Due to the influence of regional characteristics, climate, customs and other factors, catering products will have different degrees of differences in raw materials, tastes, cooking methods and eating habits. It is precisely because of these differences that catering products have strong regional characteristics. The differences between Chinese and western cultures have created the differences between Chinese and western food cultures, which come from different ways of thinking and philosophy of life. People in China pay attention to "harmony between man and nature", while westerners pay attention to "people-oriented".

Here, we briefly talk about the differences between Chinese and western food cultures from the following three aspects.

First of all, two different dietary concepts.

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 must 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-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 cause of things, and the cause of things is often metaphysical. The two are interrelated and form 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 philosophical proposition has been greatly hindered, such as food culture. At the banquet, you 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" with mashed potatoes, leaning against the lamb chops, and boiled green beans and some tomatoes on the other side. The colors are in sharp contrast, but the raw materials are irrelevant, the taste is harmonious, each has its own flavor, and it is simple and clear.

China people attach great importance to "eating", and 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 level of productivity for thousands of years, people are always hungry, so there is a unique diet culture that puts food first. I think it may be because of the need of survival. If a culture takes eating as the first thing, then there will be two phenomena: on the one hand, it will exert its function to the extreme, not only to maintain survival, but also to maintain health, which is the cultural basis of "medicine tonic is not as good as food tonic"; On the other hand, paying too much attention to food will make people admire the pursuit of delicious food.

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 must be fried in hot oil for a long time and cooked with slow fire, so the nutritional components of the dishes are destroyed and many of them are lost during processing. So 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, and taste is the first thing to eat". It is this pursuit of food that makes us ignore the true meaning of eating.

When Chinese people taste dishes, they often say that this dish is delicious and that dish is not delicious. However, if we want to further ask what is "delicious", why "delicious" and where "delicious" is, I am afraid it is not easy to make it clear. This shows that China people's pursuit of food is an indescribable "artistic conception", that is, it is still difficult to cover this "realm" with what people usually call "color, fragrance, taste, shape and container".

The key to the unique charm of China diet lies in its taste. The production of delicious food lies in harmony, so that the original flavor of food, the cooked taste after heating, the taste of ingredients and auxiliary materials and the harmonious taste of seasonings are intertwined and coordinated with each other, 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, while the taste is internal things. It is the most important embodiment of China's aesthetic diet view to pay attention to the inside without deliberately modifying the appearance and taste of dishes and not revealing the shape and color of dishes excessively.

In China, the pursuit of beauty in diet obviously overwhelms rationality, and this view of diet is also consistent with China's traditional philosophy. As a representative of oriental philosophy, China's philosophy is macroscopic, intuitive, fuzzy and unpredictable. The method of making Chinese food is to reconcile the tripod, and finally reconcile the beautiful taste. This emphasizes moderation, that is, overall cooperation. It contains rich dialectics of China's philosophy. Everything is based on the beauty and harmony of food. The variety in the range determines the richness and diversity of Chinese food, and also determines the characteristics of Chinese cooking and even the characteristics of every chef.

Second, the differences between Chinese and Western dieters.

Westerners think that dishes are to satisfy hunger, so they specialize in "hard dishes", such as large pieces of meat and whole chicken. China's cuisine is "tasty", so China's cooking also shows great randomness in the use of materials: what many westerners regard as discarded are excellent raw materials in China, and what foreign chefs can't handle can be turned into magic as soon as they reach the hands of China chefs. It shows that China's diet has a wide range of randomness in 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. In fact, in China cooking, vegetarian dishes are ordinary foods, and meat dishes only enter the ordinary diet structure when the living standard is high, so there has been a saying of "vegetable food" since ancient times, and vegetable food is dominant in the ordinary diet structure. China people's plant cooking is closely related to the advocacy of Buddhists. They regard animals as "living things" and plants as "lifeless things", so they advocate vegetarianism.

When westerners introduce their country's dietary characteristics, they think that they pay more attention to the reasonable collocation of nutrition than China. There are developed food industries, such as canned food and fast food, which save time and have good nutrition, so people in their country are generally stronger than people in China: tall, long legs, wide shoulders and developed muscles; On the other hand, China people are thin, with narrow shoulders and 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, different ways of eating.

There are great differences between Chinese and western food styles, which also have an impact on national character. In China, any banquet, regardless of the purpose, has only one form, that is, everyone sits around and shares a seat. Banquets should use round tables, which can create an atmosphere of unity, courtesy and formal common interest. Delicious food is placed in the center of a table, which is not only the object of appreciation and tasting, but also the medium of emotional communication. People toast each other, give each other food and give each other advice, which embodies the virtue of mutual respect and mutual courtesy between people in the face of beautiful things. Although this diet has obvious shortcomings from the perspective of hygiene, 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 the thoughts of future generations, and is conducive to the collective emotional exchange, so it is difficult to reform so far.

Although food and wine are very important at western-style banquets, they are actually used as a foil. The core of the banquet is friendship, which is realized by talking with the guests next door. If we compare the sociality of banquets to dancing, we can say that banquets in China are like group dancing, while banquets in the West are like ballroom dancing for men and women. It can be seen that the friendship purpose between Chinese banquet and western banquet is obvious, but Chinese banquet is more reflected in the friendship of the whole banquet, while western banquet is more reflected in the friendship between adjacent guests. The more obvious difference from China's diet is the buffet which is popular in the west. This method is: all the food is displayed one by one, and everyone needs what they want, so they don't have to eat in their seats, they can move freely. This way facilitates the emotional communication between individuals, without putting all the words on the table, which also shows the respect of westerners for individuality and self. However, they eat their own food and don't interfere with each other, which lacks some China people's mood of chatting and entertaining together.

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. More and more people in China no longer only pay attention to the color, smell and taste of vegetables, but pay more attention to their hygiene and nutrition. Especially after SARS. Also, because work is getting busier and busier, people think Chinese food is too much trouble to cook, so they might as well have a hamburger or something. In this way, the difference in diet is not obvious.