Chinese Cuisine

 The Four Chinese Cuisines are 

Lu Cuisine, Chuan Cuisine, Huaiyang
Cuisine and Cantonese Cuisines.
 As these schools of cuisines are formed
naturally, you could tell the differences of
them by the materials, production, taste
and artistic styles of them.
Eight Cuisine of China

 Sichuan cuisine, Shandong

cuisine, Cantonese cuisine,
Fujian cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine,
Zhejiang cuisine, Hunan cuisine,
Anhui cuisine.
Sichuan Cuisine
 Also known as Szechuan
Cuisine or Szechwan Cuisine is a Chinese
cooking style originated from Sichuan
province.
 In China, there is a saying, “dine at
China, flavors in Sichuan” 
  Due to its sophisticated cooking style, in
2011 UNESCO declare Chengdu, capital
of Sichuan as a city of gastronomy.

 Sichuan is also known as “heavenly

country” due to its abundance of food and
natural resources.
Characteristic

 Sichuan cuisine emphasizes color,

shape, smell, and taste.
 Most Sichuan dishes are hot and
spicy.
 The taste criteria are composed of 7
criteria – hot, salty, sweet, bitter,
numb, sour, and aromatic.
 There is a Chinese saying, 一菜一格，
白菜百味 , literally translated as one dish
one character, a hundred dishes hundred
flavors.
 Sichuan peppercorn is the most important
spice in a Sichuan cuisine, it delivers
intense citrus-like flavor and a numbing
sensation to our mouth.
Shandong Cuisine
 More commonly known in Chinese as Lu
Cuisine, can be divided into Jinan style,
Jiaodong style, Kongfu style, and other
regional styles.
 Jinan style is the typical style of Shandong
cuisine. Modern Chinese cuisine in Northern
China is developed from Shandong cuisine.
 Today Shandong cuisine is formed during
the Yuan Dynasty, where it also influenced
imperial dishes.
 Characteristic
 Shandong cuisine uses mainly domestic
birds and animals, vegetables, and seafood.
 With over 50 types of cooking methods, the
major cooking techniques include Bao 爆
(quick frying), Liu 溜 (quick frying with
corn flour), Pa 扒 (stewing), roasting
（烤） , boiling （煮） , using sugar to
make fruit, crystallizing with honey.
 Jinan style emphasizes more on clear
aromatic broth and soup.
 Whereas Jiaodong style is much lighter in
flavor and uses lots of seafood, dried and
fresh.
 The Kongfu style on the other hand is a
delicate cooking style with much complex
cooking techniques, often require more
than 3 to 4 steps to produce a dish.
Cantonese Cuisine
 Locally called Yue Cuisine, which
consists of Guangzhou, Chaozhou, and
Hakka cooking style.
 In general, when Westerners mentioned
Chinese food, they usually refer to
Cantonese cuisine due to a large number
of emigrants from Guangdong province
during the Chinese diaspora.
  Guangzhou dishes is the major influence
of Cantonese Cuisine and also very well
known for the phrase  食在广州 , literally
translated as dine at Guangzhou. 

 Cantonese cuisine is often regarded as

the quintessence of Chinese Cuisine.
 Characteristic
 Cantonese dishes should be well balanced and not
greasy.
 Usage of herbs and spices should be modest to
maintain the flavors of the primary ingredients,
ingredients, on the other hand, has to be freshest
possible.
 As for Chaozhou style also known as Teochew
cuisine, uses plenty of seafood – dried and fresh,
poultry and are also famous for their vegetarian
dishes.

Cooking methods includes, stir fry, deep-
fried, stew, double boiling, roast, bake,
braise, boil, smoke and others, with clear
soup being their notable specialty. 
 Hakka style, in another word, Dongjiang
style, uses more meat, emphasizes flavors of
the primary ingredients.
 Temperature control is the key to this cuisine
for stew, roast, braise, baked, especially for
their casserole dishes.
Fujian Cuisine
 Also known as Min cuisine, originated
from Fuzhou province. 
 Fujian cuisine consists of 3
styles – Fuzhou, Southern Fujian, and
Western Fujian. 
 Famously known for their local products,
salty produce – shrimp sauce, shrimp
oil (also known as a fermented fish
sauce), soy sauce, shacha sauce, etc,
sweet produce – brown sugar, rock sugar,
etc, sour produce – white vinegar, pickled
bulbous onion, etc.
 Fujian cuisine is also known for its
“drunken” dishes (wine marinated).
 Fujian cuisine makes exceptional quality
soup stocks and bases.
 A very good example is the
infamous Buddha Jump Over the Wall.
 Characteristic
 It is famous for its flavorful yet light taste
similar to umami taste, delivering the original
flavor of the main ingredients. 
 Seafood and freshwater ingredients
(freshwater fishes, turtles, and shellfish) are
commonly used.
 Their cooking method consists of boiling,
steaming, pan-fried, deep-fried, stew, roast,
braise, stir fry, smoke, simmer, etc.
 Knife skills are also trained to the
finesse among their chef.
 In Fujian cuisine, they also use a lot of
distilled grain, namely, wine lees and
red yeast rice which delivers a rosy-red
hue and taste slightly sweet. 
 Fuzhou style is lighter in taste
compared to the other two styles and is
famous for its soups.
 Southern Fujian style is slightly heavier
than Fuzhou style.
 Incorporating various slow cooking
methods with the usage of sugar and
spices.
 Whereas Western Fujian style, it is
often slight spicy flavor from the usage of
pepper and mustard.
 Dishes are commonly stir fry, frying, and
steaming.
 Their dishes are saltier and oilier,
focusing more on meat than seafood.
Jiangsu Cuisine
 Jiangsu cuisine, sometimes called Su
cuisine, is heavily developed from Huaiyang
cuisine.
 Jiangsu cuisine famous chefs usually
specialize in traditional Huaiyang cuisine.
 As the Huaiyang cuisine is one of the sub-
regional styles within Jiangsu Cuisine.
 Jiangsu cuisine also consists of a blend
of Suzhou style, Nanjing style, Wuxi style,
and Nantong style.
 Characteristic
 Jiangsu cuisine is very delicate in shape,
color, and appearance.
 They produce soft texture but not to the
point of falling apart or mushy.
 Seafood is a common ingredient as Jiangsu
province is located just right beside the sea.
  Nanjing style produces well balance flavor
with attractive colors. 
 Suzhou style emphasizes on quality of
ingredients and tastes sweeter than the
other style. 
 Wuxi style is famous for its caramelized
soy dishes – hongshao 红烧 . Nantong
style, on the other hand, emphasizes the
flavors from the freshness of ingredients
– local freshwater ingredients such as
fish, shrimp, mussels, etc.
Zhejiang Cuisine
 Zhejiang cuisine or in short as Zhe
cuisine dependent on seasonal
ingredients, fine and delicate knife skills,
temperature control, emphasizes the
freshness of the ingredients with each
dish having its own charm.
Characteristic

