Desiree Nixon

SPRINGFIELD- It is a new day; David Leong is opening up Leong’s Tea House post dynamite explosion. The smell of fried chicken and gravy was in the air. Cashew Chicken was being made, the start of a unique Springfield invention.

Springfield, Missouri is the home of Springfield Style Cashew Chicken, a dish served at nearly 100 restaurants in town. Since it’s conception, cashew chicken has taken the world by storm and become a staple to many Chinese restaurants. Leong created this dish as a way to introduce the east to the west. 

“I came to the United States when I was 19 years old,” David Leong said. 

He came as a citizen from China to meet his dad who was a railroad worker in America. According to his son, Win Yee Leong, David had to join the army as a part of the terms of his citizenship. He trained in Virginia for a year. 

For nine months, he trained in England and learned the skills necessary for survival in Normandy. In between the fighting, he kept his cooking skills alive. 

“The head chef was sick and he goes ‘Does anyone else cook?’ My dad said he can cook,” Wing Yee Leong said. “He was cooking for all the enlisted men and the coronel came in to eat with them.” 

The colonel loved the food and Leong became the crew’s personal chef. 

When he came to the United States, Leong landed in Pensacola, Florida. He cooked Chinese food there. During this time as a cook, a neurosurgeon asked him to come to Springfield and open up a Chinese restaurant with him. 

He came and opened the restaurant. After a few years of trial and error, mishaps and being taken advantage of for his ethnicity, according to David Leong, he finally started to open his own restaurant. 

Leong’s Tea House came to be in 1963. Before its opening, the restaurant was hit with dynamite. No-one was ever formally charged. Luckily for David Leong, a hole was the only thing created in the floor of his new restaurant. It was quickly fixed and opened. 

Leong faced trouble having a Chinese restaurant in the Midwest. 

“The local people weren’t familiar with Chinese food and he was struggling a little bit.” Susan Wade, Public Relations Manager of the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau said. “One of his customers suggested that he put gravy on fried chicken and he added the onions and the cashew nuts and it went from there.”

“It has grown in popularity outside the city limits of Springfield,” said Tracy Kimberlin, president of the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau. Leong’s dish is even back to his homeland. On a recent trip, his son Wing Yee Leong saw signs for Springfield-style Cashew Chicken in Hong Kong.