First, the difference in diet concept Diet is the most basic activity of human beings, but if the problem is raised to the level of why and how to eat, it will be reflected as a kind of consciousness or concept. There are obvious differences in dietary concepts between China and the West. The west is a rational and scientific concept of diet. They emphasize the nutritional value of diet and pay attention to the amount of protein, fat, calories and vitamins contained in food. They will not pursue the perfection of color, fragrance, taste and shape of food. Even if the taste is the same, they will follow the rational warning and eat it because it is nutritious. Westerners eat nutrition. They rarely or hardly associate diet with spiritual enjoyment. Diet embodies a strong practical and utilitarian purpose. Diet is just their means of survival to satisfy their hunger. However, it adopts a more scientific, standardized and reasonable way. Influenced by the receptive way of thinking, the western diet is more scientific, especially after the emergence of modern nutritional analysis science, which encourages their inherent tendency of rational analysis in diet, and leads them to pay more attention to the combination of nutritional components in diet collocation, and quantitatively distribute diet according to people's physical conditions. For example, their primary and secondary schools are equipped with nutritionists. This scientific and reasonable diet concept is worth learning from Chinese food, but at the same time, western food is greatly limited in materials. For example, westerners don't eat animal offal. They think that everything has no nutritional value. At the same time, it is mechanical and inflexible in cooking skills. Steak is steak, chicken is chicken, and all kinds of vegetables will never be mixed together and will not produce many patterns. It depends on the collocation of tableware, the environment and the raw materials of the shape and color of dishes. This mechanical nature of western food is something we must overcome. In short, western diet regulates people's behavior with absolute rationality, and excludes delicious food that can bring people pleasure with "science" and "nutrition". Although it can meet the physiological needs, it can't make people get spiritual pleasure from it, and there is a fly in the ointment. On the other hand, Chinese food is just the opposite. China people's diet emphasizes sensibility and artistry, and pursues the taste feeling of food without paying attention to the nutritional components of food. They evaluate the quality of food from the aspects of "color, fragrance, taste, shape and container" and pursue an indescribable artistic conception. Simply put, people in China eat taste. Taste is the charm of China's diet. People in China eat. Bring physical and mental pleasure. China cooking often mixes all kinds of raw materials together, which makes them almost lose their true colors, but produces a new and complete delicacy. For example, the famous Fujian dish "Fotiaoqiang" contains chicken, duck, pig's feet, scallops, abalone, sea cucumber, pork belly, shark's fin and other main ingredients as well as several auxiliary materials. From this dish, the original flavor of each dish will never be eaten again. However, the whole is brilliant, which is similar to the golden mean that China people belittle individuality, emphasize average and emphasize harmony most. The sensibility of China's diet makes him full of imagination and creativity, and tends to be artistic. This is a free realm beyond the inevitable, and its biggest feature is randomness. The same dish will be treated differently due to different regions, seasons, objects and grades. In the use of raw materials, it can become magic, but chicken feet can become magic. Fish head can be made into "casserole stewed fish head" and so on. As far as cooking technology is concerned, this is a delicious dish. China's diet is only an empirical fuzzy grasp of nutrition science. For example, a banquet must have a variety of meat dishes and vegetables. The reason is very simple, meat is easy to get greasy, and it must be neutralized with light and refreshing dishes. There is no rational analysis and logical judgment here. This is just an experience and habit. This is also the deficiency of China's diet. China's diet overemphasizes the taste and spiritual enjoyment of meals, and ignores the reasonable combination of nutritional analysis and nutrition, which is one-sided. The western diet pays attention to scientific analysis and nutrition. Although it is mechanical, it is fundamentally positive for maintaining the healthy development of the human body. Therefore, Chinese food should learn from the "scientific" concept of western food in its development. Make it perfect. Compared with China's diet which pays attention to "taste", the west is a rational concept of diet. Regardless of the color, fragrance, taste and shape of food, nutrition should be guaranteed, and how many calories, vitamins and protein should be taken in a day. Even if it tastes the same, you must eat it-because it is nutritious. This concept of diet is compatible with the whole western philosophy system. Metaphysics is the main feature of western philosophy. The research object of western philosophy is the principle of things, and the principle of things is often metaphysical, and the two are interrelated, thus forming a metaphysical philosophy. This philosophy has brought vitality to western culture and made it develop by leaps and bounds in natural science, psychology and methodology. But in other aspects, this philosophy has great obstacles, such as food culture. At the banquet, we can pay attention to the collocation of tableware, materials, services and raw materials in shape and color. But no matter how luxurious and upscale steak is from L.A. to new york, it has only one flavor, and there is no art at all. As a dish, chicken is chicken and steak is steak. Even if there is a match, it is done in the disk. A plate of "French lamb chops" is served with mashed potatoes, with lamb chops on one side and boiled green beans and some tomatoes on the other. The