Featured Dishes of the Grand Restaurant (Part 2)

Author: Hu Bin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Live cooking by renowned chefs, over 80 signature dishes, one dish per picture and recipe. The Great Restaurant's Specialty Dishes collects over 160 popular specialty and signature dishes. These famous dishes are selected from 25 top-tier restaurants located in Beijing's Zhongguancun area, among thousands of renowned restaurants both domestically and internationally. These 160+ dishes collectively exhibit the characteristics of a blend of Eastern and Western styles, a mix of simplicity and elegance, distinct features, and a fresh, contemporary flair. Observing these 160+ Chinese masterpieces, one would notice that the culinary values of Chinese cuisine before the late 1980s, which emphasized authenticity, regional cuisines, and culinary schools, have been replaced by the spirit of culinary progress and innovation that emerged in the mid-1990s and especially since the 21st century. Compared to traditional masterpieces, the dishes in these two books are mostly characterized by trendy styles, unique flavors, health benefits, creative alternatives, meticulous preparation, and high popularity.
From these two cookbooks, one can also observe that as the nutritional value of fruits gains increasing attention, Chinese masterpieces at the turn of the new century feature a noticeable increase in the use of fruits compared to the previous century. Fruits such as mangoes, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, grapes, kiwis, fresh oranges, honeydew melons, watermelons, etc., all hold significant proportions in the ingredients of these dishes. Ruyifang's spirulina and fresh orange braised bird's nest is a dish that is both ancient and modern. The ancient aspect lies in the famous Song Dynasty dish crab-stuffed oranges, while the modern twist is that Ruyifang uses fresh oranges from California and braises them with the premium Chinese banquet dish bird's nest. In terms of incorporating fruits into dishes, this creation truly showcases ingenuity.