China is a big country in catering culture. For a long time, due to the influence of geographical environment, climate, products, cultural traditions and national customs, a well-known local flavor school with certain kinship, similar flavor and high popularity has been formed in a certain area, which is called Cuisine. Among them, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine and Guangdong cuisine are known as the "four major cuisines", plus Zhejiang cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Anhui cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Beijing cuisine and Hubei cuisine, which are the "top ten cuisines". This paper focuses on the development and evolution of "China's four major cuisines" as a food culture, as well as its characteristics, superb techniques and famous representative dishes.

Keywords: cooking, unique flavor, five flavors, exquisite technology, comprehensive techniques and extensive materials.

Shandong cuisine, with a long history and wide influence, is an important part of China's food culture. As one of the four major cuisines in China, it enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad for its salty, fresh, crisp and tender taste, unique flavor and fine production. As the ancient saying goes: "The territory of the East is also the place where heaven and earth are born." Qilu is a beautiful territory with rich products and developed economy, which provides good conditions for the development of cooking culture and the formation of Shandong cuisine. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qi Huangong's favorite minister, Yi Ya, was once a famous chef known for his "kindness and five flavors". In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Jia Sixie, the satrap of Levin, systematically summarized the cooking skills in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in his book Qi Min Yao Shu, and recorded many famous dishes, which reflected the superb skills of Shandong cuisine development at that time. People from Duan Wenchang and Linzi in the Tang Dynasty. Mu Zong was a prime minister, good at food and drink, and wrote 51 volumes of food classics, which became a historical anecdote. In the Song Dynasty, the "water cage" called by Bianliang, the capital of Song Dynasty, was another name for Shandong cuisine, which had taken shape. Ming and Qing dynasties have called themselves cuisines. From Lu Yu to Gyeonggi, from Neiguan to Waiguan, the influence has reached the Yellow River Basin. Northeast China has a broad mass base of food and drink. Shandong was a state of Qilu in ancient times, with seafood, aquatic animals, grain, oil and livestock, vegetables, fruits and insects, which provided rich material conditions for cooking. Exquisite cooking skills of Shandong cuisine have also been widely promoted. Shandong cuisine has a unique flavor and distinctive personality, and its flavor and skills are well-versed in the north and south, especially in the north. The strong flavor of Shandong cuisine lies in the extensive use of materials, exquisite selection of materials, meticulous knife work, proper blending, contribution to the heat and comprehensive cooking skills. Especially when fried, fried, roasted, fried, slipped, steamed, grilled and pasted, its flavor is salty and palatable, fragrant, crisp and tender, and the soup is refined and mellow, which is unique and adaptable. During its long-term development, Shandong cuisine has accumulated a whole set of cooking techniques, among which explosion is the most famous. The "explosion" method of Shandong cuisine can be divided into oil explosion, soup explosion, onion explosion, sauce explosion and hot explosion. "Fried" vegetables need to be cooked quickly, so one of the best cooking techniques to protect food nutrients, especially oil-fried vegetables, must be fried quickly, continuously operated, and completed in an instant. The cooking wine is oily and juicy, and the juice is evenly hung. If there is juice, the juice is not seen, and the dishes are all polished. When eaten, it is tender, crisp, refreshing and not greasy. "Collapse" is a unique cooking quality in Shandong. The main ingredients of the collapsed vegetables should be pickled with seasoning in advance, tasted or sandwiched in the stuffing, and then stained with powder or hung with egg paste. When both sides collapse until golden brown, add seasoning and clear soup, and collapse the soup with slow fire to make it soak in the main ingredients to increase the flavor. The "Fish Belly with Pot Collapse" and "Yellow Croaker with Pot Collapse", which are widely circulated in Shandong, are traditional famous dishes that have long been enjoyed by people. Shandong cuisine takes soup as the source of all kinds of fresh food, pays attention to the use of soup, is good at making soup, and especially pays attention to the modulation of "clear soup" and "milk soup". Light and clear, take it fresh. There are many dishes made with clear soup and milk soup, including ten kinds of famous dishes such as clear soup with willow leaves and bird's nest and clear soup with family photos. The inside and the inside are the delicacies of high-end banquets. Shandong cuisine is also unique in cooking seafood. Especially the cooking of seafood and small seafood is a must. In Shandong, most seafood, whether it is ginseng, wing, swallow, shellfish or scales, medium, shrimp and crab, has become a delicate and delicious home dish by local chefs. Only the freshwater fish rich in the coastal area of Jiaodong can cook hundreds of dishes with various knife treatments and different production methods. Color, fragrance, taste and shape have their own characteristics, and all kinds of clever changes are in one fish. Fried double flowers with small seafood, braised conch, fried oyster yellow, fried cuttlefish with leek, fried mullet strips with onion and hibiscus chrysanthemum crab, as well as shark's fin with crab yellow, abalone with original shell, scallop with rusty beads, abalone with sesame sauce and fish bones with chicken paste, are all unique seafood treasures. Shandong cuisine is good at seasoning with onion flavor. In the main process of cooking, whether it is frying, frying, burning, slipping or cooking soup, it is all fried with onion. Even steamed, grilled, fried, roasted and other dishes are also flavored with the help of onion. Such as roast duck, roast suckling pig, pot-cooked elbow, fried fat cover and so on, all belong to it. Due to the development of science and technology, vegetable oils have been widely used, and gradually evolved into onions in cooking dishes with oils, such as stir-frying, slipping, slightly frying and frying. This method not only improves the flavor of onion, but also takes its effects of dredging orifices and smoothing qi, expelling wind and exterior heat, dispersing greasy food, inhibiting bacteria and invigorating stomach, which has been widely used by modern people. Jinan, the spring city, has not been ruled by the province since the Jin Dynasty. The cooking governments in Jinan have used rich resources, comprehensively inherited traditional skills, and extensively absorbed foreign experience to integrate the cooking skills of Fushan East Road, Jining South Road and Qufu, and pushed the cooking skills of various places to a state of perfection. Jinan cuisine has a wide range of ingredients, ranging from delicacies to pumpkin vegetables. Even the common cattail, coriander, tofu and internal organs of domestic animals can be made into delicious food. Yantai and Qingdao are located in the beautiful Jiaodong Peninsula and are good at cooking. Poultry and egg dishes in western Shandong and northern Shandong; Vegetarian dishes with bean products as the main raw materials, and meat and fish dishes with the legacy of Qi in central Shandong have their own characteristics. Shandong cuisine is a collection of cooking skills from all over Shandong province, and it has been developed and sublimated by combining the characteristics of local flavors, and has evolved through a long period of history.

