Inventor of General Tso’s Chicken Dies at 98
A terrible week in popular food innovation just got worse.
Peng Chang-kuei, the man who invented the popular General Tso's Chicken, died at the age of 98 on November 30 in Taipei.
His death comes after the passing of the man who created the Big Mac.
The dish features deep-fried chicken with vinegar soy sauce and a variety of spices.
Accroding to the Taiwan News, Peng, who organized government soirees in Taiwan, reportedly came up with the iconic meal several decades ago:
Peng says that his most famous dish was created in 1952 during a four-day visit by U.S. Seventh Fleet commander Admiral Arthur W. Radford. After three days, he had served the guests most of his repertoire of dishes, so to try and mix things up a bit, he decided to chop some chicken into big chunks, fry it to a golden hue and then added a different combination of sauce and seasoning to create a new dish.
The admiral was so impressed with the dish that he asked Peng what it was called, he thought quickly on his feet and said 'General Tso's Chicken.' Peng chose the name to honor General Tso, a famous military leader from Hunan who helped put down the Taiping Rebellion as well as other rebellions in the 1800s during the Qing Dynasty."
General Tso's chicken became such a hot ticket item -- pun intended -- that there was even a movie made about its creation.