Culture belongs to human spiritual activities or spiritual products, so the formation of a culture has specific conditions, and it has been recognized by most people after the test and accumulation of time. The formation of food culture in China has been accompanied by the development history of people and society in China for a long time. It is generally difficult to classify it as a "mutation" as a social event. Generally speaking, there are some stage characteristics, and an evolution process can be seen.

1. prehistory, from Peking man cooking food with fire to the late Longshan culture, is a long stage of hundreds of thousands of years. The main achievement is that he can use plum and start eating cooked food.

2. The Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, about 2000, were rich in food raw materials, and the Zhou royal family had a complete diet system, and initially summarized the diet ideas (such as the integration of medicine and food, the original flavor thought, and the Confucius and Mencius esophagus).

3. More than 400 years in Han Dynasty is an important stage in the history of diet, and the regional characteristics of diet are reflected. The grain processing, cooking methods, eating utensils and etiquette habits represented by the rotary mill laid the basic style for the next 2000 years. The fermentation technology of wheat flour food, the widespread use of bean products and the invention of tofu have had a great influence on the Chinese nation's diet style.

4. During the period of the Three Kingdoms and the Jin Dynasty, the chaos was divided, and the progress was influenced by the exchange of food and food styles between the North and the South, which absorbed each other's progress and became more diversified.

5. The relative stability in the late Sui and Tang Dynasties, the further enrichment of food varieties, the popularization of drinking methods and the increase of exchanges between China and foreign countries pushed China's food culture to Asia and even the world. The commerce in Song Dynasty was very prosperous, the catering industry was quite developed, and there were many restaurants on the street.

6. The food culture in Ming and Qing Dynasties reached the climax of ancient society, and a group of gourmets appeared.

7. The period from the end of Qing Dynasty to the middle of 20th century was called the "turning point" of food culture. On the one hand, political reasons lead to people's difficulty in eating; on the other hand, western eating habits, techniques and theories were introduced into China.

8. Modern food culture is still in the progressive tense. The post-80s China food industry has changed from "having a full meal" to "having a good meal". In the social economy, the functions of catering industry have gradually expanded, and the health and safety problems in food production have emerged and been solved. There is a joke circulating on the Internet, either run away or "wait for death". The problems of air and food are full of daily life and even life-threatening. This may be one of the characteristics of modern food culture.