Is the imperial meal really delicious?

In folklore, there are countless skilled chefs hidden in the imperial chef, and the materials used are varied and precious. Needless to say, bird's nest, shark's fin and bear's paw, as well as various precious ingredients such as carved Poria cocos and pigs, sounds mouth-watering, but is the real imperial meal in history really so delicious?

In the first half of my life, the last emperor Puyi gave a detailed description of the royal dining. He said that the biggest waste of manpower and material resources is eating. When it was time to eat, the emperor just ordered a meal, and the little eunuch commanded the eunuch in front of hall of mental cultivation to say a meal, and passed it on. Before the echo disappeared, a line of people like dowry had walked out of the imperial dining room. Dozens of well-dressed eunuchs carried a single table and entered the main hall in turn with red paint boxes. Before the emperor, the eunuch wanted to taste it and said that the long string was to test whether anyone had poisoned the dish. After the emperor sat down, a eunuch shouted to smash the lid of the bowl, so the emperor began to eat. There are many problems hidden behind this series of seemingly solemn and dignified struggles. For example, one day, the emperor ordered the spread of goodness earlier than before. The emperor won't wait until the kitchen is ready, like diners today. If he waits too long, he will move his head carefully.

Therefore, the servants in the chef can only wait for the food and others, and will never wait. In order to let the emperor eat hot meals at any time, they can only prepare dishes and staple foods in advance and put them in special heat preservation vessels to ensure that the emperor can have meals at any time wherever he goes, but this will cause great problems. First of all, you can't choose those dishes that pay attention to the temperature and taste for the meals prepared for the emperor in advance, because these dishes will taste bad if they are kept for a long time. When time is full, its own nutrients and taste will be greatly reduced, so many royal meals look good, but the real taste is not flattering, which is why the last emperor Puyi described the royal meals as almost like serving to the dead. In his original words, it's really not delicious, and it tastes bad. So Puyi said that he never eats the dishes cooked by the chef. In fact, most of the food in this form is used for sorting.

According to Puyi, he actually ate the dishes sent by Empress Dowager Cixi, because Empress Dowager Cixi or Taifei had their own kitchens, and the dishes cooked by senior chefs were delicious. There are always twenty kinds of dishes in every meal, all of which are placed in front of the emperor, and then the dishes cooked by the chefs are all in the distance, just for show.

It is not easy for an ancient emperor to eat a fruit after a meal. According to historical records, there are forty lychees shipped from Fujian on June 29th, 25th year of Qianlong. These 40 lychees were divided into two except the Empress Dowager, and none of the other concubines were favored. These 40 lychees are naturally given to the concubines in the harem, and the ministers in Taiuterus can't ignore them.

Is the imperial meal really delicious? what do you think? Please comment below.

Ancient emperors ate well because the ingredients were precious, but the cooking method was simple. In addition to cooking, steaming and barbecuing, delicacies and delicacies, Buddha jumping over the wall, a banquet in Manchu and Han dynasties, they killed 500 ducks in one dish and took duck tongues. The emperor eats like this every day. When Cixi fled, every steamed corn bun ate a thief's incense. If she sees what we are eating now, she can eat it with Shanghai miscellaneous food and fry swordfish with fish fillets in a spicy pot.

I can only say that the ingredients are rich, but I can't say whether they are delicious or not. There are so many delicious foods today, mainly all kinds of spices and condiments to improve the taste. But in ancient times, most spices and condiments have not been discovered and invented, and the taste of food is very monotonous.

In addition, cooking methods also have a long development process. In Qin and Han dynasties, there were only several methods such as boiling, roasting and boiling, while in Tang and Song dynasties, there were methods such as steaming and scalding, and frying appeared more. So imagine, is a dish with no seasoning and monotonous cooking method delicious?

Under the command of "delivering rice", thousands of dishes lined up. Imperial cuisine can be said to represent the highest level of cooking in China. In that era of high autocracy, the emperor's diet must be extremely elegant. If you haven't seen the ever-changing dim sum soup of Yong Zhengdi in Empresses in the Palace, at least you must have heard the famous cross talk-the name of the dish. So what is the royal diet level of today's emperors? Today, I will show you around the Royal Kitchen!

We stayed in YY for a long time in those years.

