La Choy
La Choy is a brand name of canned and prepackaged American Chinese food ingredients. The brand is currently owned by ConAgra Foods.
Early history
La Choy was founded in 1922 by Dr. Ilhan New (유일한), later founder of Yuhan Corporation in Korea and Wally Smith, from the University of Michigan. The first product, canned mung bean sprouts, was originally sold in Smith's Detroit grocery store. [1]
New left the company for personal reasons in 1930 and Smith was killed by lightning in 1937, but the company continued to flourish. By the late 1930s management at the firm had developed a comprehensive line of food products, including bean sprouts, La Choy soy sauce, Subgum, kumquats, water chestnuts, brown sauce, bamboo shoots, and chow mein noodles.
The company had capitalized on the growing fascination Americans had with the Orient, including an entirely different type of cuisine. In 1937, the company built its first manufacturing facility in Detroit, Michigan, with 60,000 square feet of production space.
To reduce overhead costs and maintain profitability during World War II, management decided to relocate the company from its facility in Detroit, Michigan to new headquarters in Archbold, Ohio. Selling its Detroit plant to the federal government for the production of munitions, the proceeds from the sale enabled the company to start a new era in its history.
Marketing and advertising
An advertising jingle included the slogan "LaChoy makes Chinese food swing American", as seen in this 1960s TV ad.
Early in his career the puppeteer Jim Henson created a series of television commercials in the late 1960s featuring a muppet character of the La Choy Dragon which used the catchphrase "cooked in dragon fire" to describe the product, viewable here.
See also
- Mein gon (crunchy chow mein noodles)
- Chop suey
- Chow mein sandwich
External links
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