China has a long history, and there have been many gourmets, such as crucian carp crossing the river. The most famous ones are the following eight:

The first is Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period. Confucius has many titles, such as educator, thinker, philosopher, social activist and old man ... This is a long list, and I think one should be added: food. Although Confucius once boasted that "a gentleman can't eat enough to settle down", in fact, he is a very particular person about food. His focus involves etiquette, hygiene, taste and other aspects. There is a passage in The Analects of Confucius, The Rural Party, which can be used as the outline of Confucius' food culture thought:

Never tire of eating, never tire of eating.

If you eat food, you will get food; If you are hungry, you will lose meat; If you don't eat it; Color is evil, don't eat it; Smelly, don't eat; Lose food, don't eat; Don't eat from time to time; Cut it inappropriately, don't eat it; No sauce, no food.

Although there is a lot of meat, there is nothing better than eating.

Only wine has no boundaries, and it is not chaotic.

Don't withdraw ginger food.

Sacrifice to the public, leaving no meat. Sacrifice meat for three days, but don't eat for three days.

There is nothing to say when eating and nothing to say when sleeping.

Although vegetables eat vegetable soup and melon sacrifices, they must be in the same place.

Pay attention to the average person can't catch up. Of course, Confucius also expressed his own views on diet in other places. As space is limited, I won't quote them one by one. This passage alone is enough to prove that Confucius, who lived 2500 years ago, is a well-deserved gourmet!

The second is Cao Cao in the late Han Dynasty. Everyone in the world says that Cao Cao is a traitor, who has a little in-depth understanding or is praised as a capable minister; Anyone who has read the history of literature knows that Cao Cao is a poet; From his poems, we know that Cao Cao has a good understanding of wine culture, and wrote a famous sentence like "How to solve the problem, only Du Kang". As is known to all, Cao Cao studied the art of cooking hard. According to Yu Quan of Wang Shihan's Selected Works of Science, Wei Wu's Four Seasons Food System is one of the books cited in the annotation of the selected works. In other words, Cao Cao may have done special research on cooking and written special works. Now you can see the Four Seasons Food System compiled from documents such as Taiping Yu Lan, which all talk about the origin and eating methods of fish. There are 14 kinds of fish, some of which are hard to find today. Here are three short examples:

Pixian fish, with yellow scales and red tails, can be used as sauce when they come out of rice fields. (Magnolia 936)

Spartine fish, which tastes like pork, is produced in the East China Sea of China. (Magnolia 940)

The marlin is as big as five buckets, long and has a chin. They often fish from the river in mid-March and are often caught in Jin Meng. Yellow fat, only used for work.

Strong. Huai water can also be used. (Beginners 30)

Obviously, Cao Cao is a gourmet who loves fish very much.

The third place is Du Fu in the Tang Dynasty. In many people's minds, Du Fu, the poet saint, is a bitter poet who has been down and out all his life and is cynical. In fact, it is a big fallacy! Du Fu was born in a noble family and lived a carefree life since he was a child. When he was young, he lived a life of chasing animals and horses. Although he has suffered a lot since middle age, he is, after all, a person living in the ruling class. He has seen all kinds of delicious food. In his poems, there are vivid descriptions of court dinners, royal banquets and farmers drinking. The description of eating sashimi in the poem "A silver carp in a dry village is given to Long song": In the poem "Drinking for a gentleman after illness", a friend held a home-cooked meal, and the host tried his best to make a table of dishes with meat and wine, which made him see the truth in troubled times; In the poem "Eight Places in Chu Shi" (a simple snack during the war years), "spring leeks are cut in the rain at night, and brown rice is specially cooked" (brown rice is specially cooked) is full of human warmth ... These are treasures in the history of literature. It can be said that Du Fu was the first person to express China cuisine in poetry. Needless to say, Du Fu is a super gourmet.

The fourth place is Su Shi of Song Dynasty. Undoubtedly, Su Shi is the most famous gourmet in the history of China. Because he invented a dish that has always been very popular: Dongpo pork. In addition to pork, Su Shi's favorite dishes include all kinds of fish (including yellow croaker, octopus, perch, etc. ), the most famous of which is about puffer fish. A poem in Two Nightscape by the Hui Chong River;

Two or three peach blossoms outside the bamboo forest and ducks in the water first noticed the warm spring.

The beach is covered with wormwood, asparagus is sprouting, and puffer fish are preparing to swim upstream from the sea back to the river.

This shows the courage of the best Su Shi. In his later years, Su Shi's interest turned to vegetarianism, mainly eating vegetables and fruits. During his stay in Hainan, Guangdong, he tasted various fruits in the south, such as bayberry, orange, litchi, longan, olive and betel nut. He didn't like anything. Among them, I especially like litchi. "There are 300 lychees a day. As a Lingnan person, I have grown up without hesitation!" Famous sentences remain in the world. In addition, Su Shi devoted himself to the development of soup in his later years. He invented several kinds of soups, one of which was made of bamboo shoots, rice powder (minced ginger, garlic and leek) and shepherd's purse. "In the new year, bamboo shoots sprout, and the frost in the kitchen pours out the old poppy. When I walked around the wheat field, I begged for weeds and I was forced to cook yam soup for the monk's family. " ("Two rhymes are vegetables that never rain for a long time") One was written by Su Shi in the field with a broken tripod. The main materials are radish and turnip (that is, radish). This soup probably has a good health care function, and Mr. Dongpo is quite proud of it. He calls himself Zhen Zhu, Named after Dongpo Soup ("Dishao Prefecture Boil, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew. Stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew, stew. There is also a gold medal Dongpo soup called Dongpo Yuman Soup-actually invented by Su Shi's son Su Guo. "The saliva as sweet as a dragon is still white, and it tastes more clear like milk. Don't make the South China Sea golden, lighter than Dongpo jade! " ("The child suddenly had a new idea. Yam was used as jade liquid soup, and the color and taste were great. Su Tuo in the sky is unknown, and there is no such taste on earth. It was so delicious that Su Dongpo kept the recipe secret and refused to announce it, only telling us that the main ingredient was sweet potato.