Guangdong cuisine, also known as "Cantonese cuisine", is one of the four major cuisines in China, which was recorded in the Western Han Dynasty. Bao Zongshi developed rapidly in Ming and Qing dynasties under the influence of the royal chef with Yangcheng. In the 21th century, with the foreign communicators absorbing some skills of western food, Cantonese cuisine was also introduced to the world, and there were thousands of Cantonese restaurants in new york alone. Cantonese cuisine is represented by the cuisines of Guangzhou, Chaozhou and Dongjiang. Dishes have a wide range of materials, various colors, novel shapes, good at change, and pay attention to freshness and smoothness. Generally, it is light in summer and autumn, strong in winter, and colorful in Cantonese cuisine. Excellent cooking skills, and is famous for its rich materials. According to a rough estimate, there are thousands of kinds of materials used in Cantonese cuisine. For example, domestic livestock, Shui Ze fish and shrimp, and Cantonese cuisine are used everywhere, while snakes, rats, cats, dogs and delicacies that are not used everywhere are the ancestors of Cantonese cuisine. As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhou Qingfei's "Take-Out Answers" had an incisive record: "It is profound and profound, and people will eat it without asking about birds, animals, snakes and insects. In the meantime, there are good and ugly game. There are turtles in the mountains, which are cooked by pigs, and the lips of sturgeon are alive, which is called the soul of fish. This is also precious. When you encounter a snake, you must catch it, regardless of the length; Catch rats, regardless of size. Bats are abominable, clams are terrible, locusts are microscopic, and they are eaten when they are taken; The poison of the hive, the filth of hemp insects, is cooked and eaten; The eggs of locusts, the wings of shrimp, are cooked and eaten. " The omnivorous style of Cantonese cuisine often makes some outsiders stunned. When Han Yu was demoted to Chaozhou in the Tang Dynasty, he was greatly surprised to see that the local people were addicted to dozens of foreign bodies such as turtles, snakes, octopus and frogs, and he was so scared that he was "ashamed and fishy, and his face was sweaty." Up to now, abalone, ginseng, wings, belly and delicacies are still delicacies and medicinal meals with unique flavor in Cantonese cuisine. According to modern scientific tests, all kinds of game often contain essential nutrients that ordinary domestic animals do not have. For example, "Insect snakes contain a large number of amino acids necessary for human body. Snake oil contains linoleic acid, which can keep blood vessels from hardening. " Therefore, Chinese medicine has always regarded snake meat as an important medicine to dispel wind and promote blood circulation, remove cold and dampness. Cantonese cuisine is characterized by extensive and miscellaneous materials, which can make full use of food resources and benefit mankind. For example, the bubble, steak and Sichuan in Cantonese cuisine are transplanted from the explosion, steak and frying in northern cuisine; The new method of cooking, frying and frying is derived from western methods. Through extensive reading and extensive selection, the cooking methods of Cantonese cuisine have become perfect and diverse. Stir-fried, fried, fried, steamed, stewed, stewed, etc. are commonly used in local dishes, and Cantonese dishes are commonly used; However, many local dishes don't need to be cooked in water, soft fried, soft fried, etc., while Cantonese cuisine has unique attainments. Therefore, there are many varieties of Cantonese cuisine. Cantonese cuisine is characterized by its light weight. Seasoning can be divided into five flavors (fragrant, loose, smelly, fat and strong) and six flavors (sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty and fresh). His cooking is good at frying, frying, stewing, stewing, stir-frying and so on. The dishes are rich in color, but they are not greasy. Especially famous for cooking snakes, cats, dogs, monkeys, rats and other wild animals. The famous dishes are: Three Snakes with Dragon and Tiger Stewed, Five Snakes Soup, Beef with Snake Oil, Roasted Suckling Pig, Dry Fried Prawn, and Winter Melon Cup.

