Culture belongs to the spiritual activities or spiritual products of human beings, so there are specific conditions for the formation of a culture, which is tested and accumulated through time, recognized by most people and so on. The formation of Chinese food culture has been carried out along with the development history of Chinese people and society for a long time. It is generally difficult to categorize them as social events with a "sudden change" as a hallmark event. Roughly speaking, there are some phases that can be characterized as an evolutionary process.

1. Prehistory, up to the Beijing apes cooked with fire, down to the late Longshan culture, is a few hundred thousand years of a long stage, the main achievement is to use fire Li, began to eat cooked food.

2. Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, about 2,000 years, food raw materials are relatively abundant, the Zhou royal family's drinking and eating system is complete, dietary thought has a preliminary summary (such as medical food, the taste of the proposition, Confucius and Mencius food path).

3. The more than 400 years of the Two Han period was a relatively important stage in the history of diet, and the regional characteristics of diet were manifested. The grain processing, cooking methods, eating utensils, rituals and habits represented by rotary mills laid down the basic styles of the later 2,000 years. The fermentation technology of wheat flour food and the widespread utilization of soybean products and the invention of tofu are of great significance to the influence of the dietary style of the Chinese nation.

4. The three kingdoms and two jin dynasties period is more chaotic, the big split, progress is the north and south food, food style of the exchange of influence, mutual absorption of progress, style more diversified.

5. Behind the Sui and Tang dynasties is more stable, food varieties nearly rich, tea drinking culture has been popularized, the Chinese and foreign exchanges increased, the Chinese food culture to Asia and even the world. The two Song Dynasty business is very prosperous, the food industry is quite developed, the street to eat a lot of stores.

6. The food culture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties reached the climax of the ancient society, and a group of gastronomists appeared.

7. From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the middle of the 20th century, it was called the "turning period" of food culture. On the one hand, the political reasons led to the difficulties of the people's dietary life, and on the other hand, the western dietary habits, crafts, theories and other contents were introduced into China.

8. Modern food culture is still a tense, after the 80's China's diet has shifted from "eat enough" to how to "eat well", the function of the catering industry in the social economy is gradually expanding, and the health and safety problems of food production continue to appear and be solved. The health and safety issues of food production are constantly arising and being solved. There is a joke on the Internet that one should either run away or "wait for death", and that air and food problems have become so prevalent in daily life that they are even life-threatening. This may be one of the characteristics of the modern food culture of the times.