(swanky music)
- [Presenter] This factory makes 10000 fortune cookies a day
but you won't find them in any restaurant.
Instead, Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory
relies only on tourism.
Kevin Chan runs this small San Francisco factory
with just a handful of employees.
It's been in his family since 1962.
The factory makes money by selling fortune cookies directly
to customers, and by charging to take pictures
and film video inside.
A batch of 50 custom cookies starts at $17.50.
Smaller souvenir styles for $2.00,
and a perfect Instagram picture will cost you $0.50.
You can also customize your fortune.
- And people want cheap fortune cookies.
They're in the wrong place.
My ingredients are better.
- [Presenter] The cookie batter contains sesame seeds,
flour, eggs, sugar, butter, and flavorings.
As a small business,
Golden Gate is more vulnerable to swings in the price
of these ingredients.
- The challenge, butter.
It drives me nuts.
They know, you know, when to go up and when to go down.
And when it go down means it's not go up.
It goes all the way up and goes down a little bit.
- [Presenter] And that affects the price of the cookies,
making them more expensive than the ones consumers will find
in a restaurant or takeout.
- I want them happy.
I want them to taste the real fortune cookies, the real one,
the real one that make by hand.
- [Presenter] The process starts with the batter.
It's put on hot plates to make a four and a half minute trip
through the oven.
While they're still hot, they're shaped by hand
with a fortune slipped inside.
Golden Gate is open year round,
so tourists can cram into the small front area,
taking pictures, and tasting the cookies.
And the cookies that don't meet Chan's quality standards?
Well, they're handed out free of charge
and that's because profits aren't even his main concern.
- The whole business is to serve the people,
serve the community, and serve the city
of San Francisco tourism.
We are part of the tourism because whenever they come
to San Francisco, they think of Chinatown,
they think of fortune cookie.
They think of Golden Gate Fortune Cookie.