Walk down the dubious ethnic aisle of an American supermarket, past the Old El Paso taco dinner kits and jars of Indian and Korean sauté sauces, and you’re bound to find them: canned “chop suey” vegetables, bottled soy sauce and teriyaki sauce, maybe a box of fortune cookies, and crispy twigs of fried noodles in a can, all from a brand called La Choy. Today, the logo has the Chinese character for “east” beside the brand name. But the company’s true origins lie in the Midwest.
In 1922, two friends from the University of Michigan founded La Choy in Detroit. One hundred years later, its mass-produced Chinese food products, designed to “add spark to your meal planning” with “delicious, different Chinatown meals,” per a 1958 recipe booklet from the brand, are a nationwide business with annual sales of $75 to $80 million. Neither founder was Chinese.
Much of the discussion over the history of American Chinese food has been centered around the resilience and resourcefulness that scores of small, independent Chinese restaurants—helmed by immigrant Chinese Americans—determined to crystallize a new American cuisine, in spite of restrictions and racial animus. Classic dishes like chop suey and (much later on) General Tso’s chicken were adapted for American tastes and demands. But thanks to its mass production, distribution, and advertising of products that have remained largely unchanged for the last century, La Choy has had a large and lasting impact on Chinese food in America. To many Americans, the brand’s ubiquitous kits, sauces, tinned vegetables, and recipes for dishes like chow mein (with crispy noodles on top, rather than below a saucy topping) simply are Chinese food.
“One of the things that appeals about this brand is the consistency—it’s not necessarily bringing anything new to the category,” says Dan Skinner, communications manager at Conagra Brands, the food conglomerate that has owned La Choy since 1990. The core offerings haven’t changed much over the years—you can still get canned bean sprouts, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots, just like in the 1920s.
Sales are consistent, if not stronger than ever, according to Skinner, who provided the annual sales estimate. In the United States, La Choy is the top-selling brand for chow mein noodles and Asian vegetables, and the second-best-selling brand for soy sauce behind Kikkoman.
“Non–Chinese American individuals and organizations such as La Choy played a role in the development of Chinese food in America,” says Yong Chen, professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America. “This is something that some of us who write about that history sometimes did not pay sufficient attention to.”