Because transportation is not convenient and fast enough, there is no fresh-keeping equipment like cold chain refrigerator. In addition, the demand for raw materials is also relatively large. In places where palaces are usually built, the chef will buy a lot of ingredients from nearby to cook. The principle is to make as many kinds of dishes as possible with the simplest and limited ingredients (mostly to make up the number)

According to the menu of the Imperial Restaurant left by the Qing Dynasty, half of the meat dishes in the Imperial Restaurant are ducks in various ways, because Beijing roast duck is a local specialty. Zhu Yuanzhang's dining table is also full of Huaiyang fish, and Liu Huangshu's Sichuan pepper can't stop. It is not difficult to imagine that Zhuge Liang cut Zhang Chuan cake twice and said to Liu Bei, "In the future, there will be three points in the world, one for Cao Cao, one for Sun Quan and one for Liu Huangshu. This piece is my snack, so don't move, I still want to eat ... "

From now on, the ingredients of the emperor's royal meal are not very precious and rare. Bear's paw and deer's tail can't be served until the big sacrifice. Even the legendary meat forest in the wine pool has become a simple salt barbecue because there is no seasoning and cumin pepper. With sake as light as water (after reading my last article about China ancient wine, you must know what the level of ancient wine is), the whole is the rhythm of barbecue by the pool. From now on, it is really rough.

Seeing this, you can't help but ask. Didn't you say that the world belongs to the emperor? Then I want to eat Huaiyang food in Beijing. What did you say?/Sorry?

Don't worry, the emperor won't think so. There is a saying in the ancestral teachings of the Qing Dynasty: "There are not enough dishes for three bites", which means that delicious dishes have to be put away after eating three chopsticks, which is very educational. After eating three chopsticks, the eunuch shouted "withdraw!" " If you want to eat again, you will have to wait for more than 1000 days. You can take it out on the eunuch, but you can't change the rules set by your ancestors. This is for fear that the chef in the palace will not be able to cook it after eating delicious food, and that the courtiers will flatter the emperor if they know his taste. Why did Song Huizong joke with treacherous court official Cai Jing? Grab the emperor's stomach first!

It is said that when Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, the emperor didn't eat the dishes carefully cooked by the local salt merchants. Salt merchants are puzzled. He asked the eunuch and replied, "I added an extra spoonful of sugar to the dish before you served it." I am afraid that long live the grandfather will eat, and I will not be a waiter when I arrive in Beijing. "

So is the food cooked by the chef delicious?

The Imperial Chef can be said to be the kitchen with the most rules in China. It is forbidden for chefs to play freely and to invent and create. How much salt and vinegar should be put in the recipe. Cooking the wrong food is a sin. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the chef was beheaded because the sacrificial claws were not steamed according to the recipe. Killing chickens is also an example, and the lessons of blood teach me long live the country of gift! Besides, bears are cute, so don't always think about licking your hands.

Due to the limitation of cooking technology and cooking equipment (even the wok only appeared in the Ming Dynasty! ), every big banquet in ancient palaces, dishes should be prepared in advance. There is no microwave oven and refrigerator, and the cooked dishes need to be put on the stove and simmered slowly. When the time comes, it will be steaming and very dignified. But do you think this stew, even bear's paw and deer's tail, can be delicious?

Why did Grandpa Four go to Xiaozheng Palace when he was free in the Empress Palace? Why does eating a glutinous rice duck feel delicious? That's because there is a small kitchen in the concubines' palace, which can cook some local dishes that are fried now. It can be seen that the emperor himself does not like to eat the pot rice of the chef.

Because the chef's dishes are all the same, it is always annoying for individuals to eat the same dishes every day. Then can you eat outside the palace?

No, you are the emperor. You should pay attention to your identity in everything you do. There are bean jelly, Chinese hamburger and stinky tofu outside the palace.

Mala Tang is on sale, and people still have to eat it. But if the incense flies to the emperor's nose ten miles away. That's too bad for you. The eunuch's chamberlain will soon leave the palace to check your water meter. It is even more difficult to eat something more foreign, either paying tribute to the country or waiting now.

On behalf of visitors, cross back to what you carry with you.

What is the emperor's budget for eating?

