Chinese Food: Anhui Cuisine

Anhui Cuisine, known as Hui Cuisine (徽菜) in Chinese, is one of China’s Eight Great Cuisines. According to The Standard System Table for Hui Cuisine — the first provincial basic standard among China’s Eight Great Cuisines — Anhui Cuisine is officially defined as the general term for five regional styles: Southern Anhui Cuisine (皖南菜), Wanjiang Cuisine (皖江菜), Hefei Cuisine (合肥菜), Huainan Cuisine (淮南菜), and Northern Anhui Cuisine (皖北菜).
Among these, Southern Anhui flavors, represented by Huizhou local dishes (徽州菜), integrate traditional folk cooking techniques with strengths from other cuisines. They are characterized by a salty-fresh taste, emphasis on original flavors, exquisite heat control, and focus on nourishment through food. The main cooking methods include braising, stewing, simmering, steaming, and smoking. Representative dishes range from grand banquet courses to traditional set meals like “Five Bowls, Eight Plates, and Ten Large Bowls” (五簋八碟十大碗) and “Nine Bowls and Six Ranks” (九碗六等), while famous banquets include the Bagong Mountain Tofu Banquet (八公山豆腐宴), Bao Zheng Banquet (包公宴), and Hongwu Banquet (洪武宴).
In December 2006, “Hui Cuisine” applied for by Jixi County (绩溪县) of Xuancheng City (宣城市) and Huangshan City (黄山市) was included in the first batch of Anhui Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage List. In 2021, Hui Cuisine cooking techniques were listed in the fifth batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage List, solidifying its status as a precious part of Chinese culinary culture.

Origin & Historical Development

Anhui Cuisine originated in the ancient Huizhou mountainous areas (now Huangshan City (黄山市), Anhui Province (安徽省)) during the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋). It flourished with the rise of Huizhou merchants (徽商) in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, gradually developing from a local flavor into a cuisine covering all parts of Anhui and spreading to Jiangsu (江苏), Zhejiang (浙江), Fujian (福建), Shanghai (上海), Hubei (湖北) and other regions.
In 2006, Anhui Province issued The Standard System Table for Hui Cuisine, standardizing cooking ingredients, techniques, and equipment. In 2023, the province released The Development Plan for Anhui’s Prepared Food Industry (2023—2025), aiming to create popular Hui-style prepared food products, cultivate industrial clusters, and achieve an industrial scale of over 120 billion yuan by 2025. By the end of 2022, there were about 500 prepared food enterprises in the province with a total output value exceeding 70 billion yuan, and Jixi County (绩溪县) and other places had established prepared food processing bases and cold chain industrial parks.
Anhui has continuously carried out the “New Hui Cuisine · Famous Hui Chefs” initiative, training 6,600 Hui Cuisine chefs and adding 722 Hui restaurants. In 2022, the total output value of the entire Hui Cuisine industrial chain reached 2.35 billion yuan, driving the inheritance and innovation of this time-honored cuisine.

Basic Information

• Chinese Name: 徽菜 (Huī Cài)
• English Name: Anhui Cuisine / Hui Cuisine
• Category: One of China’s Eight Great Cuisines
• Taste: Fresh and rich, with thick soup
• Features: Emphasis on oil use, color, and heat control
• Origin Region: Ancient Huizhou Prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River (now Huangshan City (黄山市), Anhui Province)
• Origin Time: Southern Song Dynasty
• Main Ingredients: Mountain delicacies and game

Regional Flavors of Anhui Cuisine

Anhui Cuisine’s diversity lies in its five regional styles, each shaped by local geography, climate, and eating habits, while sharing the core characteristics of salty-fresh taste, emphasis on original flavors, and exquisite cooking skills:

• Southern Anhui Cuisine (皖南菜): The representative of Anhui Cuisine, featuring salty, fresh, and mellow flavors with original taste preserved. It benefits from the abundant resources and profound cultural heritage of ancient Huizhou, with iconic dishes like Stinky Mandarin Fish (臭鳜鱼) and Huizhou Fermented Tofu (徽州毛豆腐).
• Wanjiang Cuisine (皖江菜): Popular along the Yangtze River in Anhui, it has a salty-fresh and slightly sweet taste, with tender and refreshing textures. It makes good use of river fresh ingredients from the Yangtze River.
• Northern Anhui Cuisine (皖北菜): Influenced by northern Chinese cuisines, it is salty-fresh with a hint of spiciness, crispy and mellow. It features more hearty flavors suitable for the dry climate of northern Anhui.
• Hefei Cuisine (合肥菜): Moderately salty-fresh with a strong sauce aroma, combining flavors from surrounding areas to form a unique style that caters to public taste.
• Huainan Cuisine (淮南菜): Salty-fresh, spicy, smooth, and rich in flavor, famous for local specialties like Bagong Mountain Tofu (八公山豆腐).

Many people once equated Anhui Cuisine with ancient Huizhou Cuisine, as Huizhou culture played a crucial role in its formation. However, with the development of the times, the concept of Anhui Cuisine has expanded to cover the entire province, as confirmed by national and local standards and industry consensus.

