The Story Behind It All
In 1960, a young Chinese man in Chicago started a business around a simple product: a Chinese eggroll. Armed with a homemade recipe for his eggroll, he created Chun's Gourmet Cuisine. Little did he know, this business would change the lives of generations to come, giving them a future to succeed and prosper. He was my grandfather, and this is his story.
Originally from San Francisco, Harry Chun was a Renaissance man. Though studying to be an engineer, he selflessly dropped out in 1930 to support his family in China. Unphased by this setback, he worked around the world doing odd jobs: everything from flying planes for Boeing to working as a cook on ocean liners. He eventually settled in Chicago where he married my grandmother and started a fledgling family. Unemployed, the family needed a way to support itself. Calling on his worldly experience in cooking, my grandfather opened Chun's Gourmet Cuisine in 1965 as a brand new Chinese food company. My grandparents hired a single worker and payed him with their unemployment checks; otherwise, the business was totally reliant on family workers. The first years were full of experimentation, starting out with items such as shrimp chips. However, within several years, the business eventually settled down on what would become their icon for the next 32 years. Indeed, the Chun eggroll was a product that lifted the company past all expectations.
Made from scratch in Chinatown, the eggrolls were hand-rolled, shaped, and cooked with secret techniques. In a period where much was being done by automated machines, our eggrolls' quality stood out among all others. For more than three decades, my father, uncles, and grandparents would morph a small, Chinatown based business into a sprawling company. By the height of its success, Chun's Gourmet eggrolls would be found nationwide in hotels such as the Hilton, Hyatt, Double-Tree, Four Seasons, and Palmer House. We shipped out thousand of eggrolls every week to prime venues and prestigious locations. Meanwhile, Chun's Gourmet sauces could be found in fourteen states, grocery stores, and restaurants across the country. Elite country clubs such as Butler National began to carry the Chun brand; even United Airlines requested to serve our eggrolls on intercontinental flights. What had started as a tiny family business with one worker had grown into the company that would support generations of Chuns. By the time the company was sold in 1998, Harry had achieved the American Dream.
This story is deeply personal to me on many levels. It shows to me how much I owe to the hard work and dedication that my grandfather put into this business. It has helped me understand what we are capable of with perseverance and a dream. Furthermore, it is a story which I feel reflects who I am and who I want to be. It may sound silly, even outrageous, but my family and I owe a great deal to the humble eggroll. It allowed my father to go to college and meet my mother, and it gave our entire family great opportunity for the future.
Within this poetry project I hope to share how the eggroll reflects my life and the life I would like to live. Each of the steps for eggroll making are associated with a quality or value that I identify myself with. Furthermore, each section has a collection of poems describing, manifesting, or pondering the theme. Some are written by myself and others by a variety of poets; regardless, I hope you enjoy this personal scrapbook and feel the connections in your own life to the humble eggroll.
Thank You,
Robert Chun
Originally from San Francisco, Harry Chun was a Renaissance man. Though studying to be an engineer, he selflessly dropped out in 1930 to support his family in China. Unphased by this setback, he worked around the world doing odd jobs: everything from flying planes for Boeing to working as a cook on ocean liners. He eventually settled in Chicago where he married my grandmother and started a fledgling family. Unemployed, the family needed a way to support itself. Calling on his worldly experience in cooking, my grandfather opened Chun's Gourmet Cuisine in 1965 as a brand new Chinese food company. My grandparents hired a single worker and payed him with their unemployment checks; otherwise, the business was totally reliant on family workers. The first years were full of experimentation, starting out with items such as shrimp chips. However, within several years, the business eventually settled down on what would become their icon for the next 32 years. Indeed, the Chun eggroll was a product that lifted the company past all expectations.
Made from scratch in Chinatown, the eggrolls were hand-rolled, shaped, and cooked with secret techniques. In a period where much was being done by automated machines, our eggrolls' quality stood out among all others. For more than three decades, my father, uncles, and grandparents would morph a small, Chinatown based business into a sprawling company. By the height of its success, Chun's Gourmet eggrolls would be found nationwide in hotels such as the Hilton, Hyatt, Double-Tree, Four Seasons, and Palmer House. We shipped out thousand of eggrolls every week to prime venues and prestigious locations. Meanwhile, Chun's Gourmet sauces could be found in fourteen states, grocery stores, and restaurants across the country. Elite country clubs such as Butler National began to carry the Chun brand; even United Airlines requested to serve our eggrolls on intercontinental flights. What had started as a tiny family business with one worker had grown into the company that would support generations of Chuns. By the time the company was sold in 1998, Harry had achieved the American Dream.
This story is deeply personal to me on many levels. It shows to me how much I owe to the hard work and dedication that my grandfather put into this business. It has helped me understand what we are capable of with perseverance and a dream. Furthermore, it is a story which I feel reflects who I am and who I want to be. It may sound silly, even outrageous, but my family and I owe a great deal to the humble eggroll. It allowed my father to go to college and meet my mother, and it gave our entire family great opportunity for the future.
Within this poetry project I hope to share how the eggroll reflects my life and the life I would like to live. Each of the steps for eggroll making are associated with a quality or value that I identify myself with. Furthermore, each section has a collection of poems describing, manifesting, or pondering the theme. Some are written by myself and others by a variety of poets; regardless, I hope you enjoy this personal scrapbook and feel the connections in your own life to the humble eggroll.
Thank You,
Robert Chun
