According to legend, when Qianlong visited Jiangnan seven times, one day he visited incognito. Hungry, he went to a small shop between Suzhou and Wuxi for dinner. As it was dark at night and there were only leftovers in the kitchen, the shopkeeper used his quick wits to shovel the brown paste bottom of the rice cooker, break it into pieces and put it on the plate. He cooked the stewed shrimp, fried shredded chicken and a bowl of chicken soup left over from the day and poured them on. With a creak, the smell of rice and chicken soup spread. After eating it, Emperor Qianlong thought that this dish soup was bright red, crispy and delicious, far better than the royal banquet, and was greatly appreciated.

1933, then Chairman of Jiangsu Province Chen planned to treat guests. In order not to be extravagant, he came up with an idea: tell guests all over the country in advance that they must bring a local famous dish. As a result, all kinds of famous dishes in Suzhou, puffer fish in Jiangyin, crispy eel bones in Wuxi, sauce chicken in Changshu and four-cheeked bass in Songjiang, came to the "banquet" one after another and reported them all. On this day, Chen brought his own private kitchen, which was also a dish invented by his family-tomato pot and rice soup. As a result, after dinner, this dish was rated as "the first dish in the world".