What to eat at the opening banquet of the year? What does the President Prime Minister eat?
On October 1, 1949, China ushered in a historic turning point. On this day, a grand founding ceremony was held in Tiananmen Square, announcing the birth of the People's Republic of China.
Since then, China has begun a new chapter in its history.
When the first grand banquet after the founding of the People's Republic of China was held in the atmosphere of the oil painter's "Founding Ceremony", more than 600 Chinese and foreign guests from all over the world gathered at the Beijing Hotel.
In order to entertain guests from all walks of life, especially many foreign envoys and international friends, the then Minister of Science and Technology chose Huaiyang cuisine, which combines the strengths of northern and southern cuisines and is suitable for the taste of the public, which became the main menu of the first banquet of the founding of the country.
Since its establishment in 1900, Beijing Hotel has been mainly engaged in Western food, but when the "First Banquet of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" arrived in 1949, the hotel had to face a new challenge - to provide formal large-scale Chinese banquets.
In order to meet this requirement, ** specially transferred a famous chef from the famous Huaiyang restaurant "Yuhuatai" in Beijing to take charge of the "first banquet of the founding of the country". So, at this important banquet, what delicacies were prepared for Chinese and foreign guests?
This "First Banquet" consisted of nine cold dishes, eleven hot dishes, a soup and a dessert. Although there is no original written record and no menu at that time, we can roughly piece together a menu of the "First Banquet of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" through the memories of the people who participated in the production of the state banquet: Cold dishes: beef tendon in sauce, dried orchid, spinach with four treasures, salted meat, boiled cucumber strips, bamboo shoots and chicken in buckets, mushrooms in oil, drunken winter bamboo shoots, spiced dried pork Hot dishes: grilled yellow meat wings, roasted four treasures, fire by prawns, braised chicken nuggets, grilled duck with winter vegetables, boiled dried shreds, braised Yellow River carp, roasted lion's head, winter bamboo shoots Taikoo vegetables, sweet and sour pork ribs, Luohan Zhai Soup: Clear Soup Guanyan Dessert: Rock Sugar White Fungus Staple Food: Rice Dim Sum: Huaiyang Soup Buns, Fried Spring Rolls, Huangqiao Baked Cakes, etc. Fruits: Big Yali Wine: Shaoxing Rice Wine, Shanxi Fenjiu, Zhuye Qingjiu Although many years have passed since this banquet, people still remember its uniqueness, it was a feast of Chinese and Western styles, a collision of food cultures, and a symbol of the rise of the country.
Boil cabbage and feel the pure taste of Sichuan.
The development process of state banquet cuisine The famous dish of the state banquet Buddha jumping over the wall has been highly respected since ancient times. However, after several generations of inheritance, the style of state banquet cuisine has changed, from the original Huaiyang cuisine style, to the current "four dishes and one soup".
So, how is the standard of "four dishes and one soup" established? * The chairman once gave clear instructions on the specifications of banquets, and believed that the reception banquet should avoid extravagance and waste of the country's money and materials.
He believes that blindly pursuing expensive dishes, such as bird's nest and shark fin, is not only unaffordable, but also does not meet the taste of foreigners. Therefore, he suggested that when receiving foreigners, "four dishes and one soup" should be used as the standard, which not only reflects the traditional culture of our country, but also conforms to the eating habits of foreigners.
Since then, "four dishes and one soup" has become the standard of state banquets, and has also become a part of our culture, and is well known by the majority of people.
On October 2, 1956, ** held a banquet at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai to entertain Sukarno, Indonesia. There are no cold dishes or snacks in the "four dishes and one soup" of the state banquet.
The order in which the dishes are served is exquisite, and the other is served after each dish. The main course is followed by dessert and fruit. But as time went on, the standard of "four dishes and one soup" began to change.
In November 1984, according to the instructions of ** and ***, it was again determined that the number of banquets for visiting foreign guests should not be too much, and the Chinese food during the banquet was "four dishes and one soup", and the Western food was generally "two dishes and one soup", and the maximum was "three dishes and one soup".
This approach not only saves money, materials, but also saves time and manpower. Such a state banquet not only ensures the needs of state guests in terms of quantity and quality, but also allows state guests to understand and enjoy the beauty of Chinese food culture.
Do you want to know how at the first banquet of the founding of the country, ** and *** managed to achieve a thousand cups without getting drunk? Pay attention to the headline of "Hubei Satellite TV's Big Secret", and we will continue to reveal it tomorrow.