by Bert Sackman

Created on: January 12, 2010   Last Updated: January 14, 2010

The Case of Chinese Chicken Salad

Sylvia Lovegren wrote “Whatever its provenance, Chinese chicken salad, which was all the rage in the mid to late 1970’s, has virtually disappeared from restaurant menus.” (Fashionable Food, 1995, p.109). Today, Chinese chicken salad can be found on the menus of California Pizza Kitchen, Cheesecake Factory, Mimi’s Café, Claim Jumper, Factor’s Famous Delicatessen, Pei Wei, Carrow’s, Togo’s, Daily Grill, Wolfgang Puck Express  and Chin Chin, to name but a few restaurants carrying the dish. Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois still serves Chinese chicken salad, listing it as one of the restaurant’s classic items. Wendy’s calls its version Mandarin chicken salad. P. F. Chang claims its Oriental chicken salad derives from Cecilia Chiang who claimed to invent it at the Mandarin Restaurant.

Chinese chicken salad, Caesar salad and Cobb salad are the big three salads that define the importance of Hollywood celebrity. Caesar salad was created by Caesar Cardini in the 1920’s and became the signature salad belonging to the Hollywood movie community. Bob Cobb created the salad bearing his name at the Brown Derby for Sid Grauman. Grauman, and, later, other Hollywood celebrities, kept asking for Cobb’s salad and the word spread. Before the decade ended, Cobb salad was on the menu at the Drake Hotel in Chicago.

Okay, so Lovegren’s obituary was premature.

Caesar Cardini invented Caesar salad. Bob Cobb invented Cobb salad. So, who invented Chinese chicken salad? And when?

Wolfgang Puck created Chinese chicken salad. No, it was Madame Wu who created Chinese chicken salad. No, Madame Wong created it. Or was it Wallace Tom? Or, maybe, Cecilia Chiang? Did Johnny Kan invent Chinese chicken salad? Or, perhaps, there’s another suspect lurking in the background.

Wolfgang Puck opened Chinois, his second restaurant, in 1983. The version of Chinese chicken salad created at Chinois is famous throughout America. Twenty-five years later, it is still on the Chinois menu, listed as one of the restaurant’s classic dishes. Chinois chicken salad, thanks to the Food Network and the Wolfgang Puck Express chain, is probably the most famous interpretation of Chinese chicken salad (There are two Chinois recipes, one displayed on Puck’s website and the other demonstrated on the Food Network). But, even if Puck served Chinese chicken salad at Ma Maison in 1975, he wouldn’t

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