You may have believed that the fortune cookie has a history that goes back hundreds of years and was born in China, but neither of those assumptions are true. In fact, the fortune cookie was actually created in the United States by a Japanese immigrant.
According to the Smithsonian Institute, Suyeichi Okamura is the inventor of the tasty treat packed full of prophecies.
Suyeichi came to the U.S. and started Benkyodo, a Japanese confectionery store in San Francisco, in 1906. Suyeichi brought with him the recipe for a Japanese cookie that resembled the modern-day fortune cookie that dates back as far as the 19th century and was popular in Kyoto, Japan. They called the random fortunes “omikuji,” and the Japanese cookies were larger, contained sesame and miso. Suyeichu made his cookies smaller and lighter in color than the original ones from Japan and used vanilla and butter instead of sesame and miso.
