Chinese food: a brief history

Chinese society greatly valued gastronomy and a willingness to eat virtually anything edible, plant or animal. The first act of many emperors was to appoint a head chef to his court, and competition between cooks could be fierce.

During the early part of recorded Chinese history in the Shang Dynasty and Chou Dynasty, pork, beef, and mutton were eaten and various wild game hunted. Plants such as thistle, royal fern, and smartweed were collected wild. Meat was preserved with salt, vinegar curing, and fermenting. Flavor of meat dishes was enhanced by cooking it in the fat of a different animal.

 

During the Han Dynasty, Chinese society grew more sophisticated and so did the cuisine, the hallmark of a stable and affluent society. By the time of Confucius, gastronomy was becoming a high art. The great sage wrote of one such picky eater:

 

"For him, the rice could never be white enough. When it was not cooked right, he would not eat. When it was out of season, he would not eat. When the meat was not cut properly, he would not eat. When the food was not prepared with the right sauce, he would not eat."

 

By the 2nd century AD, writers frequently complained of lazy aristocrats who did nothing but sit around all day eating smoked meats and roasts. Starting in the Sung Dynasty, Chinese cooking began to take a new direction that would reach its zenith during the Qing Dynasty, which brought about simple, highly elegant cuisine that was done with the primary object of extracting the maximum flavor of each ingredient.

                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                —— from Wikipedia

 

 

This video talk about Chinese food history.