Henry Low (chef)

Henry Low was a Chinese American chef at the Port Arthur Restaurant in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s, and has been credited as a possible inventor of the egg roll.

Not to be confused with Henry R. Low.
A cross-section of an egg roll.

Biography

Low was the head chef at Port Arthur, a popular Chinese restaurant on Mott Street in Manhattan. The restaurant primarily catered to white American patrons.[1] He is thought to have been Cantonese because of the pronunciations used in his restaurant menus.[2] In 1938, he published the cookbook Cook at Home in Chinese through Macmillan Publishers,[1] which includes a recipe for egg rolls which he called "Tchun Guen". The book is credited with popularizing American Chinese recipes.[3] He is one of two chefs in New York who may have invented the egg roll during the 1920s, the other being Lum Fong.[4]

References
  1. Sen, Mayukh (2021-11-16). Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-1-324-00452-3.
  2. Mendelson, Anne (2016-11-29). Chow Chop Suey: Food and the Chinese American Journey. Columbia University Press. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-231-54129-9.
  3. "The First Ethnic Cook Books of America — Rare Books Digest". rarebooksdigest.com. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  4. Smith, Andrew (2013-01-31). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. OUP USA. p. 673. ISBN 978-0-19-973496-2.
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