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Peng Chang-kuei, chef who created General Tso's chicken, dies

By Eric DuVall
Chef Peng Chang-kuei, left, who was credited in 1955 with creating the dish General Tso's chicken, died Wednesday. His initial creation bore little resemblance to the one popular in America today. Screen shot courtesy IFC Films/YouTube
Chef Peng Chang-kuei, left, who was credited in 1955 with creating the dish General Tso's chicken, died Wednesday. His initial creation bore little resemblance to the one popular in America today. Screen shot courtesy IFC Films/YouTube

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Peng Chang-kuei, the chef credited with inventing General Tso's chicken, a dish that has come to define Chinese food for generations of Americans -- though not for the Chinese themselves -- died Wednesday, his son confirmed.

His age was variously reported as 97 and 98 in conflicting media reports. The cause of death was a lung infection, his son told the Washington Post.

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Peng, who was born in China's Hunan province, created the first iteration of General Tso's chicken in 1955, while serving as the head chef for the Nationalist government in Taiwan when an American general visited the island during the Taiwan Strait Crisis. The dish as first created bore virtually no resemblance to the one that has become a staple of Chinese buffets and takeout joints across America in the decades since.

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Peng's original creation was sautéed bone-in dark meat chicken with the skin still attached. It was seasoned with a combination of chili peppers, hoisin sauce and soy sauce to create a spicy, sour taste. Given the visiting military dignitaries, Peng named the dish after the famous Hunanese general Zuo Zongtang, a 19th century military hero from the region who put down the bloody Taiping Rebellion.

Peng emigrated to New York City in 1973, with his signature dish in tow, only to find other chefs capitalizing on America's new-found interest in Hunanese cuisine had created their own versions, variously closer to the ubiquitous one popular in America today -- boneless, breaded, deep-fried chicken bites slathered in a rich sweet-and-sour sauce and garnished with broccoli.

Peng's early years as a New York restaurateur were not easy. His first establishment, Uncle Peng's Hunan Yuan, quickly faltered. Other Hunanese restaurants had already achieved wide success and despite his having invented General Tso's chicken, because he was a late-comer in New York, Peng had to fight the impression he was copying his competition, when, in fact, they had borrowed the idea from him, tweaking it to suit the American palate.

Undaunted, Peng borrowed money from friends and opened another restaurant, Yunnan Yuan, on East 52nd Street in Manhattan. Its success was bolstered by a high-profile regular customer, then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, whose presence conferred high society status on the eatery. Peng told The New York Times that Kissinger visited the restaurant every time he was in New York, with the two men striking up a lasting friendship.

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Though General Tso's chicken had become a hit at several prominent Hunanese restaurants in New York City, it wasn't until Peng recorded a cooking segment featuring the dish for ABC News that it achieved mass appeal. By that point, he had updated the recipe to include his take on the sweeter, sticky sauce and had begun using boneless chicken, as well. ABC received more than 1,500 requests from viewers seeking the recipe after the segment aired.

The irony of General Tso's chicken is that mentions of it in Peng's home Hunan province generally elicit blank stares from the people there. The dichotomy was explored in the 2014 documentary Searching for General Tso, in which filmmaker Ian Cheney researches the winding road that led to the creation of a staple in the modern American's ethnic diet.

A dish created in Taiwan and popularized in New York City has, more than any other for Americans, become synonymous with Hunanese culture and cuisine -- despite the fact it was never served there and bears virtually no resemblance to the otherwise spicy, sour dishes actually popular in the region.

An aging Peng was featured in the film and asked what he thought of his creation having become what it is today. He responded bemused, if not taken aback, that a simple Hunanese chicken dish had gone through so many changes as to be virtually unrecognizable from its conception, but a phenomenon in America nonetheless.

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"This is all crazy nonsense," he said.

Peng married three times and is survived by six of his seven children.

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