Emphasis on Material Selection

China has broad landgrave, rich material resource and various kinds of cooking materials, so a definte difference comes up among these cooking materials with different regions, seasons and techniques. Only with high quality materials, rich-in-nutrition dishes with excellent color, good smell, delicious taste and delicate shape can be cooked. For example, only with Beijing local crammed duck, Beijing Quanjude roasted duck with crisp skin and fresh-and-tender meat can be produced. The soup cooked with bighead carp head tastes mellow and sticky. Whole chicken deboning can be done with tallowy poussins. All these fully show the importance of cooking material selection.

As the saying goes, fine weathers make fine birds. It can be said that Chinese dishes come from very smart ingredients. Bird’s best and shark's fin cooked with broth taste delicious and mellow. Consistency of ingredients in their shapes shall be stressed for attractive appearance. Consistency of ingredients in their qualities is often considered at the time of dish preparation. As viewed from nutrition, cooking ingredients shall be prepared based on such espects as balanced nutrition, meal balance, acid-base balance and protein complementarity. All these embody the smartness and marvellousness of ingredients.

Slicing techniques, one of basic skill of chefs, represent their cooking levels. For example, requirements for their slicing techniques include sliced ingredients as thin as paper and shredded as slim as hairs. Slicing techniques required for Chinese dishes are well-knowned in China and foreign countries. Only with a kitchen knife, a chef can slice into orderly shapes and carve out lifelike patterns. It is not separate from slicing techniques for many Chinese dishes cooked finely into famous dishes. Such dishes as Jiangsu Cuisine “Braised Shredded Chicken with Ham and Dried Bean Curd” and Beijing Cuisine “Crispy Roasted Duck” are representation of fine slicing technique.

Heat control is one of standard verifying cooking skills. Fire can be divided into roaring fire, midium fire, low fire and slow fire in respect of heat control. Different dishes shall be cooked with different fires. Heat control has a great effect on dish quality. Many famous dishes such as Shandong “Dezhou Braised Chicken”, Beijing “Roasted Duck” and Anhui “Hilsa Herring Smoked with Maofeng Tea” are outstanding works of heat control.

In China, there are about 500 kinds of cooking seasoners, accounting for one-sisth of seasoners commonly used in cooking. Chinses dishes emphasize on seasoning, so it may be said that food is of the utmost importance to everyone and taste is the core of dish. Chinese dishes attach importance to both original tastes of cooking materials and endowed tastes of seasoners, especially with a view to five flavors in harmony. In the course of cooking dishes, such functions as integration, comparison, counteraction, overaction and conversion of flavors shall be fully utilized to endow dishes with delicious tastes and make them into attractive core.

In addition, seasoning principles shall be made according to different cooking materials, different seasons, different regions and different stages.

Through several thousand of years of development, Chinese dishes are ceaselessly getting rid of the stale and bringing forth the fresh. China is a multi-national country and each nation has its own custom in diet, so there are various dishes in China. In addition, each province, city or region also has its own typical dishes. Now, food and beverage enterprises have established their own dish research and development centers and make innovation and replacement of low-order dishes in their own restaurants each month. In this way, it can be said that Chinese dishes are countless in variety.

It may be said that there are various kinds of vessels for Chinese dishes, which is a feast for the eyes and vary in shapes such as big, small, long, quadrate and round vessels. Some of them are made of copper, iron, steel, gold and silver, and others are made of wood, sand, porcelain, jade and stone. Vessel is one attribute of Chinese dishes. As the says goes, delicious food must be equiped with good vessel. Reasonable vessels often create beautiful color and shape of dishes and improve there grades. So it may be said that Chinese dishes attach much importance to their vessels, and different colors of dishes shall be contained in different colors of vessels. Figures of dishes shall be coordinated with shapes of vessels, for example, oval tray for round fish, big tray for big big fish, small for small and soup bowl or soup plate for dish with soup. Different vessels are used in different seasons, for example, commonly speaking, marmite or chaffy dish will not appear in banquet table in summer. In cooking competitions, chefs attach more and more importance to vessel use, which often becomes the talisman of winning. For example, it is observed that the 13th China Chef Festival held in Nanchang features competition in vessel.

Cooking technique mainly refers to cooking process of dish. It can be divided into cold dish cooking technique and hot dish cooking technique as well as cooking techniques with heat-transfer media such as water, oil, steam, solid and air. Dish cooking varies with cooking techique, and cooking technique also varies with heating time and fire power. There are hundreds of cooking techniques in China. Dishes with different quality and taste can be cooked withs different cooking techniques. Due to various kinds of Chinese dishes, there are a great variety of cooking techniques.

Some possess local colors, for example, Guangdong “Ju”, Shandong “Ta”, Beijing “Luzhu” and Jiangsu “Wu”.

Cooking, which is the quintessence of China, is reputed as the fifth great invention of China. Compared with Printing, Paper-making, Gunpowder and Compass, cooking is the pride of Chinese people. Although China is the inventor of these four great inventions that have become a historical topic, China doesn’t do as well as foreign countries in this aspect today. Only cooking, the fifth great invention, is well-known in the world, within sight but not within reach for foreigners. They love Chinese dishes, but cannot learn and cook well. Today, Chinese Cooking, French Cooking and Turk Cooking are called as three systems of cooking in the world.

In China, there is a saying that real man would have climbed Great Wall and real regret not tasting Peking duck. This can sufficiently explain the status of Chinese cooking in the heart of foreign people.

In Han dynasty, starting from Zhang Qian’s being sent on a diplomatic mission to Western Regions, Chinese dishes have long enjoyed a good reputation in the world, spread into many countries and experienced exchange of food culture with Central Asian and Western Asian countries or even some European countries. In Tang dynasty, through “Jianzhen’s Crossing the Ocean to Japan” and “Xuanzang Journey to the West”, China cooking culture was brought into some countries such as Japan and India. In the 13th century, Marco Polo spread wheaten food processing technique and simultaneously brought flavor and food into Italy, so as to spread Chinese dishes into the European Continent. In Ming dynasty, many treaty ports were set up along the southern coastal areas, so as to enable Chinese flavor to spread into some countries in Southeast Asia and Africa.

In Tang dynasty, Japan formally dispatched over 20 diplomatic missions one after another to China for study, in which there were persons of studying food making.

Now, there are plenty of Chinese food restaurants all over the world. Where there are Chinese people, there are Chinese food restaurants certainly. In the middle of 19th century more or less, Chinese dishes spread into the American Continent. Earlier group of Chinese food restaurants appeared in Ottawa, Canana in 1867 and San Francisco, the US in 1870. Especially since reform and opening to the outside world in 1980s, China has associated frequently with other countries in the world, and China dishes are welcomed there more than ever.

Japanese people say that it is not difficult for China’s centuries-old eating culture to conquer the world. French people say that it is difficult to decribe colorful Chinese dishes in abundant Chinese characters. Result of opinion survey in the US shows that 90% voters think Chinese dishes are most tasty. American people say that Chinese dishes are the eternal brilliance of China culture.