Back In Time: Fortune Cookie

Happy belated Chinese New Year! I’m currently in California and there are tons of decorations and celebrations going on for the Lunar New Year. While you’ll soon learn that the fortune cookie didn’t originate in China (shouldn’t be too surprising since things are very rarely what they first appear in this back in time series)…I wanted to give a nod to the holiday and my recent craving for Chinese food while I stayed in Chinatown in San Francisco.

As I mentioned before, the fortune cookie did not originate in China, but was created in California. However, there’s debate about if it’s even a Chinese American invention. Let’s take a look at a few stories…

Japanese Origin

There are two claimants of Japanese decent – Makoto Hagiwara and Suyeichi Okamura. Hagiwara was a gardener and the designer of the famous Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. Unfortunately, he was fired by a mayor who was no fan of the Japanese, but was reinstated by a proceeding mayor. As the story goes, he created what we would recognize as the fortune cookie with thank you notes inside to show his gratitude.

 

Hagiwara

But who is this Okamura fellow, you might ask? He was the founder of a Japanese confectionary in San Francisco and allegedly was Hagiwara’s cookie supplier. There are hand skillet molds that were used to create fortune cookies for Hagiwara with his initials and a descendent of Okamura has donated them to the Smithsonian. Okamura’s grandson wrote a compelling case that you can see here.

It’s possible that Hagiwara designed the cookie and Okamura produced it…but what about these other claimants I mentioned? Let’s hear what the Chinese have to say.

Okanura

 

Chinese Origin

Figuring out the “truth”

A founding father, because there’s always one