the years before World War I, and two cities claim the credit:

• San Francisco. Makoto Hagiwara, the Japanese gardener who ran the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, served cookies with messages to visitors. The date usually given is 1914. They were baked for him by Benkyodo, a Japanese confectionery in the city.
• Los Angeles. David Jung, founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Company, claimed he invented them around 1918 to hand out encouraging messages to the unemployed. Another Japanese baker in the city, Seiichi Kito, also claimed the idea.

The 1983 trial

The rivalry ended up in court, though not a real one. In 1983 San Francisco's Court of Historical Review and Appeals, a mock court that settled historical disputes with a good sense of humor, held a hearing on the cookie's origin. It ruled for San Francisco. Los Angeles, unsurprisingly, did not accept the verdict.

How a Japanese cookie became "Chinese"

The turning point was World War II. In 1942 the US government forced around 120,000 people of Japanese descent into internment camps, and many of their bakeries closed. Chinese American manufacturers filled the gap and began producing the cookies for their own restaurants.

After the war, Chinese restaurants spread across the country and the cookie became their complimentary dessert. In the 1960s Edward Louie of San Francisco's Lotus Fortune Cookie Company developed a machine that folded the cookies and inserted the fortunes automatically, turning a handmade treat into an industrial product.

A billion-cookie industry

The most widely quoted estimate puts production at around 3 billion fortune cookies a year, almost all eaten in the United States. The largest maker, Wonton Food in Brooklyn, turns out several million a day. Modern slips usually carry three things: the fortune, a row of lucky numbers and a "learn Chinese" line.

What about China?

In China the fortune cookie is practically unknown. When an American company tried to sell them there in the 1990s, they didn't catch on: customers found them too American.

China does have a legend that is sometimes told as a forerunner. In the 14th century, rebels fighting the Yuan dynasty supposedly hid messages inside mooncakes to coordinate an uprising during the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a popular story with no documentation behind it, and it has no direct link to today's cookie.

Trivia

• The 2005 lottery. In the Powerball drawing of March 30, 2005, 110 players matched five of the six numbers, when a handful would have been normal. Officials suspected fraud until they found that the winners had all played numbers from fortune cookies made by the same company.
• "In bed". A classic American table game is reading the fortune aloud and adding "in bed" at the end.
• Eat it all. Tradition says the fortune only comes true if you eat the whole cookie. There's no evidence, but it doesn't hurt.
• The slip. It is usually about 2.4 × 0.6 inches and printed with food-safe ink, often red or blue.

Sources

• Jennifer 8. Lee, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, Twelve, 2008. Covers the 2005 Powerball drawing and the history of the manufacturers.
• Jennifer 8. Lee, "Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie", The New York Times, January 16, 2008. Summarizes Yasuko Nakamachi's research into the Japanese origin.
• The Hagiwara (1914) and Jung (1918) dates are the ones each side gives; neither is documented with complete certainty.

Questions about the origin