Su Dongpo is the greatest gourmet in Chinese history. He loved food, explored food and created food all his life, and made outstanding contributions to promoting China's food culture. People love and miss him, and they also associate some delicious foods with his name, such as "Dongpo Fish", "Dongpo Soup", "Dongpo Tofu" and "Dongpo Cuttlefish", among which "Dongpo Meat" is the most famous.

It turns out that Su Dongpo loves to eat pork and is also good at cooking pork. During the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty, he was demoted to Huangzhou (now Huanggang County, Hubei Province) for offending the imperial court. This is a "humble" small place. Su Dongpo said in a letter to a friend: "Pigs, cows, roes and deer are like earth, and fish and crabs don't care about money." "Fish, rice and charcoal are quite cheap, especially for the poor." That is to say, the products are quite rich and the prices are cheap, but it's a pity that the people are poor, backward in culture and poor in cooking, which forces him to cook by himself and seek delicious food. He has a poem "Eating Pork" that says: Huangzhou is good at pork, and the price is worthless. The rich refuse to eat, and the poor don't understand cooking. Slow down the fire, less water, when the fire is full, he is beautiful. Get up and play a bowl every day, so full that you can't worry about it.

This poem can be found in Zhupo Poetry by Zhou Zizhi in the Southern Song Dynasty. The title of the poem is either "Ode to Pork" or "Song of Stewed Meat", and the words of the poem are slightly different. However, there is no doubt that Su Dongpo often eats and cooks meat in Huangzhou. He has another poem: "If you are trapped in three cups of wine, you will have a piece of meat for lunch." Another letter to a friend said: Although life is "frugal, it is still a meat a day" (to Wang Dingguo); "Eating pork is really beautiful and full" (answer to Bi Zhongju). Therefore, it is very possible for him to create a stew method that pays attention to temperature in Huangzhou. According to legend, he later learned about Hangzhou with a bachelor's degree in Longtuge, dredged the West Lake, and did a great good thing for the people. Hangzhou residents thanked him and sent a lot of pork and wine. He cut the pork into pieces, cooked it with his cooking method, and consoled the dredged migrant workers with wine. However, his chef misinterpreted "suitable with wine" as "burning with wine", and as a result, he cooked braised pork with wine, but it was surprisingly more crispy and delicious. Since then, "Dongpo Meat" has spread widely and become a famous dish in Hangzhou.