Georgia company cashing in on Americans' fascination with the fortune cookie
March 12, 1996
Web posted at: 5 p.m. ESTFrom Correspondent Marsha Walton
MONROE, Georgia (CNN) - For many Chinese food lovers, the fortune cookie that comes at the end of a meal is the best part of the dining experience. There's something special about cracking open a cookie and reading that great riches will soon come your way or that success in love and life will be yours.
The custom of enjoying a fortune cookie at the end of a meal has roots both in America and China. According to legend, the first secret message was sent hundreds of years ago during the Tang dynasty. A pastry chef was in love with the daughter of the lotus queen and slipped her rice paper love notes in baked wontons. If only the chef had known what he started.
The modern tradition began around 1900 in a mom and pop Chinese restaurant in the United States. The cookies made their grand debut at the 1906 World's Fair in Baltimore and have been a hit ever since.
"It became a courtesy to the Chinese to present a gift to customers. So it's a way of thanks and to wish that people have the best luck and let them crack their own fortune," said Ting-Lin Li of the Big Fortune Cookie Co.
Nested in rural Georgia, the Big Fortune Cookie Co. bakes more than 115,000 cookies a day that are produced by three production lines running 24 hours a day, five days a week. They're distributed coast to coast.
Flour, sugar, vegetable oil, baking soda, water and some flavorings are the magic ingredients. The mixture is squirted onto small griddles that cook the dough in just two to three minutes. Lemon, orange and almond cookies are available, but Li says it's the message, not the taste that's the key.
Anybody who has ever cracked open a fortune cookie has probably asked themselves how they get those little pieces of paper in the cookie. The proverbs are pulled by a vacuum into the cookies while they are still soft. The dough is immediately molded into the double triangles. The sayings are wise, silly or just want to tell us what we want to hear. (800K QuickTime movie)
Li said part of the fun is seeing how customers interpret the messages that are magically delivered in the cookies.
"I wish that people get their best luck in the fortune and everybody have his own fate. To me, as long as there is room to work harder, that is the best luck I can have," he said.
Li said even the sound of cracking open the cookie is part of the intrigue. Although they're associated with Chinese food, fortune cookies are still almost exclusively a U.S. custom. Li, who grew up in Hong Kong and Taiwan said he has never seen people eat them in China.
Although some fortune cookie plants are now operating in China, it's too early to tell whether the American tradition will be a hit in the place where history says the first secret message was delivered.
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