The Supreme Cooking Gods - Yi Yin, Peng Zu, Yi Ya, and King Zhan

Chinese people believe in gods. Not only do all ethnic groups and regions have their own gods that they worship and worship. All walks of life have their own gods, and the chef industry naturally has its own "chef god". China's kitchen gods are different from other gods. There are four of them: Yi Yin, Peng Zu, Yi Ya and King Zhan.

Yi Yin——the chef who is least good at cooking

Yi Yin was once the dowry of Shang Tang’s wife. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" says that when Yi Yin's mother was pregnant, she dreamed that God told her: "If you see water coming out of the stone mortar, run eastward and don't look back." The next day, water came out of the stone mortar. She ran eastward for more than ten miles, and when she looked back, she saw a vast expanse of ocean behind her, and Yiyin's mother turned into a mulberry tree. A woman from Shen State picked up mulberry trees and found a baby in the mulberry forest. She presented it to the king and named it "Yi Yin". When he grew up, Yi Yin was very talented. When Shang Tang heard about Yi Yin's reputation, he asked the king of Shen for Yi Yin and proposed to the Xin family. So the king of Shen took Yi Yin to Shang as a dowry. Later, Yi Yin helped Shang Tang conquer Xia Jie and established a dynasty.

How did Yi Yin become revered as the God of Cooking? It is said that at the ceremony held by Shang Tang to meet Yi Yin, Yi Yin started with seasoning, talked about various delicacies, and told Shang Tang, To eat these delicacies, one must have a good horse and become the emperor. To become the emperor, one must implement benevolent policies. The dialogue between Yi Yin and Shang Tang is the earliest document in the history of cooking, "Original Flavor Pian". Therefore, Yi Yin is called the God of Cooking, but he has never cooked a single dish.

Peng Zu - the most "undisciplined" cooking god

Peng Zu, also called Peng Keng, is the grandson of Wu Hui of the Zhu Rong family and the third son of the Lu Zhong family. According to the "Biography of Immortals", he "rarely loves to be quiet, has no concern for worldly affairs, does not care about reputation, does not wear car clothes, and only cares about health and body care". He is a doctor, but he often stays idle due to illness, does not ask about political affairs, often travels around, does not ride in carriages and horses, and is free and undisciplined. However, he is well versed in health preservation. Although he is 275 years old, he looks like he is fifty or sixty years old.

It is said that Peng Keng’s secret recipe for health was to use pheasant and five flavors to create pheasant soup and dedicated it to Emperor Yao. Emperor Yao praised it and made him a prince of Peng. He became the ancestor of the Dapeng clan and descendants. Known as Peng Zu, he is also regarded as the God of Cooking because of his good health care.