There are also many "catering eunuchs", whose names and numbers are also considerable; In Qipin, 65,438+000 eunuchs are responsible for attending the banquet, and 65,438+00 eunuchs are responsible for carrying water, specializing in dining, offering sacrifices to various officials, seasonal banquets, attendants and waiting.
In addition, there are many people who "recruit extra chefs", such as the dishes cooked by a palace, a minister or a restaurant. Once they are appreciated by the queen, they will recruit their chefs into the palace. For example, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, a vendor selling kidney bean rolls was invited to the palace to make this product for Cixi because his kidney bean rolls were appreciated by Cixi. This kind of kitchen service ranges from a few years to more than ten years or decades, but in fact, some people only cook once or twice a year, and some people don't even pass on a dish.
In addition to many chefs and catering eunuchs, there are also some imperial doctors who eat and drink for the emperor. In order to cater to the emperor's taste, they tried their best to search for the strange spectrum of food. For example, in his book Eating Rice, Dr. Hu Sihui presented to the emperor 150 kinds of recipes for "treasures and exotic dishes", 23 kinds of "fairy takes the bait" and 6 kinds of "dietotherapy for various diseases".
The fairy mansion in heaven is the home of the emperor on earth. The emperor's food is by no means comparable to that of ordinary people, and even the water he drinks should be chosen vigorously. They have been drinking water from Yuquan Mountain in the west of Beijing since the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, Yuquan Mountain almost became a royal water. Every day, from Yuquan Mountain to the Forbidden City, there are carriages carrying water along the road.
The rice eaten by emperors is divided into yellow, white and red, some from Gong Mi in Yuanli, some from Jingxi rice and Nanyuan rice, and some from the rice planted in Fengze Garden in Zhongnanhai, the "experimental field" of the emperors.
The Qing Palace Interior Office set up a "Qingfeng Division" to raise cattle and sheep for the emperor and supply food such as milk, beef and mutton.
Countless delicacies and precious dried and fresh fruits paid tribute to the emperor from all directions. For example, the dragonfly in the northeast, the bad oil in Jiangsu, the shad in Zhenjiang, the rape in Henan, the candied dates in Zhejiang, the tremella in Tong Ling and so on. It used to be a tribute passed by the flying horse.
The emperor's meal is divided into three parts: passing the meal, entering the meal and taking the meal. Before each meal, there is a menu, which indicates the time and place of eating, the names of dishes, what utensils to use for which dishes and what tables to use. Gan Long and others eat mostly in Gan Qing Palace, hall of mental cultivation, Hongde Hall and other places. On the anniversary of their death, they ate in the fasting palace.
The son of heaven is most afraid of death. The chefs and eunuchs used are repeatedly selected and unreliable. In order to prevent food poisoning, the emperor often adopts the methods of "appreciating food" and "tasting food", that is, before eating, the emperor gives a part to his empresses, or lets his personal eunuchs taste it before eating. When eating, he also has to check whether it is poisonous with silver plates and ivory chopsticks before he dares to go in.
The emperor has a rice spectrum, and a hundred people have annual food. On weekdays, the emperor has to serve about 20 dishes in the most common meal. According to the records, Qianlong served duck porridge 19 varieties and 1 varieties such as "stewed bird's nest with rock sugar", "duck with hanging stove", "fat duck with hanging stove" and "game hot pot" at breakfast on February, 2006. Dinner includes "Steamed Duck with Bird's Nest", "Fried Meat with Salt", "Dongpo Meat" and "Shredded Mountain Vegetable with Meat" and 37 dishes for the Queen. Only 1 1 serves 76 courses in two meals a day, and if you add two snacks, it will be more.
With the change of history, the royal chefs who used to fly delicacies for thousands of years were buried by history along with the emperors who ate, drank and had fun. There were few royal chefs and descendants who prepared meals for the emperors. However, the superb cooking skills created by chefs are the crystallization of the wisdom of working people.