Zhejiang cuisine, referred to as Zhejiang cuisine for short, is one of the eight traditional cuisines in China. It has beautiful scenery and rich products, so the proverb says, "There is paradise above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below". So do netizens know what the historical development of Zhejiang cuisine is? Let's take a look at it.

1, origin. Zhejiang cuisine has a long history. Huangdi's Classic of Internal Medicine, Su Wen, Appropriate Theory of Guiding Fa Fang said: "The city of the East is the place where heaven and earth began, where salt is fished, and the seashore is near the water. Its people are addicted to salt, so they are safe and delicious." There is a record of "the land of Chu and Yue ... rice, rice, soup and fish" in Historical Records and Biography of Huo Zhi. It can be seen that Zhejiang cooking has a history of thousands of years. In addition, Chinese archaeologists excavated an early Neolithic cultural site from Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province in 1973. Among the unearthed cultural relics, there are a large number of indica rice, chaff, many cores of water chestnut, gourd and Zizyphus jujuba, and the remains of more than 41 kinds of animals such as pigs, deer, tigers, elk, rhinoceros, geese, crows, eagles, fish, turtles and crocodiles. At the same time, ancient pottery stoves and a number of domestic pottery such as kettles, cans, pots, plates and bowls have also been unearthed. According to the research of scientists, these cultural relics have a history of about 7111 years ago, which is one of the earliest Neolithic strata found in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the southeast coast.

2. Spring and Autumn Period. During the Spring and Autumn Period of Wuyue, at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Yueji (now Shaoxing), the capital of Yue, made use of its superior geographical environment and resources, and under the influence of the economy, culture and technology of the Central Plains countries, after "ten years of life and lessons", the agriculture, commerce and handicraft production in Qiantang River Basin developed rapidly and laid a solid material foundation. Gou Jian, the King of Yue, stepped up his armament in order to restore the country, and set up a large chicken farm in Jishan, Shaoxing, which used to be called "Chicken Mountain" to prepare chickens for the front line. Therefore, the oldest dish in Zhejiang cuisine is Shaoxing's famous dish "Clear soup and Yue chicken". Secondly, Hangzhou's "Song Saoyu Soup", which comes from "Song Wusao Fish Soup", has a history of 881 years. From Liangzhu, a suburb of Hangzhou, and Hemudu, Yuyao, an ancient site of human activities, it is proved from the bones of pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and ducks that the cooking materials of Zhejiang cuisine were quite rich four or five thousand years ago. Traditional famous dishes such as Dongpo pork, salted meat, honey sauce fire recipe and Huatong chicken are all inseparable from these cooking materials.

3. After the Southern and Northern Dynasties. After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Jiangnan was spared from war for hundreds of years, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was opened in Sui and Tang Dynasties, the maritime sideline business in Ningbo and Wenzhou expanded, and foreign economic and trade exchanges were frequent, especially in the Five Dynasties (AD 917), when Qian Liu, wuyue, established its capital in Hangzhou, its economy and culture became increasingly developed, its population increased dramatically, and its business flourished. It was once known as "the wall was twenty miles, with 431,111 rooms". The development of economy and the exchange of trade all gave a great impetus to the development and rise of cooking, which made the cooking skills of court dishes and folk diets at that time develop by leaps and bounds.