If you add a budget to the emperor's meals, I'm afraid most emperors in China will be unhappy. All China is yours, and every grain of millet on the land of the king is no exception. Friends who have read Those Things in the Ming Dynasty must know that the most thrifty emperor in the Ming Dynasty was Chongzhen. Even for such a thrifty emperor, the average annual daily food cost is as high as 16872 taels of silver, which is about 520,000 dollars now! ! ! In China's richest Song Dynasty, Song Renzong, who was rated as "thrifty and thrifty all his life" by historians, could easily eat 100 yuan in one meal, which was equivalent to the sum of the monthly incomes of five middle-class families at that time. So much money is spent on food. How big is the emperor's belly?

Where did the emperor spend all his royal meals?

It's not delicious, and you can't eat enough, but such a royal meal costs money like water. Where did the money go?

I have mentioned a lot above, ostentation and extravagance! These imperial secretaries have been bothering you for so long just to make dozens of dishes avalanche when the purple towel is withdrawn. What is the salary? Have you calculated it?

In addition, most of the emperor's food expenses, even a considerable number of prescribed ingredients, were pocketed by the officials of the chef and his superior department, the Ministry of Internal Affairs. So far, the income of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is a muddled account. What was unclear at that time is even more unclear now. There was no invoice in ancient times, so prepare a pen and a piece of paper. An old hen sold for 20 taels of silver. Your majesty, can you check it?

Write it at the end

So, what is the present standard of ancient imperial cuisine in China? This fungus is probably the level of home cooking that everyone can eat. Puyi, the last emperor, wrote in My First Half Life: Eating imperial grain is the most troublesome thing, but it looks pleasing to the eye, but it is not delicious, just pretending not to like it. What you can swallow is the food in front of you. There are many royal meals, which are very boring to eat.

Times have changed, and the Manchu-Han banquet in the past is now flowing into the homes of ordinary people. The bear's paw, antlers, monkey's brain and dragon have all become national protected animals and cannot be cooked. As the hungriest person in China, without the pursuit of food and hungry seasoning, even if you are an emperor or general, you have no taste for what kind of delicacies you eat.

Having said that, are you still looking forward to the legendary imperial meal?

Today, let me answer this question:

When it comes to imperial meals, it is estimated that many people will think of the Manchu-Han banquet, which is super rich. As the king of a country, the emperor must eat well.

Let's have a look. What did Zhu Yuanzhang eat for lunch? Include shrimp with pepper vinegar, roast goose, roast sheep's head and feet, goose dam, salted black bean mustard lamb tripe, garlic vinegar and white blood soup, five-flavor steamed chicken, mutton bone with yuan sauce, kidney flower with spicy vinegar paste, steamed fresh fish, five-flavor steamed gluten, mutton crystal jiaozi, shredded goose noodle soup, three-flavor soup, mung bean chess noodles, chopped mutton with pepper, fragrant rice and garlic cheese.

It's really mouth-watering to eat such a rich lunch, almost all of which is chicken, duck and fish. It seems that the emperor is really unusual. Now even ordinary people may not have such a good lunch. According to "A Record of Ming Taizu", "The world is salty here" seems to be true!

Since the emperor's royal meal is so rich, everyone thinks it must be delicious! Let's see what the emperor himself said. The last emperor Puyi naturally had the right to speak. After all, he is an emperor. In the first half of my life, Puyi summed up his royal diet in four sentences: "flashy, expensive but not rewarding, tasteless." This? Does this sound a little wrong? How can such a rich royal diet be flashy?

In fact, the imperial meal of the emperor is more symbolic and represents the face of the highest ruling class in the country, so it should not be too shabby. However, although there were many dishes because of extravagance and waste, the emperor couldn't eat a bite, and because many dishes were very complicated, they almost became cold food before the emperor. And the emperor can't have personal preferences, because others can't guess what the emperor likes to eat. Generally, when you meet your favorite food, you can only eat two bites at most and then leave. It seems that the emperor is really pitiful. Moreover, the imperial meals removed are basically for concubines, officials and others to enjoy.

Since Puyi himself said it was not delicious, what did the emperor eat?

Puyi said: "I actually ate the food sent by Empress Dowager Cixi. After the death of Empress Dowager Cixi, four noble sons sent it up. Because the Empress Dowager or the Toffees all have their own dining rooms, and they all use senior chefs, and the dishes they make are delicious, and there are always twenty kinds for each meal. This is the dish in front of me, and everything in the chef is far away, just for show. "

It seems that pot rice doesn't like to eat, and the emperor prefers to eat small stoves! The Royal Restaurant is just for display!

