There was no organization called "Imperial Dining Hall" in the Ming Dynasty, but it was certain that the emperor wanted to eat. In the Ming Dynasty, the institution responsible for cooking for the emperor was Guanglu Temple, which was a "deputy ministerial unit", because the magistrate had only four products, and the official of Guanglu Temple was subordinate to the three products, which was obviously higher than the first level and could not be equated with the bureau level. In the later period, the internal supervision department is basically doing it. Guanglu Temple in Ming Dynasty was an institution dedicated to the central government of the dynasty. "From jade food, celebrations and ceremonies, to utensils provided by officials from all walks of life, to the banquet of Siyi, and then to the banquet of Jinyiwei." Guanglu Temple has a complex supply of goods, a large number of people and a wide range of aspects. All kinds of big banquets in the palace are organized by staff. After the banquet and lecture, the wine and rice for the minister were also handled by Guanglu Temple. In addition, Guanglu Temple is also responsible for offering sacrifices. The responsibility of Guanglu Temple is to offer "blessing" and "blessing wine" at various sacrificial ceremonies and "display sacrifices" to the tombs of the emperors of the former dynasties.
In addition to cooking, Guanglu Temple is also a huge material purchasing department: local tributes, such as fish, meat, tea and various local products, are also received and processed by Guanglu Temple. Ming Hui Dian: "Send 100,000 animals to Guanglu Temple every year: 50,000 in the first half of the year and 50,000 in the second half. They all went to Zhejiang to wait for the Chief Secretary, and the two Zhili governments sent them for help. "
Xie Zhao's Nine Miscellanies? "Part III": "Today, there is nothing wrong with the big officials in the imperial diet, but the fish is strong, so it is better to burn it thick." The simple mistake is that Guanglu Temple, the provincial name of "Mountain Treasure and Sea Mistake", does not accept all kinds of treasures, but it does not produce all kinds of treasures. Because it is a government-run institution, it is similar to the state-run guest houses in the past, and the service quality is not at all.
In the second year of Yongle, the menu of Qingcheng banquet after suburban sacrifice was: "Serving: pressing wine for five times. There are five fruits. There are five kinds of tea and food. Burn it five times. Three soups. Double steamed bread. Horse meat rice. Wine for five minutes. Middle table: It depends on the wine. There are four fruits. Three soups. Double steamed bread. Horse, pig and mutton rice. Wine for five minutes. Press wine with the general. Powder soup. Double steamed bread and pork rice. Wine for an hour. "
They are all senior leading cadres who eat big fish and big meat. No matter how advanced, there will be no more. To make matters worse, the quality is not good. There is an entry in Wanli Yebian that "the name of the capital is not true": "The capital has a saying: the text of the Hanlin Academy, the sword of the armory; Guanglu Temple tea soup, prescription of Taiyuan. Gai Yi's name is not called. "
At first glance, it is obvious that ordinary people have never eaten the food of Guanglu Temple, but they all know it.
The food in Guanglu Temple is so bad that the emperor has to eat it, because it is a system or a designated consumption unit. The reform of "state-owned units" is difficult, but there is always a way. In the late Ming Dynasty, the banquet in Guanglu Temple was inherited, and officials continued to spend money here at public expense, but the emperor ate it from eunuchs.
Liu Ruoyu was an official palace in the Ming Dynasty. He wrote in "Meditation Record": "Every meal that Shengjia enters every day is handled by two or three people in turn. In recent years, it is also cost-effective (still) to change from this prison. In thirteen years, the company was ordered to take turns preparing meals every month, still following the ancestral system. "
Eunuchs take turns cooking for the emperor, and those in charge of the East Factory also cook, which is very interesting. In the East Factory, the main tasks were arrest, detention and beating, but the people's canteen was run accurately. Because eunuchs have the right to be rich, but they have no descendants. It's no use having more money. It's better to eat, drink and be merry in time. With money and leisure, eunuchs' money is mainly used for suspense, so they are almost all gourmets. "Ambition in action? A good diet: "if you practice Buddhism, you must also list fruits, drink tea for a long time, or strive for perfection, most of which are not beautiful." "
Eunuchs are in the palace, living spiritually and chanting Buddha at ordinary times; Material life is to get something delicious. In addition, objective conditions are not allowed.
Eunuchs enjoyed it, and the emperor no longer suffered. In the late Ming dynasty, it was a natural result for the emperor to eat the dishes cooked by eunuchs. Of course, the emperor's meals were not cooked by the eunuchs themselves, but were cooked by the eunuchs, who only arranged and executed them.
Eunuch's hosting of royal meals is naturally much better than Guanglu Temple, just like state-owned enterprises and private enterprises. Let's have another menu of the imperial diet of Emperor Wanli: "Imperial diet: pork 126 kg; Ten pounds of donkey meat; Five geese; Thirty-three chickens; Sixty quails; Ten pigeons; Five pounds of bacon; Fifty-five chickens; 20 kg; Face 23 kg; 20 kg of sesame oil; Eight pounds of sugar; Brown sugar is eight or two; Eight catties of bean flour; Three liters of sesame; Three liters of mung beans; A catty of bamboo shoots; Sixteen catties of walnuts; Green bamboo shoots are three pounds and eight ounces; Twenty faces; Tofu six company; Two pounds of rotten clothes; Auricularia auricula four two; Mushrooms 82; Four or two mushrooms; Twelve pounds of beans and vegetables; Return to incense four or two; Three almonds; Amomum villosum 125 yuan; Zanthoxylum bungeanum; Zanthoxylum bungeanum; Three pounds of soil alkali. "
Rich in ingredients and good at cooking. If the emperor is not satisfied, he will have to spend it abroad. ...