color is bright, but the ingredients are irrelevant in taste. Simple and clear. China people attach great importance to "eating". The proverb "food is the sky for the people" shows that we regard eating as important as the sky. Because our nation has been at a low productivity level for thousands of years, people are always hungry, so there will be a unique food culture that eating is above everything else. I think it may be because of the need of survival. If a culture takes eating as the first thing, it will appear. On the other hand, paying too much attention to food will make people admire the pursuit of delicacy. In China's cooking, the pursuit of delicacy has almost reached the extreme, so that China people make a living overseas by opening restaurants, which has become the basis for us to settle in the world! Unfortunately, when we take the pursuit of delicacy as the first requirement, we ignore the most fundamental nutritional value of food. Many of our traditional foods have to be fried in hot oil and stewed with slow fire for a long time, which destroys the nutritional components of dishes and loses many nutritional components during processing. Therefore, when it comes to nutrition, it actually touches the biggest weakness of China's food culture. There is a folk saying: "Food is the most important thing for the people. It is this pursuit of delicious food that makes us ignore the true meaning of eating. People in China often say that this dish is delicious and that dish is not. However, if we want to ask what is delicious, why it is delicious and where it is delicious, it may not be easy to make it clear. This shows that China people are pursuing an indescribable "artistic conception" of food, that is, it is still difficult to cover this "realm" with what people usually call "color, fragrance, taste, shape and container". Harmony means that the original flavor of food, the cooked flavor after heating, the flavor of ingredients and accessories, and the harmonious flavor of seasonings are intertwined and coordinated, so that they complement each other, penetrate each other and blend with each other. You have me and I have you. The harmonious beauty of China's cooking is the essence of China's cooking art. The shape and color of dishes are external things, but the taste is internal, and the essence is emphasized. Paying more attention to the taste of dishes without revealing the shape and color of dishes is the most important expression of China's aesthetic diet view. In China, the pursuit of beauty in diet obviously exceeds rationality, which is also consistent with China's traditional philosophy. As a representative of oriental philosophy, China's philosophy is characterized by macroscopic, intuitive, fuzzy and unpredictable. The way to cook Chinese food is to reconcile, and ultimately to reconcile a beautiful taste. This emphasizes moderation. It is the overall coordination. It contains rich dialectical thoughts of China's philosophy. Everything is based on the beauty and harmony of dishes. The change in the degree determines the richness and diversity of Chinese food, and also determines the characteristics of Chinese food and even the characteristics of every chef. Secondly, the difference between Chinese and western diets is the question of what to eat. The differences on this issue are rooted in the differences of cultural backgrounds of various ethnic groups. Westerners eat more meat dishes. Pay more attention to the intake of animal protein and fat. In their diet structure, most of them are animal dishes, mainly beef, chicken, pork, mutton and fish. This is related to nomadic culture and marine culture in the west. Fishing, hunting and breeding are the main activities of maritime and nomadic peoples, supplemented by planting, which determines that the main source of their diet is animals. Not only diet, but also many other needs in life come from animals. China people are influenced by agricultural civilization. In their traditional diet structure, the staple food is grain, supplemented by vegetables and a small amount of meat, and plant dishes are dominant. We usually call it "vegetarian dishes", and usually only add meat dishes during the New Year Festival. This eating habit is deeply influenced by Buddhist culture, which makes it more obvious. Buddhism believes that animals are "creatures". It is even less suitable for eating. The idea of "forbidding killing and releasing" advocated by Buddhists is in the same strain as the Confucian view of "benevolence and goodness". In addition, Taoism also avoids eating fish and meat, which promotes the development of vegetable planting and cooking technology in China, especially the development of bean products technology. However, with the improvement of living standard and the popularization of nutrition concept, the proportion of meat and milk food on the table of China people is increasing. In the diet structure of westerners, vegetables have increased obviously, and the diet structure of China and the West has gradually merged. The difference between Chinese and western diets is also manifested in the fact that westerners like to eat cold food and cold dishes. From cold dishes and salads to cold drinks, cold dishes are indispensable on the table. In China, people like spicy food. Except for a few side dishes before the main course, the main course is spicy. In China's view, hot dishes are cold. As the saying goes, "one spicy and three fresh" means this. Westerners think that dishes are to satisfy hunger, so they only eat "hard dishes" such as large pieces of meat and whole chickens. China's dishes are "tasty", so China's cooking also shows great randomness in the use of materials: many things that westerners regard as discarded are excellent raw materials in China, while those that foreign chefs can't handle are in the hands of chefs in China. You can turn decay into magic, which shows that China's diet is extensive in the use of materials. According to the survey of western botanists, people in China eat more than 600 kinds of vegetables, six times more than those in the west. As a matter of fact, vegetarian dishes are ordinary foods