HOME COOKING with la choy food products
La Choy is one of the most popular brands of processed Chinese food ingredients. When many
Americans think of Chinese cooking, they think of the La Choy
brand.
COMPANY HISTORY
The following company history is taken from the promotional
booklet, The Wonderful World of Oriental Cookery (La
Choy Food Products, 1975):
"La Choy Food Products was founded over 50 years ago
by a Korean and an American who became friends while attending
the University of Michigan. Later, when Wally Smith
owned a grocery store in Detroit and wanted to sell fresh bean
sprouts, he called upon his friend Ilhan New--who knew how to
grow them."
"The bean sprouts were popular, so Smith and New began
canning them, first in glass jars, and then in metal cans, and
so La Choy (the name is Chinese for "good luck")
began."
"The company continued to grow until World War
II. Then the U.S. government purchased the La Choy plant
in Detroit, using it for military production, and the La Choy
stockholders voted to relocated the company in its present
site, Archbold, Ohio. Since Chinese food products were
not considered essential to the war effort, the company
processed tomato products throughout the war. In 1942,
the company became a division of Beatrice Foods Co.
Following World War II, production of Oriental foods was
resumed."
Today, La Choy Food Products is the world's largest
producer of Oriental foods. Choice ingredients come to
the Archbold plant from all over the world, to be transformed
into chow mein noodles, egg rolls, sauces, and canned and
frozen Chinese dinners and specialties. Some ingredients
are grown by the company itself. For instance, bean
sprouts--essential to choy mein and chop suey--are grown in
the La Choy plant in an indoor hydroponic garden."
They began selling soy sauce under the La Choy label in 1933.
By 1975 La Choy produced over 50 different Oriental foods,
both canned and frozen.
In 1943 the company was purchased by the Beatrice Creamery (which
was renamed Beatrice Foods in 1946). Beatrice was taken
over in a leveraged buyout in 1986 and their brands were sold
off one by one.
ConAgra acquired the Lay Choy portion of Beatrice Foods
from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (the buyout firm) in 1990 and continues to
produce and market the La Choy brand of soy sauce, canned
vegetables, dinner kits and frozen foods.
Visit the official La
Choy website.
LA CHOY RECIPES
Nutty-Noodly
Clusters
No-Bake Walnut Balls
Noodle Raisin Cookies
LA CHOY ADVERTISING COOKBOOKS AND RECIPE BOOKLETS
 As you can see from the list below, there are many
printings and editions of the title "The Art and Secrets
of Chinese Cookery".
Many of the editions have
different covers contents. The booklet shown at the left
is from 1962.
You can find La Choy cookbooks and recipe booklets
here.
La Choy Book of Chinese Recipes, 1925, 12 pages
La Choy Chinese Recipes, 1929, 14 pages
The Art and Secrets of Chinese Cookery, 1931, 15 pages
The Art and Secrets of Chinese Cookery, 1932, 15 pages
The Art and Secrets of Chinese Cookery, 1935, 15 pages
The Art and Secrets of Chinese Cookery, 1937, 16 pages
The Art and Secrets of Chinese Cookery, 1942, 26 pages
La Choy Chinese Cookery, 1949
The Art and Secrets of Chinese Cookery, 1954, 30 pages
The Art and Secrets of Chinese Cookery, 1958, 31 pages
The Art and Secrets of Chinese Cookery, 1959, 30 pages
The Art and Secrets of Chinese Cookery, 1962, 30 pages
The Wonderful World of Oriental Cookery, 1975, 24 pages
The La Choy Collection of Favorite Oriental Recipes, undated, 12 pages
Favorite All Time Recipes - La Choy Simple Classics, 1993, 95 pages
Go to
Cookbook Lists
Main Page
LA CHOY COLLECTIBLES
Some of the more popular La Choy collectibles are:
Delbert, the inflatable 3-ft dragon
La Chew, Wacky Packages stickers
Vintage La Choy Magazine Advertisements
La Choy cans, boxes, bottles and labels
Vintage La Choy cookbooks
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