ixty years ago, Chinese food got a makeover. Its new look—in American restaurants, at least—revolved around a single piece of furniture, the “Lazy Susan” rotating table. Through the 1950s, many Chinatown restaurants had a reputation for being dingy and cramped, but the introduction of lazy susan tables was the key element in a transformation toward refined and spacious restaurants. Chinese food wasn't as ubiquitous back then as it is today, and it wasn't necessarily that Chinese, either. Staples like chow mein, chop suey, and fortune cookies had vague culinary roots in Asia, but all three were invented stateside.
Lazy Susans became standard fare during the 1960s. The Washington Post described a 1963 Chinese New Year celebration by highlighting crispy duck, shark's fin, and a Lazy Susan. The New York Times described one piled with crab rolls, dumplings, and moon cakes at a celebration of the 1965 Mid-Autumn festival. Diners gathered around a big round table, chopsticks ready, and turned the Lazy Susan to bring each dish within reach.
In the decades that followed, travel guides and restaurant reviews proclaimed the Lazy Susan a Chinese tradition. A popular book of food anthropology even called it an “ethically ideal table shape...[that] emphasizes the democratic nature of the meal.” But of course, tracing the roots of a tradition can be tricky business. Sometimes objects catch on because they're traditional. Other times, as in the case of fortune cookies, an object only seems traditional because it's so ubiquitous.
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