in China, and meat dishes only enter the normal diet structure during holidays or when the living standard is high, so there has been a saying of "vegetarian dishes" since ancient times. Vegetarian food is dominant in the usual diet structure. China people's vegetable-based eating habits are closely related to the advocacy of Buddhists. They regard animals as "living things" and plants as "lifeless things", so they advocate vegetarianism. When introducing the dietary characteristics of their own countries, westerners feel that they pay more attention to the reasonable collocation of nutrition than China, and have relatively developed food industries, such as canned food and fast food, although they have the same taste. On the other hand, China people are thin, with narrow shoulders, short legs and yellow skin. According to the obvious differences between Chinese and western food objects, some people call China a plant character, while westerners call it an animal character. Third, the difference in diet means how to eat. At this point, there are obvious differences between China and the West. In China, whether it is a family dinner or a formal banquet, people will sit around and share a seat. People toast each other and advise dishes. This reflects the virtues of mutual respect and comity between people, and the atmosphere of harmony and reunion, especially in various festivals. This way of eating is an important tradition of China's food culture, which is based on the patriarchal concept. Eating first existed widely in families and clans, and then extended to outside the family. People in China often use this way to educate and express various "rituals". To reflect the relationship between young people and the elderly, respect for the elderly, closeness of relatives, nobility and inferiority, and emotional exchange. Because this way of sitting around drinking caters to the traditional family concept, it objectively plays a role in maintaining family stability and promoting family members' unity and harmony, so it has been circulated for a long time. It is really a family pleasure to have a big meal with the whole family. But at the same time, this way of eating also has its disadvantages, mainly unscientific, unhygienic and wasteful. People have gradually realized this drawback and started to reform. For example, the state banquet in China has been divided into meals, but it still needs to be promoted in the whole society. Westerners are used to eating separately. At western banquets, although they also sit together, everyone's food is a separate dish. The most typical form of western dining system is buffet. Diners each take a set of tableware and take what they need from the prepared food, without fixing seats. You can walk freely. This way of eating can not only fully satisfy your personal preference for food, but also promote social interaction and emotional and information exchange between individuals without having to disclose all activities at the dinner table. Therefore, in western banquets, food is only a means and foil, not the whole purpose, and the core of the banquet lies in friendship. This way of eating fully reflects the respect of westerners for individuality and self. It emphasizes individual independence, which is completely different from China's unified cultural model. Especially since the Renaissance, western society has vigorously advocated the spirit of equality, freedom, human rights and personality liberation, which has greatly promoted people's personality and freedom consciousness and produced a cultural environment that emphasizes the free development of personality. More importantly, this way of eating is civilized, hygienic and in line with the scientific spirit. Western diets are very different. This difference also affects the national character. In China, any banquet, regardless of its purpose, has only one form, that is, everyone sits around and shares a seat. The banquet will use round tables, which will formally create an atmosphere of unity, courtesy and common interests. Delicious food is placed in the center of the table, which is not only the object of appreciation and tasting, but also the medium of emotional communication between tables. In the face of beautiful things, it embodies the virtues of mutual respect and mutual courtesy between people. Although there are obvious shortcomings in this way of eating from the health point of view, it conforms to the universal mentality of "happy reunion" of our nation, reflects the influence of the category of "harmony" in China's classical philosophy on future generations, and is conducive to collective emotional communication, so it is difficult to reform so far. Although food and wine are very important in western-style banquets, in fact, they are used as foil. The core of the banquet is friendship, and the purpose of friendship is achieved by talking to the guests next door. If we compare the friendship of the banquet to a dance, we can say that the banquet in China is like a group dance, while the banquet in the West is like a ballroom dance for men and women. Thus, the purpose of friendship between China Banquet and Western Banquet is obvious, but China Banquet embodies the friendship of the whole banquet. Western-style banquets are mostly reflected in the friendship between neighboring guests. In western buffets, the difference between them and China's food style is more obvious. This method is: all the food is displayed one by one, everyone needs what they want, they don't have to sit in their seats to eat, so they can walk freely. This way facilitates the emotional communication between individuals, and it is not necessary to put all the words on the table, which also shows the respect of westerners for individuality and self. But everyone eats their own food and does not interfere with each other. China lacks some people's emotional appeal. So in the final analysis, it is the difference between sensibility and rationality. However, this difference seems to be blurred with the development of science. In China, more and more people pay more attention to the hygiene and nutrition of food, not just the color, smell