From the perspective of evolution, China's food culture has lasted for more than 1.7 million years, divided into four stages: raw food, cooked food, natural cooking and scientific cooking. There are more than 60,000 kinds of traditional dishes and more than 20,000 kinds of industrial food, with colorful banquets and various flavor genres, and it has won the reputation of "cooking kingdom".
In terms of connotation, China catering culture involves the development and utilization of food sources, the use and innovation of tableware, the production and consumption of food, the service and reception of catering, the operation and management of catering and food industry, the relationship between catering and national security, catering and literature and art, and catering and life realm.
From the perspective of extension, China's food culture can be classified from the perspectives of times and technology, region and economy, nationality and religion, food and tableware, consumption and level, folk customs and functions, showing different cultural tastes and reflecting different use values.
Specifically, China's food culture highlights the theory of nourishing and tonifying (mainly vegetarian, paying attention to medicinal diet and tonic) and paying attention to "color, fragrance and taste". The four attributes, namely, the harmonious theory of five flavors (unique flavor, delicious taste, and the reputation of "tongue dishes"), the changing cooking method (kitchen rules-based, flexible), and the pleasing diet concept (Wen Ya, food education), are different from the natural beauty of overseas food culture.
From the perspective of influence, China's food culture directly affects Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and other countries, and is the axis of the oriental food culture circle; At the same time, it also indirectly affects Europe, America, Africa and Oceania, such as vegetarian culture, tea culture, sauce and vinegar, pasta, medicated diet, ceramic tableware and soybeans in China, which have benefited billions of people all over the world.
In a word, China food culture is a regional culture with a long history, with broad vision, deep levels, many angles and high taste. It is the people of all ethnic groups in China who have created, accumulated and influenced the material wealth and spiritual wealth of neighboring countries and the world in the aspects of food source development, tableware development, food preparation, nutrition and health care, food aesthetics and so on in the production and life practice of more than 6,543,800 years.