General Tso's chicken is an old traditional dish from Hunan.
Many people think General Tso's chicken is an old traditional dish from Hunan in China. It is not. A Hunanese chef, Peng Chang-kuei, created it in Taiwan in the 1950s, and the sweet, crispy version was shaped in New York in the 1970s.
The dish was created in 1950s Taipei by the Hunanese chef Peng Chang-kuei, and the sweet crispy version is an American adaptation from the 1970s.
The dish is named after a real man. Zuo Zongtang, once spelled Tso, was a famous general from the province of Hunan in China. He lived from 1812 to 1885. There is no record that he had anything to do with chicken.
The chef behind the dish was Peng Chang-kuei. He was born in 1919 in Changsha, the capital of Hunan. He began cooking as a young teenager and became a banquet chef for China's Nationalist government. A banquet is a big formal meal for important guests. In 1949 the Nationalists lost a civil war and moved to the island of Taiwan. Peng went with them.
In Taipei, Peng kept cooking for government banquets. By his own account, he created the chicken dish in the 1950s for a visiting American admiral. He named it after the famous general from his home province. Sources disagree on the exact year and guest. Peng's first version was hot, sour and salty. He later said it had no sugar at all.
In 1973 Peng opened a restaurant in New York. Americans were curious about food from different parts of China. Peng added sugar to suit American tastes. Around the same time, another New York chef, T. T. Wang, was making a crispy fried chicken dish. The two styles came together into the sticky, sweet version that spread across the country.
Later, in the 1990s, Peng opened a restaurant in Hunan that served the dish. Local diners found it too sweet, and the restaurant soon closed. When the British food writer Fuchsia Dunlop asked about the dish in Hunan, people mostly gave her blank looks.
Peng died in Taipei in 2016, aged 98. His chicken is a real Chinese dish made by a Hunanese chef. It just grew up far away from Hunan.
Want to know more?The full history, step by step
The story you've heard
General Tso's chicken is one of the best-loved dishes on Chinese takeaway menus in North America: crispy pieces of chicken in a glossy, sweet, slightly spicy sauce. The name suggests a long history. Surely a dish named after a nineteenth-century general must have been cooked in his home province for generations?
It is a reasonable guess, and it is wrong. The dish is barely seventy years old, it was invented on an island off China's coast, and the version most people eat was shaped in New York.
The general and the chef
The general was real. Zuo Zongtang, whose name was once spelled Tso Tsung-t'ang, lived from 1812 to 1885 and came from Hunan. He was a statesman and military commander for the Qing dynasty, remembered for his role in putting down the long and bloody Taiping civil war. There is no record of him having anything to do with chicken.
The chef was Peng Chang-kuei, born in 1919 to a poor family from Changsha, the capital of Hunan. He started cooking as a young teenager and trained as an apprentice under the chef Cao Jingchen. He became a banquet cook for the Nationalist government, and when the Nationalists lost the civil war in 1949, he followed them to Taiwan.
What really happened
In Taipei, Peng carried on cooking for government banquets. According to his own account, he created the dish in the 1950s for a state visit by the American admiral Arthur Radford and named it on the spot after the Hunanese general. Different sources give 1952, 1953 or 1955 for that visit, and another story says the dish was improvised for a different important guest, so the exact moment is uncertain. What is clear is that the dish appeared in Taiwan in the 1950s and was on the menu at Peng's Hunanese restaurant there.
Peng's original was very different from the takeaway favourite. It was hot, sour and salty in the Hunanese style, and he later told the British food writer Fuchsia Dunlop that he made it without sugar. Dunlop, researching Hunanese food, found that the Taiwanese version used tomato paste rather than sugar and was much less sweet than the American one.
In 1973 Peng opened a restaurant on East 44th Street in New York, near the United Nations. American diners were curious about Chinese regional cooking, especially after President Nixon's visit to China in 1972, and Henry Kissinger became a regular. Peng adapted his recipes for non-Hunanese customers, adding sugar. At around the same time, the New York chef T. T. Wang was making a crispy, fried chicken dish of his own, and the two styles merged into the sticky, sweet version that spread across the country. A 1977 New York Times review of Peng's restaurant is one of the earliest written mentions of the dish.
Back to Hunan
The strangest part of the story came later. In the 1990s, Peng opened a restaurant in Hunan that served the dish. Local diners found it too sweet, and the restaurant closed fairly quickly. When Dunlop visited Hunan in the early 2000s, mentioning the dish drew blank looks. A dish named after Hunan's most famous general had become famous everywhere except Hunan.
Dunlop has pointed out that it tastes little like typical Hunanese food, and that Hunanese chefs abroad may have presented it as a regional speciality because that is what customers expected.
On your plate today
None of this makes the dish any less real. It is a genuine piece of Chinese cooking, made by a Hunanese chef, that changed as it travelled from Changsha to Taipei to Manhattan. Peng returned to Taipei in the 1980s, and his family still runs restaurants there. He died in Taipei in 2016, aged 98.
So the next time you order it, you are eating a dish that is younger than the general's statues and older than most takeaway menus. It is not old Hunan. It is a migrant's dish, and that is a good story too.
Timeline
- 1812–1885Life of Zuo Zongtang, the Hunanese Qing general the dish is named after.
- 1919Peng Chang-kuei is born into a poor family from Changsha, Hunan.
- 1949Peng follows the Nationalist government to Taiwan.
- 1950sPeng creates the dish in Taipei: hot, sour and salty, without sugar.
- 1973Peng opens a restaurant in New York and adapts his dishes for American tastes.
- 1977A New York Times review of Peng's restaurant mentions the dish.
- 1990sPeng opens a restaurant in Hunan; locals find the dish too sweet.
Sources
- General Tso's chicken inventor has died (Associated Press) · Taipei Times
- Digest: Of Civil Wars, Diaspora, and Culinary Nostalgia · Edible Geography
- General Tso's chicken · Grammarphobia
- General Tso's chicken · Wikipedia
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Woolly facts
General Tso's chicken was created in Taipei, Taiwan, in the 1950s, not in the Chinese province of Hunan.
Chef Peng Chang-kuei said his original General Tso's chicken was hot, sour and salty, with no sugar at all.
General Tso's chicken is named after Zuo Zongtang, a real Qing dynasty general from Hunan who lived from 1812 to 1885.
When chef Peng Chang-kuei served General Tso's chicken in Hunan in the 1990s, local diners found it too sweet.
Chef Peng Chang-kuei opened a restaurant in New York in 1973, and politician Henry Kissinger became a regular there.
One of the earliest written mentions of General Tso's chicken is a 1977 New York Times review of Peng Chang-kuei's restaurant.
In Taiwan, General Tso's chicken has been sold under a name that translates roughly as Viceroy's Chicken.
Peng Chang-kuei, the chef who created General Tso's chicken, lived to the age of 98 and died in Taipei in 2016.