A brief talk on the differences between Chinese and Western food cultures

Due to the influence of regional characteristics, climatic environment, customs and habits, catering products will have different degrees of differences in raw materials, tastes, cooking methods and eating habits. It is precisely because of these differences that catering products have a strong regional character. The differences between Chinese and western cultures have created the differences between Chinese and western food cultures, which come from different ways of thinking and philosophy of life. China people pay attention to "harmony between man and nature", while westerners pay attention to "people-oriented".

here is a brief talk about the differences between Chinese and western food cultures from the following three aspects.

First, two different dietary concepts

Compared with China's diet which pays attention to "taste", the west is a rational dietary concept. Regardless of the color, fragrance, taste and shape of food, nutrition must be guaranteed, and how many calories, vitamins, protein and so on should be taken in a day. Even if the taste is the same, you must eat it-it is nutritious. This concept of diet is compatible with the whole western philosophy system. Metaphysics is the main feature of western philosophy. The research object of western philosophy is the reason of things, and the reason of things is often metaphysical, which is coherent with each other and forms metaphysical philosophy. This philosophy has brought vitality to western culture and made it develop by leaps and bounds in natural science, psychology and methodology. But in other aspects, this philosophical proposition has greatly hindered, such as food culture. At the banquet, you can pay attention to tableware, materials, service and the collocation of raw materials in shape and color. But no matter how luxurious and upscale, from L.A. to new york, steaks have only one flavor, and there is no art at all. As a dish, chicken is chicken, and steak is steak. Even if there is a match, it is done in the plate. A plate of "French lamb chops" is served with mashed potatoes, lean against the lamb chops, boiled green beans and a few slices of tomatoes on the other side. The colors are in sharp contrast, but the various raw materials are irrelevant and harmonious in taste, each with its own flavor, which is simple and clear.

China people attach great importance to "eating". The proverb "Food is the sky for the people" shows that we regard eating as important as the sky. Because our nation has been at a low level of productivity for thousands of years, people are always hungry, so there is a unique diet culture that puts food above everything else. I think this is probably due to a need for survival. If a culture regards eating as the first thing, then there will be two phenomena: on the one hand, it will play its function to the extreme, not only to maintain survival, but also to use it to maintain health, which is the cultural basis of "medicine tonic is not as good as food tonic"; On the other hand, paying too much attention to food will make people admire the pursuit of delicious food.

In China's cooking, the pursuit of delicacy is almost to the extreme, so that China people make a living overseas by opening restaurants, which has become the foundation for us to settle down all over the world! Unfortunately, when we take the pursuit of delicacy as the first requirement, we ignore the most fundamental nutritional value of food. Many of our traditional foods have to be fried in hot oil and cooked with slow fire for a long time, so that the nutritional components of dishes are destroyed and many of them are lost in the processing. So when it comes to nutrition, it actually touches the biggest weakness of China's food culture. There is a folk saying: "Food is the most important thing for the people, and taste is the first thing to eat". It is this pursuit of delicious food that makes us ignore the true meaning of eating.

When people in China taste dishes, they often say that this dish is delicious and that dish is not delicious. However, if you want to further ask what is "delicious", why "delicious" and where "delicious" is, I am afraid it is not easy to make it clear. This shows that China people's pursuit of food is an indescribable "artistic conception", that is, it is still difficult to cover this "realm" by using what people usually call "color, fragrance, taste, shape and container".

The key to China's unique charm lies in its taste. The production of delicious food lies in harmony, so that the original taste of food, the cooked taste after heating, the taste of ingredients and auxiliary materials and the harmonious taste of seasonings are intertwined and coordinated, so that they complement each other, help each other penetrate and blend together, and you have me and I have you. The harmonious beauty of China's cooking is the essence of China's cooking art. The shape and color of dishes are external things, while the taste is internal things. It is the most important manifestation of China's aesthetic diet view that it pays attention to the interior without deliberately modifying the appearance and the taste of dishes without excessively revealing the shape and color of dishes.