First, let's take a look at your definition of food. Take the Qing Dynasty as an example. During the Qing Dynasty, the members of the royal family were mainly Manchu, the rest were Mongolians (Mongolian tribes), and there were some customs of Han, Korean and nomadic peoples. Their snacks and snacks are mainly milk cakes, milk tea and cheese. Even if these things are carefully made by the chef, I'm afraid modern people don't like them. What's more, due to the different eating habits, customs and seasonings of other dynasties, different tastes may be difficult for everyone to feel delicious.

Second, the use of spices, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the Central Plains had a certain connection with the surrounding areas. Food is constantly enriched in different periods, and spices are also enriched with border trade. For example, if modern people want to eat spicy food, it is estimated that they can only rely on spices such as mustard, pepper, pepper and ginger. If it was the Tang Dynasty, pepper was a precious medicinal material and spice, which most people could not afford. Moreover, mutton was popular at that time. Spicy taste can only be increased by Long Fu liver (to put it bluntly, it is a kind of soil) ...

Therefore, the ancient imperial cuisine can only be said that the ingredients of the past dynasties were constantly enriched, but the taste was really bad.

After these factors, let's talk about the third point, which is eating habits. Most food is cooked and eaten on the spot, so it has a taste. But sometimes the emperor really doesn't eat on time, which doesn't mean that the cook does what the emperor eats. Although most banquets have certain ceremonies, there are no special circumstances, such as midnight snack, morning tea and snacks. It takes time to cook now, but the emperor may not really need it. Many times, some standing food is basically prepared and put away, served when it is passed, or poured with juice. In this way, some dishes have lost their taste, or some have gone bad, and may not be very delicious (but they are also more delicate than some folk foods), so the taste is hard to say.

Spring breeze is blowing in Tomb-Sweeping Day,

Go on an outing to worship our ancestors.

The origin of Tomb-Sweeping Day,

It is said that it began with the "tomb sacrifice" ceremony of ancient emperors.

Later, people began to follow suit.

On this day, we worship ancestors and sweep graves.

"Be cautious and pursue the distance, and people's morality will be thick." Since ancient times, the state and people have attached great importance to sacrificial activities. In particular, like the royal sacrifices in the court, it is more grand, and the sacrifices offered are naturally extremely rich and exquisite, all of which are in the charge of Guanglu Temple.

Sorry ~

What is Guanglu Temple?

The name Guanglu Temple makes people feel like falling into a fog. Is it a temple or a government department?

In fact, although this Guanglu Temple has a "temple", it refers to an open central institution in ancient times, but it can be said that its jurisdiction is only one word "eat"!

So what kind of food belongs to Guanglu Temple? "From jade food, celebrations, rituals, to official sacrifices, the little guards are all out of this."

Ancient royal sacrificial activities

In fact, the main tasks of Guanglu Temple are three: offering sacrifices, attending meetings and receiving foreign guests.

Although the work content is not complicated, don't think this is a dispensable small department. Its head was a three-grade official in the Ming Dynasty (we are only familiar with the magistrate with four grades), which is equivalent to today's departmental cadres.

For the first generation of Ming dynasty, the filial piety sacrifice of Zhu Yuanzhang, the great ancestor of Ming dynasty. According to the records of Taichang Temple in Nanjing, the things sent to Guanglu Temple, which is responsible for banquets (sacrifices), are different every month.

From this record, it is not difficult to see that the royal family attaches importance to ancestor worship.

Food is the most important thing for the people. Even Confucius said that "food is not tired of essence, and food is not tired of detail." I don't think the king of this empty place should treat himself badly by eating this thing. At the beginning, Qin Shihuang had an official in charge of diet, but when he arrived at Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he directly set up a department, namely Guanglu Temple.

Imperial plaque for officials of Guanglu Temple.

This plaque was presented by Zai Tian Aisingiorro to a family in Guanglu Temple in the eighth year of Guangxu (1882). Do you really understand the imperial edict?

