Usually, the emperor's staple food is various, which can be small, but it must be exquisite. Usually there are many kinds of staple foods on the table. Even for breakfast, Ming Chengzu's breakfast was never shabby, and it was impossible to eat only simple porridge and rice in the morning, just like the production environment at that time. They usually cook more than ten dishes. If it's lunchtime, the chef will set more than 20 dishes for the emperor. It's just that by dinner time, there will be less food.
Relatively speaking, the chef should first consider exquisiteness when cooking for the emperor. At that time, the chef's cooking was probably the best in the country, and it was easier to please the emperor with a nice name. Emperors in the Ming Dynasty tended to eat the internal organs of animals, such as sheep's bellies, rabbits and sausages, and sometimes some horse meat. But at that time, they wouldn't eat beef, even the emperor.
Although emperors usually eat many kinds of dishes, they don't show their hobbies in front of outsiders. This is to prevent someone from poisoning them. Usually I just eat one or two bites, and some dishes are not even touched. The emperor's eating method is very wasteful. Even if the emperor's diet is extravagant, he can't actually rely on his own hobbies, which is also very humbled. Nevertheless, due to the development of productive forces at that time, the diet of Ming emperors was much more enjoyable than that of previous emperors.