Here’s Where Your Fortune Cookies Actually Come From
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The single best part of ordering Chinese food in America, aside from some General Tso’s chicken and a carton of fried rice, of course, is opening up your fortune cookie.
Is there a Chinese grandma writing these somewhere? Who is coming up with these one-liners? Should you take your fortune seriously? All valid questions. When you reach deep down into the bottom of that brown paper bag and find those perfectly wrapped golden-yellow wontons, it’s magical, don’t lie. It’s pretty satisfying to crack open your cookie and pull out your fortune. Sometimes it’s stupid, sometimes it’s weirdly relevant. Bottom line: You’d feel a little empty inside if you didn’t find those cookies at the bottom of your bag.
If you’ve been wondering all your life who’s making these timeless cookies, the answer is the New York City-based company Wonton Food. The Family-owned and operated, Wonton Food was founded by Mr. C. S. Wong. Mr. Wong was born in the Guangdong Province in South China. He started making noodles in the basement of a small store in Chinatown in 1973 with only ten employees and one production line. Today, Wonton Food is the largest manufacturer of noodles, wrappers and fortune cookies in the United States. Time reports that the Wonton Food factory in Queens, New York, churns out 4.5 million fortune cookies a day.
So who’s writing the fortunes that can make or break your day? For 30 years, Donald Lau served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Fortune Writer at Wonton Foods. Talk about someone who knows how to multitask. Lau says, “I used to write 100 a year, but I’ve only written two or three a month over the past year.” It sounds like Lau is having writer’s block and it’s totally warranted after 30 years of advice-giving. Lau has since passed the words of wisdom torch onto 43-year-old James Wong, who is a nephew of the original founder of Wonton food. Wong is now the official Chief Fortune Writer. Lau remains on the team as Chief Financial Officer.
Another mystery in the world of fortune cookies is how a tiny piece of paper can end up inside each cookie, still perfectly crisp and intact. The Boston Globe reports that the cookie batter is piped into machines that squirt biscuit-sized mounds of batter onto hot moving trays. The batter gets flattened and sized and baked for a minute, paper fortunes are placed on top of each cookie and then each cookie is molded into its final butterfly shape.
Over the years, the fortunes themselves have evolved. Back in the 80s, you’d open your cookie and find an actual fortune like: “You’ll meet your soulmate this month” or “one of your dreams will come true.” Today, there is more pressure for the fortunes to focus on overall well-being and inspirational sayings. We’ll see if Wong is up to the task.
In addition to Wonton Food, there’s also the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company located in San Francisco. The cookie company was opened in 1962 and it’s owned by Franklin Yee. Operating on a much smaller scale, Golden Gate Fortune Fortune Cookie Company works out of a tiny open kitchen where they give free tours. They make traditional fortune cookies and chocolate-flavored fortune cookies, which they sell for $5 a bag.
You might not think too much about the origin of these cookies at the bottom of your bag, but they have humble roots and there’s a lot of thought and energy that goes into each and every package.
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