Easy family recipes from a Chinese-American childhood - Ken Hom (1997)

A stark contrast from the previous authors and chefs, Ken Hom, popular Chinese American chef, describes egg foo young as “the worst aspect of the tendencies of Cantonese cooks to give the foreign customers what they wanted--in this case dry, crispy omelets drenched in a brown sauce, served with plenty of soy sauce on the table.” in his cookbook, Easy family recipes from a Chinese-American childhood. While Hom scoffs at the dish, similar to how Americans today scoff at British Chinese dishes, Hom shares his experience with “The original Cantonese version”, where “Foo Young” translates to “egg white”, or “hibiscus”, a delicate name for the delicate “Chinese version of Egg Foo Young”. Hom recognizes that even between just the small amount of time between his introduction to Chinese American cuisine from his youth to the Chinese American cuisine of the late 1900s, the time period of his cookbook, the US’ relationship with Chinese food had already become more geared to authenticity: “In today’s Chinese restaurants,” Hom states, “you can now experience the delightful original”.

But while Hom claims the Cantonese version to be “an authentic classical Chinese dish”, he also recognizes that tomatoes, used in his authentic rendition, are products of the New World. From Hom’s recipes, we see authenticity comes not from just the ingredients that originate from China, as ingredients “borrowed” from elsewhere can create authenticity, and so is it because authentic egg foo young was created in China? And so a clear look of what makes the dish “non authentic”, or different from the original, is needed.

Other than the use of added ingredients such as water chestnuts, celery, and green peppers, the main difference between Hom’s written American recipe of egg foo young versus his authentic Cantonese one is the addition “sloppy brown sauce” made with chicken stock, soy sauce, sesame oil, and seasonings to taste, thickened with cornstarch a slurry. In the previous recipes of egg foo young given by Chang and Yan, despite claiming their renditions of egg foo young to be authentic, the recipes include sauce. Hériteau's recipes do not.