Master of Imperial Cuisine: Zhao Xinlin

It inherited a diversified range of culinary techniques from the previous dynasties, and reached its zenith in the Qing dynasty. Nowadays, when people talk about imperial cuisine, they are usually referring to that of the Qing dynasty.This era centered primarily around Manchu cuisine, and also incorporated flavors from Jiangnan, Shandong, and Sichuan.

Zhao began to work as the executive chef of Baijia Restaurant in 2001 and has specialized in imperial cuisine ever since. He assiduously delved into literature on cooking and accumulated vast stores of knowledge over the decades, instilling in him a much deeper understanding of imperial cuisine.

While centering everything around the use of traditional skills, Zhao also incorporated new techniques and ingredients into his cooking. This allowed imperial cuisine to overcome the antiquated limitations of the past and adapt to the ever-changing tastes and needs of the modern market.

Stir-fried Shrimp is an imperial dish. Seasoned with soy sauce, vinegar, salt, and sugar, it takes on a salty flavor profile which is intermingled with sweet and sour undertones. With the emergence of new condiments, Zhao made some refinements to the dish. He gave it more sharpness by adding tomato sauce, all while retaining the original flavor.

The traditional way of making Lotus Bean Curd is to grind chicken or fish into paste by hand. The resulting taste is impeccably smooth. With the development of food processors and other machinery, however, such manual work has largely gone by the wayside. The paste produced by food processors tastes even smoother, and results in a brilliant snow-white color.

In the warmth of spring, everything is rejuvenated. Eating sprouts in spring is a long-standing tradition. This dish is made of spring seasonal vegetables, colored peppers, and pea seedlings. It makes for a perfect spring-time treat.

Zhao believes that taking various aspects of foreign dietary cultures and traditions into account will help Chinese imperial cuisine be recognized and embraced in communities far and wide.

To this end, he introduced high-quality foreign ingredients, tools, techniques, and aesthetic concepts into the making of imperial dishes, garnering unanimous praise from foreign gastronomes.

This dish is a twist on Braised Pork Ball in Brown Sauce, a common sight in state banquets. To add a bit of western flavor, Zhao swapped out the pork for sablefish and used diced water chestnuts as a garnish. The result is a cream-colored fish ball in a light, delectable broth. This innovation is a symbol of Chinese culinary culture's continuous internationalization, with new generations of chefs continuing to break the mold.

This is a sweet and crispy pastry that is a unique combination of Chinese pastry with Western-style chocolate.

In 2019, the team from Baijia Restaurant presented Chinese imperial cuisine in La Liste, garnering praise from all the international judges and teams.

It remains to be seen whether imperial cuisine should completely adhere to tradition or change with the times. From the viewpoint of Zhao Xinlin, imperial cuisine can, and should, be both traditional and up-to-date. Only when every era's best ingredients and culinary skills are integrated into imperial cuisine can it go far and continue to thrive.