 The cooking style consists of Hangzhou,

Ningbo, Shaoxing, and Wenzhou. 
 Hangzhou cuisine produces fine and beautiful
dishes, particularly good at stir fry, deep fry,
braise, and some other techniques.
 As for Ningbo cuisine, they use a lot of
seafood, the cooking method includes stew,
braise, steam, and baked the dishes are
moderately seasoned as not to mask the
freshness of the ingredients. 
 Shaoxing cuisine is famous for is aromatic dishes
and delicate flavors, authentic broth, just like the
historic riverside town, simple and peculiar. 
 Lastly, Wenzhou cuisine also known as Ou
Cuisine serves plenty of fresh seafood and their
cooking is based on a saying, “two light one
heavy” ( 二经一重 ), technically translated as
light oil, light gravy, and heavy knife skills,
indicated their cooking emphasizes good knife
skills, less usage of oil and delicate and exquisite
flavors!
Hunan Cuisine
 Hunan cuisine, also
called Xiang cuisine, is known as the
land of fish and rice because of its
abundant resources around the Xiang
River region and Dongting Lake.
  For foreigners, Hunan Cuisine is often
mixed up with Sichuan Cuisine, both
are their dishes and have a similar trait
which is hot and spicy.
 However, Sichuan Cuisine is easily
distinguished by its complex flavor and
hot and numbing sensation which is in
contrast with Hunan Cuisine.
  Hunan Cuisine, on the other hand, is hot
and spicy and the flavor of the dish is
greatly dependent on the primary
ingredient used, minus the numbing
sensation.
Characteristic

 Hunan cuisine uses a liberal amount

of chili, very well known for its hot
spicy flavor, incorporating the
saltiness from the northern region
and sweetness from the southern
region.
 Hunan cuisine emphasizes flavor
not only at the exterior but also the
interior flavor.
 Diverse cooking technique – roast, stir
fry, steam, smoked, and others.
 Hunan cuisine is also famous for its local
produce such as tempeh, tea oil, chili oil,
chili sauce, pepper, fennel, cinnamon, and
so on.
Anhui Cuisine
 Also known as Huizhou cuisine,
originated in the Southern Song Dynasty
of Huizhou (now Anhui
Province, Huangshan City), was
originally the local flavor of Huizhou
mountain regions, particularly Huangshan
Mountains.
 As the era of Ming and Qing develops,
Huizhou cuisine gradually influences and
flourishes to the local flavors of the
lowlands alongside the Yangtse River,
namely, Hubei, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian,
and Shanghai. 
 The International Huizhou Food Culture
Festival is held annually at Anhui
province.
Characteristic

 During the early development of Anhui

cuisine, braising technique is the major
cooking technique.
 They mostly use rapeseed oil and
the rapeseed oil is homegrown and
homemade.
 A large amount of wood is used to fuel the
fire to the extent that different types of
firewood are used for the purpose of
temperature control. 
 Charcoal was used for braising, firewood for
quick roast and woodblock, and chips for a slow
roast.
 Traditional Huizhou cuisine emphasizes oil, color,
and fire.
 Huizhou produces delicate dry-cured ham, with a
Chinese saying,  金华火腿在东阳，东阳火腿在
惠州 , literally means the infamous Jin Hua Ham
is at Dongyang (Zhejiang), Dongyang ham is at
Huizhou.
 Anhui cuisine emphasizes knife skills,
temperate control which is shown in their
ability to roast, smoke, stew, and steam.
 An Anhui chef will commonly use about
20 cooking techniques out of their
total 50 cooking techniques, which is best
represented with roasting, clear stew, and
smoke.