Sichuan, a land of abundance, has formed and developed one of the main cuisines in China-Sichuan cuisine with its unique products. Sichuan cuisine began to take shape in the late Qin and early Han dynasties. It developed rapidly in the Tang and Song Dynasties and became famous in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Today, Sichuan restaurants are all over the world. Authentic Sichuan cuisine is represented by the dishes in Chengdu and Chongqing, Sichuan. After long-term actual combat, accumulation, summary and development by the broad masses of working people and famous chefs of past dynasties, Sichuan cuisine is not only rich in nutrition, but also contains beautiful and moving stories in its name and production. For example, "Boiled Beef", the waiter was eliminated during the Qing Dynasty in the Northern Song Dynasty, when Houfushun and Chaxian were well-led to the east. Salt workers often used salt and pepper as seasoning to cook beef. After continuous improvement by chefs, it has become a traditional dish in Sichuan cuisine today. Another example is "Mapo Tofu", which was created more than 111 years ago by a slightly numb woman in a small restaurant in Wanfuqiao, outside the north gate of Chengdu, and her husband's surname is Chen. The production method is a folk method. After cooking, it has the characteristics of hemp, spicy, hot, crisp, fresh, tender and not rotten in shape, which is not well-known and spread at home and abroad. Up to now, Chengdu seems to have "Chen Mapo's tofu work", and customers are crowded and packed. On the basis of summing up their own experience, Sichuan cuisine absorbs the cooking skills of northwest cuisine and the advantages of official and merchant banquet dishes, and makes extensive hunting and selection to learn from each other's strong points. The so-called northern Sichuan cuisine and southern Sichuan cuisine. In the cooking methods of shark's fin and sea cucumber, Sichuan cuisine often uses dry cooking to collect juice. For example, "dry-roasted fish wings" and "home-cooked sea cucumbers" are all added with minced meat and Pixian watercress, which are cooked slowly with low fire to collect juice and bright oil. The color of the dish is red, bright and mellow. It not only takes the advantages of southern cuisine, but also distinguishes the weak taste of southern cuisine. The "hairy belly hot pot" of Sichuan cuisine has its own flavor in materials, seasoning and hot pot. It is not only spicy and delicious, but also popular all year round, whether in the cold winter or the hot summer, making it one of the best dishes in Sichuan cuisine. A high-class banquet in Sichuan cuisine. The four kinds of dishes, ordinary banquet, popular light meal and home-cooked flavor, have their own styles and cooperate with each other. Sichuan cuisine pays attention to color, aroma, taste, shape, and utensils, and has the advantages of both North and South. It is particularly prominent in taste, etc., and it is known as rich, wide and thick. As early as the Western Han Dynasty, there was a saying that Shu people were "tasteful and spicy". The commonly used flavors are salty, sweet, fish-flavored, douban, homely, red oil, spicy, chili, hemp, salt and pepper, strange taste, ginger juice, mashed garlic, spicy paste, sour and sweet, fragrant grains, mustard, litchi, sesame sauce and scallion oil. The deployment is changeable and the adaptability is extremely wide. Its banquet dishes are mainly beautiful. Popular light meals have been home-cooked and full of flavor. Among more than 1111 kinds of dishes, spicy and thick taste only accounts for one or two. Popular light meals and home-cooked flavor dishes are good at spicy and spicy. Especially in the use of spicy taste, it emphasizes diversity, especially fine. Seasoning is flexible and changeable, which is unique. Pepper is a common condiment, which is used all over the country. However, the use of peppers by Sichuan cuisine chefs is unique. Not only can it be divided into green pepper, red pepper, fresh pepper, pickled pepper, spicy douban, spicy noodles, chili, etc., but it can be combined with pepper, ginger, onion, garlic, vinegar, sugar, etc., and cooked into thousands of compound delicacies, forming a very rich special flavor type such as spicy, red oil, paste, douban, strange taste, fish flavor and homely. According to different thick materials, we can apply arts according to their materials. Therefore, according to the individual's value, we should take color, shape, taste, skillfully cooperate and cook into dishes. In the cooking method of Sichuan cuisine, we pay attention to knife work, heat and variety. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Li Diaoyuan, a native of Luojiang County, Sichuan Province, wrote in "Letter to the Sea? There are 38 kinds of cooking methods for Sichuan cuisine. Some people have already answered the biography because of the change of time. However, due to the inheritance and development of the chefs in the whole province, there are still popular frying, frying, frying, pickling, smoking, soaking, steaming, slipping, simmering, boiling, stewing, rolling, frying, stir-frying, stewing, roasting, Mongolian, pasting, brewing, crisp and bad. It is characterized by paying attention to steaming, paying attention to specifications, distinguishing primary and secondary colors and side dishes, and bright coordination. Sour, sweet, hemp, spicy and fragrant, heavy and thick in oil, paying attention to seasoning is inseparable from three peppers (that is, pepper, pepper) and fresh ginger. It is popular for its spicy, sour and hemp, which is a small province for other local dishes, forming a unique flavor of Sichuan cuisine and enjoying the honor of "one dish is blindly tasted, and all dishes are delicious". Cooking methods are good at roasting, roasting, dry frying and steaming. Sichuan cuisine is good at comprehensive taste, and the juice is thick. On the basis of salty, sweet, hemp, spicy and sour flavors, various seasonings are added to cooperate with each other to form various compound flavors. Such as home-cooked flavor, salty flavor, fish flavor, litchi flavor, strange flavor and so on. Representative dishes include "big boiled dried silk", braised eel, "strange chicken nuggets" and "Mapo tofu".

