The book "Gourmet" takes "eating" as its theme. Through the description of the changes in the fate of small people, it presents the economic and cultural changes of the entire society. The author creates different attitudes towards eating, as well as two seemingly opposing characters: one is "I" Gao Xiaoting - who is opposed to "delicious food"; the other is Zhu Ziye - who has a taste for food. The two people seem to be opposite and distant, but in fact their fate is like a mess and has been entangled with each other for most of their lives. The author uses their relationships and changes in destiny in different periods to analyze human nature and express the impact of social background on personal destiny. In fact, isn't this a display of the changes in social class and food culture represented by these two people?

In the end, Gao Xiaoting was not able to figure out what he was opposing. He used his own personal disgust to irrationally oppose reforms in an extreme manner. But the funny thing is that he always goes against the general trend of society. When society progressed and people's material lives improved, he opposed improving food quality and returned to the era of "returning to basics". During the period of revolutionary turmoil, he had no chance. After the difficult year ended, he finally restored some famous Suzhou dishes. The Cultural Revolution came one after another, and he was beaten as a "capitalist roader" because he changed the restaurant back. After the reform and opening up, he re-managed Suzhou food-related affairs and invited Zhu Ziye, whom he had always opposed, to be a food consultant. People regard Zhu Ziye, who can only eat and talk, as a "gourmet", which is extremely ironic for Gao Xiaoting.

At the end of the article, after he returned home from a banquet cooked by Kong Bixia, he did something interesting to his grandson. He knocked the child's chocolate away and stuffed the hard candies into his grandson's mouth. He thought to himself: "I can't control Zhu Ziye for the rest of my life, and I can't control you either." It's not difficult to see that he once again implicated others because of his personal likes and dislikes, but he still couldn't put aside his heartfelt disgust for Zhu Ziye.

In fact, a person’s extreme personal emotion towards one thing is a human weakness. It affects rationality and hinders the development of a sound personality. Whether it is Zhu Ziye who is addicted to food, or Gao Xiaoting who opposes Zhu Ziye "his whole life", they have all proved this.