The "eight major cuisines" refer to Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine, Hunan cuisine, and Anhui cuisine, while the "four major cuisines" are Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, and Huaiyang cuisine vegetable. In the Qing Dynasty, the "four major cuisines" of Shandong, Sichuan, Cantonese and Su were formed. Later, local cuisines such as Fujian, Zhejiang, Hunan, and Anhui gradually became famous, thus forming China's "eight major cuisines", namely Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine, Hunan cuisine, and Anhui cuisine.

Eight major cuisines and four major cuisines

The four major cuisines refer to Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, and Huaiyang cuisine. Cuisine, also known as Bangcai, refers to a school of Chinese food that has evolved over a long period of time to form its own system in terms of ingredient selection, cutting, cooking and other techniques. It has distinctive local flavor characteristics and is recognized by society as a Chinese food style.

Chinese people are particular about and good at cooking. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the flavors of dishes from the north and the south showed differences in Chinese food culture. By the Tang and Song Dynasties, Southern Food and Northern Food had formed separate systems. By the early Qing Dynasty, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, and Huaiyang cuisine had become the most influential local cuisines at that time, and were known as the four major cuisines. People in different regions use cooking methods such as stir-frying, roasting, pan-frying, boiling, steaming, roasting and cold salad to form different local flavors.

Since the Republic of China, the culture of various parts of China has developed considerably. Sichuan cuisine is divided into Sichuan cuisine and Hunan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine is divided into Cantonese cuisine and Fujian cuisine, and Suzhou cuisine is divided into Jiangsu cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine and Anhui cuisine. Because the four major cuisines of Sichuan, Shandong, Guangdong, and Jiangsu were formed earlier, later, local cuisines such as Fujian, Zhejiang, Hunan, and Anhui gradually became famous, forming China's "eight major cuisines."