In China, the pursuit of beauty in diet obviously overwhelms rationality, which is also consistent with China's traditional philosophy. As a representative of oriental philosophy, China's philosophy is characterized by its macroscopic, intuitive, vague and unpredictable features. The method of making Chinese food is to reconcile the tripod, and ultimately to reconcile a beautiful taste. This emphasis is on discretion, that is, overall cooperation. It contains the rich dialectics of China's philosophy. Everything is based on the beauty and harmony of food. The variety within the range determines the richness and variety of Chinese food, and determines the characteristics of Chinese cuisine and even the characteristics of every chef.

second, the difference between Chinese and western food objects

Westerners think that dishes are to satisfy hunger, so they specialize in eating "hard dishes" such as large pieces of meat and whole chicken. China's dishes are "tasty", so China's cooking also shows great randomness in the use of materials: what many westerners regard as discarded things are excellent raw materials in China, and what foreign chefs can't handle can be turned into magic as soon as it reaches the hands of China chefs. It serves to show that China's diet has a wide range of randomness in the use of materials.

According to a survey by western botanists, people in China eat more than 611 kinds of vegetables, six times more than those in the west. In fact, in China cuisine, vegetarian dishes are ordinary foods, and meat dishes only enter the ordinary diet structure when the living standard is high, so there has been a saying of "vegetable food" since ancient times, and vegetable food is dominant in the ordinary diet structure. China people's plant-based cuisine is inextricably linked with the advocacy of Buddhists. They regard animals as "living things" and plants as "inanimate", so they advocate vegetarianism.

Westerners, when introducing their own country's dietary characteristics, feel that they pay more attention to the reasonable collocation of nutrition than China. There are relatively developed food industries, such as canned food and fast food, which save time and have good nutrition, so people in their country are generally stronger than those in China: tall, long legs, broad shoulders and developed muscles; China people, on the other hand, are thin and thin, with narrow shoulders and short legs, and weak yellow color. According to the obvious difference between Chinese and western food objects, some people call China people plant characters, while westerners call them animal characters.

Third, the differences in dietary patterns

There are great differences in dietary patterns between China and the West, and this difference also has an impact on national character. In China, any banquet, no matter what the purpose, will only have one form, that is, everyone will sit around and enjoy a seat. The banquet should use a round table, which creates an atmosphere of unity, courtesy and interest in form. Delicious food is placed in the center of a table of people, which is not only the object of appreciation and taste of a table of people, but also the medium of emotional communication of a table of people. People toast each other, offer each other food, and advise each other, which embodies the virtue of mutual respect and comity among people in the face of beautiful things. Although from the point of view of hygiene, this kind of diet has obvious shortcomings, but it conforms to the universal mentality of "happy reunion" of our nation, reflects the influence of the category of "harmony" in China's classical philosophy on the thoughts of future generations, and facilitates the collective emotional exchange, so it is difficult to reform so far.

Although food and wine are very important in western-style banquets, they are actually used as a foil. The core of the banquet is friendship, which is achieved by talking with the guests next door. If the sociability of banquets is compared with dancing, it can be said that Chinese banquets are like group dances, while western banquets are like social dances for men and women. It can be seen that the purpose of friendship between Chinese banquet and western banquet is obvious, but Chinese banquet is more reflected in the friendship of the whole banquet, while western banquet is more reflected in the friendship between adjacent guests. The more obvious difference from China's diet is the buffet which is popular in the west. This method is: all foods are displayed one by one, and everyone needs what they want, so they don't have to be fixed in their seats to eat, and they can move freely. This way is convenient for emotional communication between individuals, and it is not necessary to put all the words on the table, which also shows the respect of westerners for individuality and self. But each eats his own food and doesn't interfere with each other, which lacks the emotional appeal of some China people chatting and having fun.

So, in the final analysis, it is the difference between sensibility and rationality. However, this difference seems to be blurred with the development of science. More and more people in China no longer only pay attention to the color, smell and taste of vegetables, but also pay more attention to its hygiene and nutrition. Especially after SARS. Also, people feel that Chinese food is too troublesome to cook because of their increasingly busy work, so it is better to have a hamburger and so on. In this way, the difference in diet is not too clear.