In most Chinese-American restaurants, you will find egg rolls – cylindrical treats commonly filled with shredded cabbage, pork and other vegetables, although there are plenty of variations. They are wrapped in a thick skin, usually made from wheat flour, and deep fried to create a very crunchy exterior with a blistered appearance. They are generally eaten by hand, and commonly dipped in duck sauce or mustard.
Are egg rolls a traditional Chinese dish, or were they invented in the United States? If they were invented here, who created them? These questions do not have easy answers, but I decided to explore the evidence to reach the best conclusions.
First, there are conflicting viewpoints as to whether egg rolls are an authentic Chinese dish or not. It seems likely that egg rolls are a variation of the Chinese spring roll, having a thicker wrapper. Second, most sources contend that there are two Chinese chefs who claim to have invented the egg roll.
I believe there is far greater evidence for one of those chefs being the actual inventor of the egg roll. The first documented reference to a deep fried egg roll may be in 1934, although it allegedly existed prior to that. Perhaps as early as 1925.
The first alleged inventor was Henry Low, who started working at the famous Port Arthur Restaurant in New York’s Chinatown in 1928. His main prominence came from his cookbook, Cook At Home In Chinese, which was published in 1938. It had a recipe for “Egg Roll (Tchun Guen),” although “tchun guen” actually refers to spring rolls, a traditional Chinese dish. The interior was filled with shredded, canned bamboo shoots, shredded roast pork, fresh shrimp, scallions, chopped & peeled water chestnuts, salt, gourmet powder, sugar and pepper.
This is the primary evidence for Low’s claim that he is the roll’s inventor, but there is no supporting evidence. It is simply Low’s word that he was the creator, and his cookbook was not even the first piece of media with a printed recipe for egg rolls.
It is far more likely that the other candidate, Lum Fong, was the inventor, and possibly as far back as 1925. He opened his own Chinese restaurant in New York City in 1925, where it became hugely popular.
The first newspaper reference I found for a fried egg roll was in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (NY), May 14, 1934. It mentioned that one of the dishes available at Lum Fong’s Restaurant was ”Lum Har Chun Guen,” a lobster egg roll.
The first detailed reference to egg rolls, including the first printed recipe, was found in the Muncie Evening Press (IN), October 6, 1934. This article and recipe were reprinted in many other newspapers across the country, dating four years before Low’s cookbook was published. Fong’s recipe called for the egg roll fillings to include fresh or canned shrimp, bamboo shoots, and roast pork. The newspaper recipe concluded, stating the egg roll could be served with a “dash of English mustard.”
Starting in 1935, newspapers in states other than New York started running advertisements for restaurants serving egg rolls. It was also at the end of the 1930s, in multiple newspapers, that Lum Fong began receiving recognition as the creator of the egg roll.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (NY), November 24, 1939, noted, “The Egg Roll, one of the most popular of Chinese dishes, was originated on Canal Street by Lum Fong, the restaurateur, who serves hundreds of them daily.”
The most extensive article on the invention of the egg roll was in The Kilgore News Herald (TX), December 12, 1940. It began, “This month marks the 15th anniversary of an event that passed with scarcely a ripple in 1925 and yet has had some effect on the American palate. It is the time the Chinese egg roll was introduced into the United States by a rotund pleasant faced Oriental who since has assumed responsibility for much of the exotic food diners get when they go to a Chinese restaurant.”
The article continued, “His name is Lum Fong. He spent this anniversary puttering around in the kitchen whence emanated the first American made egg rolls, the delicacy that gave the chop suey-chow mein industry the shot in the arm that has produced so many hundreds of places now dedicated to Chinese food.”
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (NY), January 31, 1941, continued to champion Lum Fong, printing, “Lum Fong’s walnut shrimp rolls are even more popular with his patrons than the egg roll, which he first introduced.” Almost ten years later, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (NY), December 6, 1950, noted “Lum Fong’s Canal St. place will be 25 years old Sunday. It was here he introduced the egg roll and wonton soup to America.” And the Detroit Times (MI), March 4, 1951, mentioned, “It was Lum Fong who first introduced Egg Roll to America.”
Henry Low never received all of this press and recognition supporting his alleged claim. The evidence is weighted much more heavily in favor of Lum Fong as being the inventor of the egg roll, possibly as far back as 1925.