This plaque is actually a combination of two imperial edicts. The first imperial edict was given to Guanglu Temple Division, and Yang Tingrui's great-grandfather (Yang Dongyue) was a court doctor, and his great-grandmothers Zhu and Zhong were respected people. The second imperial edict awarded Guanglu Temple Jia Yang Tingrui's father (Yang Jinlun) as Dr. Zhong Xian and his mother Liao Shi as the Honorable Person.

notes

Since it is an institution specially responsible for the emperor's eating, everything in Guanglu Temple must be fat. This gentleman thinks that Yang Tingrui in this plaque, as a department director, must be a first-class chef and a big fat man. And the emperor who is admired by thousands of people must live a popular and spicy life every day.

However, this is not the case. According to Pinzang Jun's reference to relevant information, although some emperors have high status, they are miserable and can't eat a good meal every day.

Ming metabolism "Nine Miscellaneous Matters III": "Today's big officials are imperial meals; There is nothing wrong; But fish is a prison; It is better to burn it. "

It means that the emperor ate nothing more than fish, pigs and cows today, boiled in a pot and seasoned fiercely. Isn't this stew? Will it be delicious?

Let's take a look at the menu of Qingcheng Banquet after the suburban sacrifice in the second year of Yongle (1404):

Serve: press the wine five times. There are five fruits. There are five kinds of tea and food. Burning like five. Three soups. Double steamed bread. Horse meat rice. Wine for five minutes.

Middle table: It depends on the wine. There are four fruits. Three soups. Double steamed bread. Horse, pig and mutton rice. Wine for five minutes.

Press wine with the general. Powder soup. Double steamed bread and pork rice. One minute of wine.

Take a closer look at the dishes at the party. This kind of big fish and meat sounds really tasteful. But it doesn't feel so good in your mouth! I really want to ask: Can you come to Taiwan Province?

In fact, it is no secret that professional cooking institutions in Guanglu Temple make such jokes. Even ordinary people at that time knew that cooking in Guanglu Temple was terrible.

Nighttalk with Dai mentioned that there are ten legends in the capital, including Guanglu Temple tea soup (tea soup means food), which is really ridiculous.

What's so funny? You have to consult Nighttalk and Battle yourself!

The dishes produced by Guanglu Temple are delicious. Why did they survive for so long in Guangxu thirty-two years (1906)?

The reason is that the system limits my appetite. You know, it was not easy to "reform" in ancient times. So at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor couldn't bear it, so he asked the eunuchs to give him food. This was called "infighting".

Therefore, the specialized organization of "Imperial Chef", which is familiar to everyone in costume dramas, did not exist in the Ming Dynasty, but was established in the late Qing Dynasty.

The emperor's collection of delicacies is more to test his control over the world, and the display of golden bottles of wine at the royal banquet is more to reflect the royal wealth, majesty and glory. All the pursuit of beauty has a political purpose. Taste is secondary, authority is primary. Imperial food tastes bad.

The ingredients are expensive but not necessarily in season.

Cooking, but not necessarily original.

High in calories, but not necessarily healthy.

A large number must have a bad appetite.

What was the imperial diet of the Qing emperor like? Puyi: But it's really not delicious.

In the eyes of many people, the emperor, as the king of an ancient country, naturally enjoyed far superior treatment in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation, but is this really the case? Let's take a look at the description of imperial cuisine by the last emperor Puyi in The Secret of the Last Emperor.

From A.D. 1636, when Huang Taiji changed his name to Qing, to Pu Yi's generation, Qing has been a country for more than 200 years. During this period, the court has formed a perfect system, which naturally includes the emperor's diet.

Different from the popular three meals a day, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty usually had two meals a day, and the time was about 8 am to 2 pm every day. In addition, emperors can summon "extra meals" called fruit boxes at any time according to their own needs, mainly all kinds of cakes and soups, as well as seasonal melons and fruits paid tribute from various places, which is somewhat similar to afternoon tea that urban white-collar workers like. The emperor can't call it eating directly, but it should be renamed eating, and even eating has become a passing meal.

Although many people have the impression that the Qing emperor lived in the Forbidden City most of the time, in fact, many times the emperor moved to other places. For example, the tourist attractions we are familiar with now, such as Yuanmingyuan, Summer Palace and chengde mountain resort, are all places where emperors like to live. At this time, it involves a problem that the imperial dining room, which is responsible for the emperor's diet, needs to provide food according to the emperor's "command".

In addition, no one can guarantee that the emperor will one day pass meals at non-food points on a whim. The emperor won't wait for the kitchen to serve food like diners today. If he waits too long, he will move his head carefully. So the chef's room can only wait for food, not food.

