The Man Who Created General Tso’s Chicken Dies at 98

The man who gave us one of the most delicious entrees in the world has passed on. And we owe the Commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet for decades of delicious dinging.  Here's the story...

First, we lost the inventor of the Big Mac. And a few days later, we've lost Peng Chang-kuei, the man who invented the popular General Tso's Chicken. He died at the age of 98 on November 30 in Taipei.

The Taiwan News is reporting Peng organized big government parties in Taiwan, and came up with the idea in 1952.

Peng says that his most famous dish was created in 1952 during a four-day visit by U.S. Seventh Fleet commander Admiral Arthur W. Radford. After three days, he had served the guests most of his repertoire of dishes, so to try and mix things up a bit, he decided to chop some chicken into big chunks, fry it to a golden hue and then added a different combination of sauce and seasoning to create a new dish.

The admiral was so impressed with the dish that he asked Peng what it was called, he thought quickly on his feet and said 'General Tso's Chicken.' Peng chose the name to honor General Tso, a famous military leader from Hunan who helped put down the Taiping Rebellion as well as other rebellions in the 1800s during the Qing Dynasty."

Did you know there's a movie about his chicken? It's true!