Central kitchen is a centralized production mode of catering industry developed from abroad in 1970s. Its main task is to make food raw materials into prefabricated staple food, semi-finished products or finished products of dishes, send them to various restaurant chains for secondary heating or combination, and then provide them to consumers.

According to the definition in "Standards for Examination of Central Kitchen License" formulated by the US Food and Drug Administration, the central kitchen refers to a catering chain enterprise with independent places and facilities, which centrally completes the processing and production of finished or semi-finished food and directly distributes it to the operators of catering service industry.

The catering service industry is a food production and operation industry that integrates processing, commercial sales and services and provides consumers with various places and facilities for food consumption, mainly including: restaurants, chain restaurants, fast food restaurants, convenience stores and supermarket catering departments; Lunch box supplier; Dining halls or restaurants for schools, enterprises, institutions, troops, tourists and other groups, as well as welfare facilities such as nursing homes, hospitals and kindergartens.