The uncertainty of place and time is a great test for the chef, so in order to let the emperor eat hot meals at any time, he can only prepare dishes and staple foods in advance and put them in special heat preservation vessels to ensure that the emperor can eat meals immediately wherever he goes.

However, this will undoubtedly cause a big problem. First of all, those dishes that are "prepared" for the emperor in advance can't choose those dishes that pay attention to the temperature and taste, because it will make the dishes difficult to swallow for a long time, which inherently limits the optional range of the emperor's royal diet menu. Secondly, most vegetables will lose their nutrition and taste after long-term heat preservation. So many royal meals look good, but the real taste is not flattering, which is why the last emperor Puyi described the royal meals as "just like providing food for the dead". In his original words:

But it's really not delicious, the same, and the taste is not good. ...

The Emperor's Kitchen Stove and the "Wonderful Use" of Imperial Diet

It is precisely because the imperial meal is not delicious that since Kangxi, the emperor has not eaten the imperial meal at any time, but instead ate the "small stove" in the harem, commonly known as the imperial palace. This should also be a popular sentence in marriage:

If you want to catch a man's heart, you must first catch a man's stomach.

In order to let the emperor come to his bedroom more often, concubines in the harem, including the queen, began to compete to cook. Of course, it is not realistic to make nuns who don't touch spring water become beautiful chefs in seconds. It is more common to look for food recipes from the people first, and then let the trusted eunuchs or maids steal their studies.

Since the emperor doesn't like imperial meals, does it mean that imperial meals don't have to be cooked every day?

That is to think too much. Whether the emperor eats or not is one thing. If the chef dares to make an careless mistake when cooking for the emperor, it is to move his head again. Moreover, in the Qing dynasty, the emperor did not eat or eat the rest of the imperial grain and had another important mission-reward.

The emperor often gave his favorite concubines, ministers in the DPRK, and even guards and eunuchs around him the royal meals that he didn't eat or only ate a few mouthfuls. At this time, the imperial diet has risen from a simple food to a "prize" with political significance, and those who win the prize will often be proud of it. People around you will understand that this is a signal that the emperor attaches great importance to after seeing the royal meal given to someone. Whether in the harem or the officialdom, it will play the role of "moistening things quietly". This favor lasted from the early years of the Qing Dynasty to the last generation.

Why is a chef a good job?

When the Qing Dynasty first entered the customs, it followed the imperial catering system of the Ming Dynasty to some extent, including many China chefs, which is why there are some Shandong dishes in today's imitation dishes, because after the capital moved to Beijing in the early Ming Dynasty, many imperial chefs in the court were from Shandong. However, in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, imperial chefs were basically banners, with only a few Han people (for example, when Ganlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, he brought back some Huaiyang cuisine chefs).

Similar to the medical household system in the Ming Dynasty, these flag-bearer chefs are also hereditary. Laozi is a cook, and his son and grandson will also go to the palace to cook for the emperor. At that time, the life of these chefs was very rich, not because of the good salary, but because as chefs, they had more gray income to make money, the most profitable of which was to buy royal meals.

I believe many people have heard this joke, which tells that one day the emperor asked the minister how life was. The minister said that he only ate two eggs in the morning. The emperor was surprised to say that he always thought eggs were expensive. After all, one costs several taels of silver. The minister suddenly realized that he slipped his tongue and explained that all he ate were rotten eggs, which were not as good as those eaten by the emperor. There are similar records in the real history, according to the description of the imperial cuisine of the Qing court:

Cixi eats 2 ounces of eggs each, but in the folk, 1 2 can buy 150 eggs.

What is reflected behind the story is the phenomenon that imperial chefs colluded with eunuchs to make false accounts and embezzle silver in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. In addition to falsely reporting the purchase price, chefs often sell kitchen surplus materials at high prices to make huge profits. Later, with the demise of the Qing Dynasty, many former chefs changed careers and became local rich people during the Republic of China. It can be seen that these chefs have earned a lot of money before they were driven out of the palace.

Unveiling the mystery of imperial cuisine, we will find that being an emperor is not as free and willful as we thought. On the contrary, it is not easy to eat delicious food because of the constraints of the ancestral system. No wonder Emperor Ganling visited the south of the Yangtze River six times to find food, which must be one of the reasons.