Teh One Who Knocks
02-11-2013, 12:17 PM
By GARY BUISO - The New York Post
Romance is dead — in your fortune cookie!
The world’s largest fortune-cookie manufacturer has cut the heart out of its confections, removing romantic messages in response to complaints from parents of young children.
“Some parents sent us e-mails. They said they didn’t want their kids reading them,” said Derrick Wong, a VP at Brooklyn-based Wonton Food. “Different people have a different perspective.”
Gone are suggestive fortunes such as, “One who admires you greatly is hidden before your eyes,” “Romance and travel go together,” “The evening promises romantic interest,” and “A romantic mystery will soon add interest to your life.”
Company officials said they understood why parents said some of their cookies were too hot to handle.
“Romance and travel, for example. Suppose you’re on a business trip with a colleague, that doesn’t mean you want to have a romantic affair,” said Danny Zeng, another VP at Wonton.
Zeng said that if he gets more than two or three complaints about a fortune, he’ll screen it out.
“We want to put messages inside our cookies that don’t upset a single person. We don’t want customers to have negative feelings,” he said.
Wong added, “Messages have to be rated G. They can’t be offensive.”
Saucy messages have been replaced by milder fare, such as, “You make every day special,” “No one on Earth is as beautiful as you,” and “Only love makes us see ordinary things in an extraordinary way.”
Fortune-cookie experts agree it’s best to keep messages bland.
“This makes sense because romance is tricky. There’s no one size fits all,” said Jennifer 8. Lee, author of “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.”
“You never know who will get the cookie,” she said. “ ‘You will meet a tall, dark stranger,’ means one thing to a 20-year-old fashionista — and another to a 6-year-old kid. Romantic messages aren’t one size fits all.”
The company churns out five million cookies every day from manufacturing plants in Long Island City, Queens, and Houston, Texas, shipping them to stores and restaurants nationwide. It boasts a catalog of about 10,000 fortunes, keeping about 5,000 or so in rotation at any given time.
And it routinely tweaks its fortunes. For example, “You will inherit a great fortune soon,” was recently amended to “You will take over a great fortune soon.”
“People said, ‘I love my relatives and don’t want them to die soon,’ ” Zeng explained.
Romance is dead — in your fortune cookie!
The world’s largest fortune-cookie manufacturer has cut the heart out of its confections, removing romantic messages in response to complaints from parents of young children.
“Some parents sent us e-mails. They said they didn’t want their kids reading them,” said Derrick Wong, a VP at Brooklyn-based Wonton Food. “Different people have a different perspective.”
Gone are suggestive fortunes such as, “One who admires you greatly is hidden before your eyes,” “Romance and travel go together,” “The evening promises romantic interest,” and “A romantic mystery will soon add interest to your life.”
Company officials said they understood why parents said some of their cookies were too hot to handle.
“Romance and travel, for example. Suppose you’re on a business trip with a colleague, that doesn’t mean you want to have a romantic affair,” said Danny Zeng, another VP at Wonton.
Zeng said that if he gets more than two or three complaints about a fortune, he’ll screen it out.
“We want to put messages inside our cookies that don’t upset a single person. We don’t want customers to have negative feelings,” he said.
Wong added, “Messages have to be rated G. They can’t be offensive.”
Saucy messages have been replaced by milder fare, such as, “You make every day special,” “No one on Earth is as beautiful as you,” and “Only love makes us see ordinary things in an extraordinary way.”
Fortune-cookie experts agree it’s best to keep messages bland.
“This makes sense because romance is tricky. There’s no one size fits all,” said Jennifer 8. Lee, author of “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.”
“You never know who will get the cookie,” she said. “ ‘You will meet a tall, dark stranger,’ means one thing to a 20-year-old fashionista — and another to a 6-year-old kid. Romantic messages aren’t one size fits all.”
The company churns out five million cookies every day from manufacturing plants in Long Island City, Queens, and Houston, Texas, shipping them to stores and restaurants nationwide. It boasts a catalog of about 10,000 fortunes, keeping about 5,000 or so in rotation at any given time.
And it routinely tweaks its fortunes. For example, “You will inherit a great fortune soon,” was recently amended to “You will take over a great fortune soon.”
“People said, ‘I love my relatives and don’t want them to die soon,’ ” Zeng explained.