History General TSOS CHICKEN

CHEF PENG

Creator of GENERAL TSO'S CHICKEN

TAPEI

Generral Tso's Chicken, the long and short of it. It was created by Chef Peng  in the 1950's in Tapei. Chef Peng was cooking a fancy banquet and needed to come up with a fancy name for his tasty chicken dish, and so he named the dish fo rhis hometown hero, General Tso  / Zuo who was like Chef Peng from Hunan Province of China.

CHEF C.K. PENG with HENRY KISSINGER

NEW YORK 1970s ?

Chef  T.T. Wang is credited for introducing General Tso's Chicken to New York in the early 1970s.

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger Henry loved it, and Chinese Restaurants in New York started putting it on their menus. The Dish took on a Life of its own, and became hugey popular, and millions of portions of it are consumed every year in America. 

Naturally (or not) the dish morphed into something a bit different from Chef Peng's original dish, which was named General Ching's Chicken in Tapei. In the 1980s the name of the dish merged from General Ching's Chicken to General Tso's Chicken and the rest is both culinary and American folkore history. The dish became much sweeter than the original version, and of course Americans just love it.

My GENERAL TSO'S CHICKEN

The other Night

CHINESE TAKE-OUT