Huaiyang cuisine is represented by the local cuisines along the Yangtze River, Huaihe River and Weizhou. It is characterized by simple materials selection, stress on pyrotechnics, heavy oil color, mellow taste and original flavor. China's food culture has a long history. As one of the four major cuisines in China, Huaiyang Cuisine is famous all over the world for its unique historical style and unique flavor. Huaiyang cuisine is famous for cooking Shan Ye seafood. As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, "horseshoe turtle in the river and oxtail fox in the snow" was a famous dish at that time. Huaiyang cuisine takes the lead among the four major cuisines in China because of its fine selection of materials, exquisite craftsmanship, exquisite modeling and rich cultural connotation. In the aspect of material selection, Huaiyang cuisine pays attention to wide selection of materials, nutrition allocation, grading of materials, and performing arts according to materials, which reflects strong scientific nature; Pay attention to cooking pyrotechnics in terms of technology. Knife method is changeable, good at burning, stewing and stewing; In modeling, pay attention to the organic combination of color vessels, showing exquisite artistry; It can be said that Huaiyang's taste is unique. * * * The same characteristics are: the raw materials are mainly fresh water, and the specialties of Jianghuai and Hunan are integrated, and the eggs and vegetables are often supplied all the year round; Fine knife work, pay attention to heat, good at stewing, stewing, simmering; Pursue the original taste, fresh and peaceful, salty and sweet and moderate. It has a wide range of adaptability, and the dishes are elegant in style, beautiful in shape and quality, crisp and boneless without losing their shape. Smooth, tender and crisp, showing its taste. Jiangsu is known as the head of fish, which is also the benefit of all kinds of seafood. Huainan cuisine is rich in food resources, which is light and delicious. Among them, Yangzhou cuisine is known for its colorful diet, exquisite production, all kinds of products in the market and boasting the reputation of being a Jiangke. Well-known dishes include "Braised Roast Chicken", "Braised Soft-shelled Turtle with Ham", "Pickled Fresh Mandarin Fish", "Stewed Whip Bamboo Shoots with Ham", "Roasted Pheasant in Snow and Winter", "Braised Civet Cats", Fat King Fish in Milk, "Orchid Abalone", Grilled Pig's Head, "The Best Ball in the World", "Horseshoe Mandarin Fish" and "Colored Fish".

with the economic development of China, China cuisine will continue to develop, innovate and grow.

References: Banquet Design by Chen Guangxin He Xiyao

Tea Ceremony in China by Liu Shuxin

Spring Flowers and Autumn Fruits by Chen Guangxin.