The emperor of the Qing Dynasty took eating to the extreme. According to records, the diet list of the Qing emperor was recorded in detail. Requirements must be delicious, what food needs to be put in what container, what food to eat, how much material to use, what seasoning to put, and how much to cook are recorded in detail.
It is said that when Qianlong went to Jiangnan, the salt merchants in Jiangnan were very rich. At that time, there was no electricity, and there was not much entertainment. Rich salt merchants spent all their spare time on food, sometimes even more than the emperor did.
After Gan Long came to Jiangnan, he was famous for his delicious food and exquisite craftsmanship. The salt merchant asked the chef to carefully prepare a big table of delicious food and warmly welcomed Gan Long to taste it. After eating, Gan Long didn't have any praise. The salt merchant was surprised and asked the eunuch. The eunuch said to the salt merchant, "Your food is really delicious. If the emperor goes back to the palace to eat, what should we do as slaves? " So before the emperor eats, we put a spoonful of sugar in every dish you cook in advance, so that no matter how good your dish tastes, the emperor can't taste it. "
It can be seen that the chefs in the palace are not as good as Yangzhou salt merchants, mostly because the chefs in the palace have too many rules when cooking, and most of them have to cook strictly according to the recipes, and they can't play freely according to their personal specialties. With this, the emperor can't eat real delicious food.