Step into this hidden Sacramento bakery where owner crafts 32,000 fortune cookies a day
Inside Look is a Sacramento Bee series where we take readers behind the scenes at restaurants, new businesses, local landmarks and news stories.
You can tell when New World Co. in downtown Sacramento is open for business.
Sweet aromas of vanilla and sugar linger along 10th Street and Q Street, where the small fortune cookie factory is located.
Gentle squeaks emerge from the ground floor of a Victorian-era duplex as three industrial-sized machines churn out batches of crisp crescent-shaped cookies.
Most of the thousands of cookies made daily are sold wholesale to supermarkets and local restaurants such as Frank Fat’s in downtown Sacramento and Jade Fountain Cafe on Freeport Boulevard. The factory also makes custom bulk orders for events.
Hankering for a lightly sweet treat or need a lucky fortune? New World Co. has you covered, too.
How does Sacramento bakery make fortune cookies?
Yasheng Feng has been running New World Co. for the past eight years.
His friend’s uncle, Qiang Yee, started the fortune cookie factory in 1990. Feng took over the business when Yee retired, keeping the cookie operation fairly the same — ingredients, machines and all.
Feng makes tens of thousands of cookies each week, he recently told The Sacramento Bee, using Google to translate from Mandarin to English.
“Three machines, one day, six hours, about 32,000 fortune cookies,” the 41-year-old said, adding that he usually works Monday through Friday.
The exact amount of cookies he makes and sells varies each day, however, depending on the orders that come in from customers.
On a typical day, Feng will start at 7 a.m., switching on the gas-powered machines.
While he waits for the machines to get hot, he mixes up the batter, stirring together pastry flour, sugar, margarine, vanilla extract and water.
Feng said he makes the batter fresh every day in the morning.
By 7:30 a.m., the mixture is poured into a cylinder pot. Through a spout, the machine squirts a little more than a tablespoon of batter onto flat, circular plates.
Like clockwork, the plates rotate while a lid closes onto the dollop of batter to flatten it.
The plates then enter an underpass heated with blue flames where the mixture bakes and emerges as golden disks.
In assembly line order, a contraption peels the flat cookies off the plates. They’re then rotated onto the second part of the machine where little white paper fortunes are tucked into the cookies.
Within seconds, the cookies are pinched into shape.
Feng also uses some of the batter to make giant fortune cookies with a machine that Yee left him.
Those super-sized cookies are folded into their signature shape by hand, Feng said.
New World Co. is ‘a hidden gem’
At New World Co., you can buy a 1-pound bag of perfectly crescent-shaped cookies for $3 or a giant, fortune cookie the size of your palm for $6.
You can get a bag of flat cookies — sans fortunes — for $3.
The factory also offers misshapen and broken crisps for sale.
From time to time, the cookies get stuck on the round hot plates or cool down and harden before they can be folded. These are either tossed away or are sold for $2 a bag.
Feng said about 20 to 30 customers come by the store daily. Most of whom have shopped at New World Co. for a long time.
“It smells good in here,” one woman said on a recent Wednesday morning as she popped into the store to grab a bag of golden fortune cookies.
Sometimes, new customers will trickle into the factory.
Feng said he’s happy to hear about how people found the shop, adding that many discover it by word of mouth. Others are lured in by the smell of freshly baked cookies.
“I was biking by one day and I smelled it in the air,” said Ervin Carr, a Southside Park resident who recently stopped into the factory to buy a bag of cookies.
After biking by the shop a couple of times, Carr said, he realized New World Co. was selling fortune cookies.
“I was super excited,” he said. “I came in, started buying bags. I think I’ve been coming consistently probably a month and a half now.”
Carr said he’s been spreading the word about New World Co.
“It smells great, good energy and always great customer service,” he said. “Definitely a hidden gem.”
Where does downtown factory get its fortunes?
Most days, Feng said he works alone. If it’s busy, however, a friend will come over and help make and pack the cookies.
After nearly a decade in business, Feng said he hasn’t gotten bored.
“I like this job very much,” he said. “I think it will bring happiness to everyone”
Feng said he enjoys having the freedom to arrange his own schedule.
He also loves to eat fortune cookies, adding that he tries one each day before selling them.
“I always eat these (cookies),” he said. “If I don’t make them delicious, I won’t be able to sell them to my customers.”
When Yee and his family ran New World Co., the factory made custom fortunes for birthdays, weddings and businesses, The Sacramento Bee reported in 2006.
This time around, Feng sources his fortunes from a company in San Francisco, and the messages they feature are generally positive and witty.
“Your life will be prosperous if you use your creativity,” one fortune promised.
“Visit a park,” another fortune said. “Enjoy what nature has to offer.”
Where is New World Co. located? When does it open?
New World Co. is located at 1713 10th St. in Sacramento.
It is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays.
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