and taste of food, especially after SARS. Moreover, due to the increasingly busy work, people feel that Chinese food is too much trouble to cook. It's best to eat a hamburger, so the difference in diet is not obvious. Fourth, differences in cooking methods In China, cooking is an art, which attracts people in China who take food as their pleasure. They are very interested in it, and even have a certain degree of entertainment. Cooking is just like China's music, dance, poetry and painting. It is of great significance to improve the realm of life. There are many cooking methods in China: slip, stew, burn, simmer, steam, stir-fry, crisp, stew, stew, stir-fry, casserole, wire drawing and so on. The dishes made are even more dazzling. The change of Chinese food technology is more complicated, many dishes take a long time, are decorated too much, and are served on the plate. "Seven Divisions of Work with Ingredients" emphasizes the importance of the chef's personal choice of raw materials and their use in different grades, that is, the standard of raw materials plays a decisive role in the production of dishes. Westerners emphasize science and nutrition in diet, and the whole process of cooking is carried out in strict accordance with scientific norms, so the cooking of dishes is standardized, so the work of chefs becomes an extremely monotonous mechanical work. Moreover, the purpose of westerners' eating is to ingest nutrition first. As long as the nutrition reaches the standard, others can tolerate it. Therefore, today's potato steak, tomorrow's steak and potatoes, the mechanical work repeated by chefs every day is completed with the extremely tolerant attitude of diners. Of course, I have no interest at all. Western cooking methods are not as complicated and changeable as those in China. Western food is three-dimensional and edible, and most of the food served on the plate can be eaten. Ornaments are the side dishes of the main course. The raw materials of western food are mostly fresh, pollution-free, natural and natural in operation technology, so as to give full play to its original flavor. Don't use too much dry goods. Milk is an indispensable raw material in western food. Suppliers are further standardized and standardized according to the characteristics of raw materials, and chefs no longer simply judge and determine which raw materials to use according to their own experience. Fifth, there is a greater difference in dining etiquette between China and the West. In the dining process in ancient China, there was a set of red tape. Qu Ji said, "If you don't have enough to eat, you won't lose your hands. No food, no food, no food, no bite, no fish, no dog bones, no food, no rice. "The main meaning of this sentence is that when you eat together, you shouldn't just eat by yourself. If you eat with others, you must check whether your hands are clean. Don't put the extra rice back into the pot, don't monopolize the food, and don't fan the hot rice. After eating, guests should get up and clear the dishes on the table and give them to the host. The host will get up and ask the guests not to work. Then the guests sat down again. Some of them are also modern etiquette. In western banquets, the host usually gives the guests only one dish, and the rest is eaten by the guests themselves. If the guests don't want to eat, they won't persuade others to eat, and they won't toast or take food frequently according to the custom of China people. They don't make any noise when eating, but guests should pay attention to the food prepared by their hosts. If they talk to others, they can only talk to their neighbors. Don't talk to people far away. The specific differences are as follows. In terms of clothing, in China, people can wear whatever they want in restaurants, even T-shirts and jeans, and only wear grand clothes at important banquets. But in the west, when going to high-end restaurants, men should wear neat tops and leather shoes; Ladies should wear suits and high heels. If formal attire is required, men must wear ties. Casual clothes are not allowed to eat in restaurants. Unlike seats, in China, guests usually sit down after arrival, and the seats are arranged in the order of generations. The seating order is "respect the east" and "face the door". In the west, generally speaking, the seat facing the door farthest from the door belongs to the hostess. On the contrary, it is the host's seat. The seat on the right of the hostess is the seat of the first guest, usually a gentleman, and the seat on the right of the hostess is the seat of the second guest, usually the wife of the guest. In western countries, ladies are given priority and gentlemanly manners are emphasized. In the order of serving, the first dish in China is soup, followed by staple food such as rice, and then the last wine is fruit that promotes digestion. In western countries, the order of serving is usually vegetables and soup, fruit, table wine, staple food, and finally dessert and coffee. The food was put on the table differently. Chinese food is served once, and everyone shares all the food. In western countries, everyone has his own set of tableware, and the dishes are eaten in one plate. In terms of food requirements, China doesn't need guests to eat all the dishes, while in the West, it is one thing to eat by yourself. Respect the master. Sixth, the difference of dining utensils. The tableware in China is mainly chopsticks, supplemented by spoons, as well as cups, plates, bowls and saucers of various shapes. China pays attention to the coordination of the shape, size and color of tableware and dishes, and pays attention to "beautiful utensils". We should not only have a good meal, but also get a beautiful artistic enjoyment from it. Westerners use metal knives and forks. And all kinds of cups, plates, cups and plates have their own functions and cannot be mixed. However, western food does not emphasize artistic beauty as China people do, and the types of tableware and the shapes of dishes are monotonous. In short, Westerners pay attention to the content of food, while China people emphasize the form of dishes and the feelings gained from them.