About Us

The truth is stranger than fiction...

"The Amazing Secret of the First Crazy American To Break Into
the Mysterious Fortune Cookie Making Business!"

y name is Mike Fry and I am a fortune cookie fanatic and flavoring pioneer. The story I'm about to tell you is the absolute truth, as incredible as it may seem. It will intrigue you and give you a glimpse into the ancient and very secretive world of the Chinese fortune cookie making business.

In late fall of 1987 I had a "crazy" idea that forever changed my life. (Check out the first newspaper article about my original concept!) While eating in my favorite small, local Chinese restaurant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I wondered "Why doesn't anyone make fortune cookies in fun colors and fruit flavors that actually taste good, like Jelly Belly does with its gourmet jelly beans?"

I was tired of my fortune cookies tasting bland, in one flavor choice and sometimes almost cardboard-like in taste. So, I decided to pioneer the idea and take on the challenge myself. Cold logic should have warned me about how hard my Willy Wonka style idea would be to pull off...

In fact, that "out of the box" decision has become my life's work and full-time career for the last 15 years! And it's taken me on a magical journey into the age-old-mystery of fortune cookie making and chinese proverbs.

I Talked with God!

I quit my job as a professional Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey clown. Yes! I was a clown with the "Greatest Show on Earth." In fact, you can still see my picture in the World Book Encyclopedia under the word "clown." Then, I set aside my own children's TV show which had been airing in 209 cities on FOX eight years in a row. I had an almost two-year wait for tickets to my 90-minute daily LIVE show and ratings that were some of the highest of any children's show in the midwest. It was a truly a performer's dream job!

But, I was determined that my NEW IDEA was a good one. So, I turned in my notice and left my job in October of 1990 to the shock and laughter of my family, the TV station and my friends. Who would want to buy "flavored" fortune cookies made by a former clown, everybody jokingly kept asking me. They were all certain I would fall flat on my face. And the truth is only long talks with God got me through many days!

Little did I know that I was trying to break into one of the most unusual and secretive food industries you could imagine. Especially for a guy from Indiana with no college or marketing degree. In fact, I was literally the first non-Chinese person to EVER begin actually making and manufacturing my own fortune cookies in gourmet flavors and colors. One other guy tried to break into the traditional fortune cookie industry in the late 1980's, but went belly-up after figuring out his idea wasn't welcomed in the small and very closed world of Chinese fortune cookie makers. Maybe I really was crazy I often thought.

A Totally Different Concept and Wild New Taste!

I called 8 different Chinese fortune cookie companies back in late 1987, and tried unsuccessfully to find any one of them that thought my idea of flavors and colors was a good idea. Finally, my 9th contact was willing to listen to me...

For the next 2 years we painstakingly experimented and created tens of thousands of bad looking AND bad tasting batches of fortune cookies. It was a frustrating and expensive learning curve.

Recipe after recipe after recipe...

Finally after a bazillion cookies -- we "cracked the code." We mastered the ancient art of making fortune cookies in vibrant colors and flavors. It was a EUREKA moment!

From that very small and humble beginning, I've gone from not just inventing the very first flavors introduced to the Chinese-only industry (my first five flavors were strawberry, lemon, orange, blueberry, and mint in 1987) but I've gone on to create and manufacture a whole fun menu-of-flavors and a fireworks of brilliant colors you can customize with your own messages or promotions inside.

Since 1987 I've invented a total of 17 different, delicious, and turbo-charged flavors used by many companies, restaurants and businesses across the U.S.

My goal is to make literally the best-tasting, best-looking and most memorable fortune cookies on the market. And I spare no expense in my chosen obsession!

I've also been blessed to work with best-selling authors Mark Victor Hansen (Co-Author, Chicken Soup for the Soul series) as part of the best-selling One Minute Millionaire, and Seth Godin (Unleashing the Idea Virus), having been featured in the online edition of best-seller, Purple Cow.