By using rare ingredients, chefs were trained to be familiar with various cooking methods to handle specific ingredients.
The popularity of cooking expanded. Cooking became one of the most famous entertainments in the old ages. Without the presence of electricity, cooking was extremely important for the Chinese people to amuse themselves. Several cooking competition took place during the 16th century; the posters were mostly about the competition and restaurants; thousands of books about cooking were printed and sold. It is undeniable that Chinese people had great enthusiasm about food. They spent most of their time studying nutrition and the medical values of each sort of ingredient. Even the ancient Chinese doctor Li Shi-zhen wrote a book Compendium of Materia Medica on the use of herbs in Chinese cuisines. The enthusiasm of the Chinese people and the popularity of cooking encouraged the development of Chinese cooking technology.
Most of Chinese families were wealthy before the 1960s, the economy supported the cooking activities and opportunities for the people to study cooking, but the circumstances changed as the Cultural Revolution broke out.
The technology for cooking cuisine did not develop during the Cultural Revolution. Jiang-Qing, who is a chef born in 1950s, described the hard circumstances his family were facing during the Culture Revolution. "My mom was standing in front of the range, she had nothing to cook except the yams. She looked at my little brothers crying at the corner with tears rolling in her eyes."(Qing 19.) Qing' s family was so poor that they could not afford any food except yams, which was one of the cheapest crops at that time. It shows that people did not care too much about the art of cooking during the Cultural Revolution, they were satisfy as long as there was enough food to survive. Therefore, most of the Chinese chefs lost their enthusiasm for cooking because of the limited of ingredients.
