Hunan cuisine is one of the eight major cuisines in my country and has a long history. The cooking skills of Hunan cuisine have reached a certain level during the Western Han Dynasty. According to research on cooking residues and a set of bamboo slip recipes unearthed from the Mawangdui Han tomb , proving that the Chu people had used dozens of animals and plants to cook dishes at that time. It is obvious that the development history of Hunan cuisine has been at least more than 2,000 years, which can be said to have a long history. A long time ago, only the official guards and Xianda families hired chefs to prepare Hunan-style dishes. Later, Hunan cuisine became popular in ordinary alleys and homes. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, commercial restaurants began to appear in Changsha City, which were divided into Xuanbang and Tangbang, both serving Hunan cuisine. There were once ten major restaurants, called "Ten Pillars". There was also a temple for the ancestors of Hunan cuisine - King Zhan's Palace on Yongqing Street, where colleagues often gathered to compete in skills. Thanks to the efforts of many generations of famous teachers, Hunan cuisine has developed a relatively complete theory, and has inherited and innovated many world-famous specialties.

Hunan is located in the south-central region of my country, with a warm climate, abundant rainfall and superior natural conditions. Western Hunan is mountainous, rich in bamboo shoots, mushrooms and wild game; southeastern Hunan is hills and basins, where livestock and sideline fisheries are developed; northern Hunan is the famous Dongting Lake plain, known as a land of fish and rice. It was recorded in "Historical Records" that the terrain of Chu was fertile and there was no risk of famine. According to historical records, Hunan cuisine existed before the Han Dynasty. By the Western Han Dynasty, Changsha was already a major city where politics, economy and culture were concentrated in the feudal dynasty. It was rich in specialties, had a developed economy, and cooking technology had developed to a certain level. In 1974, many materials related to cooking techniques were discovered in the ancient tombs of the Western Han Dynasty unearthed in Mawangdui, Changsha. Among them are the earliest batch of bamboo slip menus to date, which record 103 kinds of precious dishes and nine cooking methods including stewing, stewing, simmering, roasting, stir-frying, frying, frying, smoking and waxing. During the Tangxue period, Changsha was also a gathering place for literati. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hunan cuisine had new developments and was listed as one of the eight major cuisines in my country. Hunan cuisine is mainly composed of three local flavors from the Xiangjiang River Basin, the Dongting Lake area and the mountainous areas of western Hunan. The cuisine in the Xiangjiang River Basin is centered in Changsha, Hengyang and Xiangtan. Its characteristics: extensive use of materials, fine preparation, and wide variety; the taste focuses on freshness, sourness, and tenderness, and is famous for its production methods of simmering, stewing, steaming, and stir-frying. The dishes in the Dongting Lake area are famous for cooking river fresh food, poultry and livestock. They mostly use stewing, roasting and waxing methods. They are characterized by thick oil, salty, spicy and soft texture. Xiangxi cuisine is good at making wild game, smoked bacon and various cured meats. The taste focuses on salty, fragrant, sour and spicy. Because Hunan is located in the subtropics, the climate is changeable, with golden rain in spring, hot summers and cold winters. Therefore, Hunan cuisine pays special attention to seasoning, especially spicy, sour, salty, fragrant and fresh. Summer is hot, and its taste is light and fragrant. Winter is wet and cold, and the taste is hot, spicy, and fresh. Hunan cuisine has a unique flavor. Its main famous dishes include Dong'an chicken, Zuan shark's fin, steamed preserved meat, whole duck with bread, spicy chicken, turtle and sheep soup, Jishou sour pork, Wuyuan fairy chicken, rock sugar Xianglian and hundreds of other dishes.