4. Southern Song Dynasty. Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and Zhejiang cuisine played a major role in "Southern Food". Known as the second migration of the Chinese nation, the Southern Crossing of the Song Dynasty played a great role in further promoting the innovation and development of southern cuisine centered on Hangzhou. In this great migration, a large number of celebrities, dignitaries and working people in the north moved to the south and settled in Zhejiang, bringing the cooking culture of Kyoto in the north to Zhejiang, making the cooking skills between the north and the south widely exchanged, the catering industry thriving and improving, and the famous dishes came into being. Wu Zimu's Dream of Liang Lu, West Lake Old Man's Record of Numerous Victory, and meticulous Wulin Old Stories all record the prosperity of Hangzhou's food market and the delicious food in the city. According to the record in Volume 16 "Tea Hotel" of Menglianglu, there were more than 281 kinds of colorful dishes in Hangzhou at that time, and there were more than 15 kinds of cooking techniques. There were many exquisite and luxurious restaurants, and ordinary restaurants were "everywhere", and the cooking flavor was both north and south, which was a prosperous scene. For hundreds of years since the Southern Song Dynasty, although the political center is in the north, Zhejiang is bound to be one of the richest in terms of material resources, developed in culture and prosperous in industry and commerce. A large number of famous chefs from the north gathered in Hang Cheng, which enabled Hangzhou cuisine and Zhejiang cuisine to enter a state of development from the bud, and Zhejiang cuisine has since stood among the national cuisines. Up to now, more than 811 years' famous dishes in the Southern Song Dynasty, such as crab stuffed orange, steamed sheep with soft-shelled turtle, preserved Dongpo, south fried eel, qunxian soup and two-color kidney, are still famous dishes at high-end banquets. In Shaoxing, in addition to clear soup and Yue chicken, braised chicken, frozen meat, fried shrimp chicken and coir shrimp balls are served. Ningbo's pickled vegetable soup, yellow croaker, small roasted moss, soft-shelled turtle with rock sugar, braised eel in pot, Huzhou's old-fashioned shrimp, colorful shredded eel, Jiaxing's fried crab powder, fried shrimp and crab, etc., all have a history of hundreds of years. Wenzhou is near Fujian, influenced by Fujian cuisine, and its cooking is light, mainly seafood, and dishes such as three-piece fish rolls and three-piece shrimps have a long history.

5. After the Republic of China. Hangzhou cuisine first introduced new dishes such as Longjing shrimp. However, Zhejiang cuisine, which is dominated by Hangzhou cuisine, is basically divided into three factions. One faction is a "Beijing Gang" restaurant that cooks the northern flavor, that is, a big group of dishes that are valued by the culinary community, and mainly cooks high-grade raw materials, such as shark's fin, sea cucumber, bird's nest, bear's paw, roast suckling pig and roast duck (Beijing roast duck), which is the strongest in Hangzhou. Another Hui Gang, which specializes in braising in soy sauce, is mainly distributed in Hangzhou, Xing Wu, Ningbo and other places. The dishes are mainly tasty, heavy oil, heavy sauce, heavy color and economical. The other group is local cuisine, a real native cuisine. Hangzhou has a large-scale building outside the West Lake Building, which was opened in the Qing Dynasty, and is famous for its vinegar fish and shrimp in Longjing. Wang Runxing, who has the Qinghefang in the city, is called "imperial rice". Fish-head tofu, known as Mulang tofu, is good at meat and pickled bamboo shoots. Shaoxing has Lanxiang Pavilion, coir, shrimp balls, specially cooked fish with vinegar and other standard dishes. There is Dongfuyuan in Ningbo, East Zhejiang, and famous dishes such as pickle soup, yellow croaker and rock sugar turtle are authentic local traditional dishes in Ningbo. Zhejiang cuisine has its own unique cooking method. In addition to people's regional taste preference, rich specialty products are also one of the factors.

6. After the founding of New China. Zhejiang cuisine, like other major cuisines in China, has developed rapidly. Zhejiang Province has also set up various schools and culinary research institutions that specialize in cultivating culinary talents, and extensively exchanged culinary cultures, further improving the facilities and conditions of the catering industry.

since the 1971s and 1981s. Zhejiang cuisine still plays the leading role in traditional cuisine. At the end of 1981s, some traditional dishes were no longer popular. Instead, it is "soft-shelled turtle, river eel" and now metapenaeus ensis, scallop, blue crab, cream crab, fresh red shellfish, abalone, small sand fish and so on. The most important thing is that the outlets of catering services are growing year by year, especially the development of private economy, which is fierce. By the end of 1992, there were more than 4,111 private individual restaurants in Hangzhou. In the supply of varieties and cooking, the practice of private individuals basically implements "killing and cooking now", and the taste is at the request of the eater, which forces state-owned stores to follow suit. Under the influence of the "south wind", some varieties of old Hangzhou cuisine were replaced by metapenaeus ensis and Ribbon. Some traditional dishes are innovative, and Shao dishes still occupy the main position. Ningbo has taken advantage of seafood, and Wenzhou cuisine has developed many famous dishes with seafood as raw materials.

that's all about the historical development of Zhejiang cuisine.