The true history of fortune cookies is far more complex and surprising than most people realize. Their story spans generations, wars, lawsuits, and three different cultures. What started as a spiritual snack in Japan transformed into a symbol of American-Chinese cuisine, and the world never looked back. Here is the fascinating story of the fortune cookie over the years.
Fortune Cookies Are Not Originally Chinese
Despite their association with Chinese cuisine, fortune cookies are not a traditional Chinese food. In fact, most people in China have never even seen one. Introduce a fortune cookie in Beijing or Shanghai, and you’re more likely to get puzzled stares than nostalgic smiles.
In China, desserts are typically less sugary, and the idea of inserting a message into food is practically unheard of. The cookie’s popularity is almost entirely rooted in the Chinese-American immigrant experience, and its origins are more Japanese than Chinese.
Japanese Roots: The Real Ancestor of the Fortune Cookie
The true predecessor of the modern fortune cookie is a Japanese snack called “tsujiura senbei.” These are traditional rice crackers, slightly larger and darker than fortune cookies, and they often contain slips of paper with Buddhist sayings or fortunes.
Tsujiura senbei have been made in Kyoto and other regions of Japan since at least the 1800s. Unlike the vanilla-flavored, crescent-shaped cookies we know today, these crackers were made with miso and sesame, and their messages were sometimes inserted outside the folded part, visible before eating.
So how did a Japanese cracker become a staple of Chinese restaurants in America?
The California Connection
The story takes a major turn in early 20th-century California. Japanese immigrants brought their traditional senbei recipes with them and began producing them locally. One of the first recorded producers of fortune cookies in the U.S. was Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese-American who oversaw the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
According to local lore, around 1914, Hagiwara began serving small folded cookies containing thank-you notes or fortunes to guests at the tea garden. These treats resembled modern fortune cookies but had clear Japanese origins. He reportedly had them made by a local bakery called Benkyodo Company.
The Rise of Chinese Restaurants and the Shift in Identity
In the early 20th century, anti-Japanese sentiment in the U.S. was rising, particularly after World War I. This political climate and later the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II caused many Japanese-owned businesses—including fortune cookie manufacturers—to shut down or be seized.
Meanwhile, Chinese restaurants were on the rise. In a bid to cater to American tastes, Chinese restaurateurs began serving the cookies that Japanese bakers had once popularized. They altered the flavor to be lighter and sweeter, resembling the taste we know today.
By the 1950s, fortune cookies had been fully absorbed into Chinese-American cuisine, even though their creators had been pushed to the margins of history.
A Legal Battle over the Cookie’s Origins
The cookie’s origin became such a contested topic that in 1983, San Francisco and Los Angeles fought over it in court. A mock trial, complete with historians and evidence, was held in San Francisco’s pseudo-legal Court of Historical Review to determine who “invented” the fortune cookie.
San Francisco argued that Makoto Hagiwara created the first American fortune cookie. Los Angeles, however, pointed to David Jung, a Chinese immigrant who founded the Hong Kong Noodle Company in L.A. around 1918. Jung reportedly created cookies with Bible verses inside and handed them out to unemployed men during tough times.
In the end, the court sided with San Francisco and credited Hagiwara as the original source. However, the trial was unofficial, and the debate continues among culinary historians.
Mass Production and the Fortune Cookie Boom
By the 1960s and 70s, fortune cookies were everywhere in the U.S. They had become an expected end to meals at Chinese restaurants. But making the cookies by hand was labor-intensive. Folding them while still warm was a delicate and fast-paced process.
That all changed with the invention of the fortune cookie folding machine. Several inventors tried their hand, but one of the most influential was Edward Louie, owner of Lotus Fortune Cookie Company in San Francisco. He designed a machine that could insert the paper, fold the cookie, and bake it automatically.
The innovation revolutionized production. Factories could now produce tens of thousands of cookies per day, making them affordable and ubiquitous.
Fortune Cookie Messages
The original fortune cookie notes contained proverbs or inspirational messages. However, over time, these evolved into a wide range of sayings—romantic advice, lottery numbers, jokes, even sarcastic commentary. Some fortunes are oddly specific, while others are vague enough to apply to anyone.
The messages became a cultural phenomenon in their own right. In 2005, for example, 110 Powerball players won $100,000 or more using “lucky numbers” printed on their fortune cookies. The odds of so many winners were so astronomical that the lottery commission launched an investigation—only to discover the numbers were printed by a New York-based fortune cookie company.
Fortune Cookies Around the World
Interestingly, outside of the United States and Canada, fortune cookies are relatively rare. In China, they are virtually non-existent and often regarded as a “Western novelty.” In Europe and South America, they’re sometimes used as promotional gimmicks but haven’t entered the dining tradition the way they have in North America.
The one major exception is Japan, where the original senbei still exist—but the American-style fortune cookie has also made a comeback, especially among tourists.
Today’s Fortune Cookie Industry
Today, companies like Wonton Food Inc. in Brooklyn, New York, are among the largest producers of fortune cookies in the world, manufacturing over 4 million cookies per day. There are even businesses that allow you to customize your own fortunes, use the cookies in marketing campaigns, or print fortunes in multiple languages.
In an age of digital everything, the fortune cookie remains charmingly analog—an edible time capsule with a note inside.