Core Characteristics of Anhui Cuisine

Ingredient Selection: Local and Fresh

Anhui Cuisine adheres to the principle of “using local ingredients to highlight freshness.” Anhui is rich in mountain delicacies, game, river fresh, and poultry — the mild climate, abundant rainfall, and distinct seasons in Huizhou provide high-quality raw materials such as tea, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, fungus, chestnuts, Chinese yam, stone chicken (石鸡), stone fish (石鱼), stone ear (石耳), soft-shelled turtle (甲鱼), and eagle turtle (鹰龟). Famous local specialties like Qihong Black Tea (祁红) and Tunlu Green Tea (屯绿) also add unique flavors to the cuisine.

Cooking Techniques: Mastery of Heat

Heat control is the soul of Anhui Cuisine, with chefs using high, medium, or low heat according to the texture of ingredients and flavor requirements. It excels in braising, stewing, steaming, and smoking, while stir-frying and quick-frying are less common. Traditional Anhui Cuisine uses home-grown and pressed rapeseed oil, and firewood or charcoal as fuel, which adds a unique aroma to the dishes. The “red” color in braised dishes comes from caramelized sugar, requiring precise heat control — a key skill for Hui Cuisine chefs.

Flavor: Rich and Nourishing

Anhui Cuisine is known for its rich, non-greasy flavors and thick soups, inheriting the traditional concept of “food as medicine” and emphasizing nourishment. Ham is widely used for seasoning, and making ham is a common family skill in Huizhou. It maintains its characteristics of focusing on color, oil, and heat control even as it spreads across the country, with the color enhancing the appearance, oil enriching the taste, and heat ensuring the texture.

Standardization of Anhui Cuisine

The Standard System Table for Hui Cuisine is the first provincial basic standard for Chinese cuisines, formulated by the Anhui Provincial Institute of Standardization and the Anhui Cuisine Association. It standardizes Anhui Cuisine in five aspects: comprehensive standards, cooking ingredients, cooking techniques, Hui-style dishes, and cooking equipment.
Standardization aims to scientificize and normalize the cooking process, ensuring stable dish quality (traditional skills were previously passed down from master to apprentice with high randomness). For example, a qualified Stinky Mandarin Fish (臭鳜鱼) should have separated meat and bones, garlic-clove-shaped fish meat, and a crispy texture, while allowing for slight flavor variations. Importantly, standardization does not eliminate characteristics — it preserves the essence of Anhui Cuisine while promoting its development.

Famous Dishes of Anhui Cuisine

Anhui Cuisine has a history of hundreds of dishes, with over 3,000 new and traditional varieties confirmed today. Its most representative dishes are beloved for their unique flavors and cultural connotations:

Iconic Dishes

• Stinky Mandarin Fish (腌鲜鳜鱼/臭鳜鱼): The signature dish of Anhui Cuisine. Fresh mandarin fish is marinated until it develops a unique “stinky” aroma, but the meat remains tender and flavorful, with a salty-fresh taste and garlic-clove texture.
• Huizhou Fermented Tofu (徽州毛豆腐): Tofu fermented to grow fine white hairs, then fried or braised. It has a creamy texture and rich umami, often served with chili sauce.
• Fuli Braised Chicken (符离集烧鸡): A famous dish from Fuli Town (符离集) in Suzhou (宿州), with golden skin, tender meat, and a fragrant, savory taste. It is one of China’s famous braised chicken dishes.
• Wuwei Smoked Duck (无为熏鸭): A specialty of Wuwei City (无为市), smoked with tea leaves and sugar, resulting in a crispy skin and tender meat with a unique smoky flavor.
• Bagong Mountain Tofu (八公山豆腐): Made from high-quality soybeans and spring water from Bagong Mountain (八公山) in Huainan (淮南), it is tender, smooth, and versatile, suitable for various cooking methods.
• Hu’s One-Pot Dish (胡氏一品锅): A traditional communal dish with layers of ingredients (meat, tofu, vegetables) braised in one pot, symbolizing harmony and abundance.
• Li Hongzhang Hot Pot (李鸿章大杂烩): Named after Li Hongzhang (李鸿章), a famous minister of the late Qing Dynasty, it combines various ingredients like seafood, meat, and vegetables, stewed in a rich soup.

Other Notable Dishes

Anhui Cuisine also includes many other delicacies, such as Wenzheng Mountain Bamboo Shoots (问政山笋), Huizhou Steamed Chicken (徽州蒸鸡), Maofeng Smoked Shad (毛峰熏鲥鱼), Stir-Fried Shrimp Shreds (炒虾丝), Sanhe Crispy Duck (三河酥鸭), Bao Zheng Fish (包公鱼), King Wu’s Tribute Goose (吴王贡鹅), Shepherd’s Purse Dumplings (荠菜圆子), and Braised Soft-Shelled Turtle with Ham (火腿炖甲鱼). These dishes showcase the diversity and craftsmanship of Anhui Cuisine, reflecting the rich culinary culture of Anhui.

Cultural Significance & Global Influence

As a national intangible cultural heritage, Anhui Cuisine is not only a culinary art but also a carrier of Huizhou culture, integrating the natural resources and cultural traditions of Anhui. Its emphasis on fresh ingredients, precise heat control, and nourishing flavors has made it popular among diners at home and abroad.
With the promotion of standardization and industrialization, Anhui Cuisine is expanding its influence globally. Hui restaurants can be found in many Chinatowns, and signature dishes like Stinky Mandarin Fish have become a window for foreign diners to understand Chinese culinary culture. As Anhui continues to promote the inheritance and innovation of Hui Cuisine, this time-honored cuisine is embracing new vitality while retaining its traditional charm.