Michael Tong, owner of New York's Shun Lee Palaces, says "We opened the first Hunanese restaurant in the whole country, and the four dishes we offered you will see on the menu of practically every Hunanese restaurant in America today. 65th St.), also claims that it was the first restaurant to serve General Tso's chicken and that it was invented by a Chinese immigrant chef named T. New York's Shun Lee Palaces, located at East (155 E. Peng died from pneumonia in November 2016 at 98 years old. A review of Peng's in 1977 mentions that their "General Tso's chicken was a stir-fried masterpiece, sizzling hot both in flavor and temperature".
Since the dish (and cuisine) was new, Peng made it the house specialty in spite of the dish's commonplace ingredients. Peng's Restaurant on East 44th Street in New York City claims that it was the first restaurant in the city to serve General Tso's chicken. When Peng opened a restaurant in Hunan in the 1990s introducing General Tso's chicken, the restaurant closed without success, as the locals found the dish too sweet. The popularity of the dish has led to it being adopted by local Hunanese chefs and food writers. One new dish, General Tso's chicken, was originally prepared without sugar and subsequently altered to suit the tastes of "non-Hunanese people". There he continued his career as official chef until 1973, when he moved to New York to open a restaurant. Peng was the Nationalist government's banquet chef and fled with Kuomintang forces to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. Chicken, General Ching's chicken, General Jong's Chicken, General Sauce Chicken, House Chicken, or simply General's Chicken.įuchsia Dunlop argues that the recipe was invented by Taiwan-based Hunan cuisine chef Peng Chang-kuei, who had been an apprentice of Cao Jingchen ( 曹藎臣), a leading early 20th-century Chinese chef. General Tao’s chicken, General Gao's / Gau's chicken, General Mao's chicken, General Tsao's chicken, General Tong's chicken, General Tang's chicken, General T's Chicken, General Cho's chicken, General Chow's chicken, General Chai's chicken, General Joe's Chicken, T.S.O. The dish or its variants are known by a number of variant names, including: Consistent with this interpretation, the dish name is sometimes (but considerably less commonly) found in Chinese as 左宗棠雞 ( Chung tong gai is transliterated from Jyutping Zuǒ Zōngtáng jī is transliterated from Hanyu Pinyin). Eileen Yin-Fei Lo states in her book The Chinese Kitchen that the dish originates from a simple Hunan chicken dish and that the reference to " Zongtang" was not a reference to Zuo Zongtang's given name, but rather a reference to the homonym " zongtang (宗堂)", meaning "ancestral meeting hall". There are several stories concerning the origin of the dish.
Moreover, Zuo's descendants, who are still living in Xiangyin County, when interviewed, said that they had never heard of such a dish.
The dish is found neither in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, nor in Xiangyin County, where Zuo was born. The dish has been associated with Zuo Zongtang (Tso Tsung-t'ang) (1812–1885), a Qing dynasty statesman and military leader from Hunan Province, but Zuo could not have eaten the dish or known of it. The dish is named after Zuo Zongtang (also romanized Tso Tsung-t'ang), a Qing dynasty statesman and military leader, although there is no recorded connection to him nor is the dish known in Hunan, Zuo's home province.
General Tso's Chicken ( Chinese: 左宗棠雞, pronounced ), also called “General Tao’s”, “General Gao’s”, or “General Tsao’s” chicken is a Taiwanese sweet and spicy deep-fried chicken dish that is commonly served in North American Chinese restaurants.