The fifth place is Zhang Dai in the late Ming Dynasty. Although Zhang Dai himself is dressed in white, he has neither participated in the imperial examination nor been an official, but he was born in an official family with a well-off family. In addition, his hometown is rich in Jiangnan, so he has the conditions to pursue all kinds of life enjoyment. He claims to be a good house, a good servant, a good child molester, a good fresh coat, a good horse, a good lantern, a good fireworks, a good cultivated garden, a good advocate, a good antique, a good flower and bird ... He also writes poetry, sings, plays chess, calligraphy, plays the flute, plays cuju and plays chess. Naturally, Zhang Dai is also very particular about all kinds of diets. Among them, he is especially good at eating crabs. Every year 10, Zhang Dai will form a "crab party" with friends and brothers to hold crab eating activities. Generally, everyone gets six crabs, so he cooks them in turn because he is afraid of cold and fishy smell. Supplementary foods include fat duck breast, cow cheese, drunken cockroaches (such as amber), boiled cockroaches in duck sauce (such as emerald cabbage), fruits (such as Xie orange, pineapple and chicken bell), vegetables (such as bamboo shoots in ice pits), drinking jade pot ice, eating rice in Xinyu and gargling with Lan Xue tea. These are all recorded in his article "Eating Crabs".

The sixth place is Li Yu in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Li Yu is famous as a dramatist, but in fact, he is similar to Zhang Dai, and he is also a man with extensive reading and interests, which can be best proved in his book "Send with Feeling". His food quality can be seen from the "drinking department" in "Send with the Fate". The drinking part consists of three parts, including vegetables, grains and meat, that is to say, vegetables, rice and flour staple food, land, sea, birds, animals, fish and shrimp and all kinds of materials needed for food. He has studied them and often has his own unique opinions.

The seventh place is Jin Shengtan of the Qing Dynasty. Jin Shengtan was an outstanding literary critic in Qing Dynasty. He highly praised Li Sao, Zhuangzi, Historical Records, Du Fu's Poems, The Water Margin and The West Chamber, saying that all talented people in the world should read and comment on them one by one. Unfortunately, only two critical biographies, The Water Margin and The West Chamber, have been completely preserved to this day. When he commented on the Water Margin, his ideas were novel and brilliant. Jin Shengtan lives in poverty, is wild and uninhibited, and his words and deeds are often sensational, so he can be called a master of cold humor. When the death of Shunzhi reached Suzhou, 18 people, including Ren in Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, abused punishment, bribed and collected. Jin Shengtan also encouraged more than 1000 students to gather in the Confucian Temple to cry and protest. As a result, it angered the court and ordered the execution of soldiers including Jin Shengtan in the middle of the year. Before he died, Jin Shengtan drank to his heart's content, and said, "Breaking up is also a headache, and drinking is also a pleasure. It's fun to drink first after beheading! Happy! " Another version is "beheading is painful, but sighing is unintentional and amazing!" (Liang Zhangju's Notes on Returning to the Field) His last words to his eldest son are not important, but the recipe of the dishes. There are different versions of this. One version is "... peanuts and dried tofu are chewed together and taste like ham"; Another version is "... pickles and soybeans are eaten together and taste like walnuts." As soon as this law was passed, I died without regret. "Even when we are in danger, we are still thinking about the spirit of the food formula, so we must worship it as food. I would like to offer a heart-warming fragrance to the spirit of the sages!

The eighth place is Yuan Mei of the Qing Dynasty. Yuan Mei was a famous poet and critic during the Qianlong period. At that time, if the poet can get his praise, his value will be doubled immediately. Therefore, many poetry lovers, including a group of dignitaries, respectfully sent their poems to him for comments-his masterpiece "Poetry Comes with the Garden" came from this. Yuan Mei hates the intrigue of officialdom. At the age of 33, his father died and he resigned and went home. From then on, he stopped being an official. He bought the abandoned garden of Sui Dynasty in Nanjing, renamed it Suiyuan, built a house and lived in it, and spent his life leisurely in poetry and wine. During this period, Yuan Mei wrote an important book "Menu with the Garden", which will be regarded as a systematic exposition of cooking technology and North-South cuisine in the future. The book is divided into information list, warning list, seafood list, Jiang Xian list, special sacrifice list, miscellaneous sacrifice list, feather family list, aquarium scale list, non-family scale list, miscellaneous food list, small menu, dim sum list, rice porridge list, wine list and so on 14. More than 300 kinds of dim sum dishes popular in China from14th century to18th century are described in great detail, and famous wines and teas at that time are also introduced, all of which involve material selection and tasting. Although Yuan Mei wrote a special cookbook, he himself insisted on the old saying that "a gentleman cooks far away" and could not cook. Therefore, he is not a master cook, but a gourmet.