General Tso's chicken is a pillar of American takeout, but the general it is named for, Zuo Zongtang, was a Qing dynasty statesman who died in 1885, long before the dish existed. This episode follows chef Peng Chang-kuei, a Hunan-trained cook who fled the Chinese Civil War with the Nationalist government to Taiwan, cooked for senior KMT figures, and produced two incompatible origin stories for his signature dish: a three-day banquet for U.S. Admiral Arthur Radford, or a late-night scramble for Chiang Ching-kuo.

We then move to 1970s New York, where Peng opened a restaurant in 1973 and collided with T.T. Wang of Shun Lee Palace, whose crispy battered General Ching's chicken likely supplied the texture Americans now expect. We trace how the savory, soy-and-chili original became a sugary glaze, and how Peng's 1990s return to Hunan ended with l ...