Zhou Hongcheng, Director of the Institute of Chinese Culinary Culture and Chair of the Department of History at Zhejiang Gongshang University, and Deputy Secretary-General of the Culinary Culture Committee of the World Federation of Chinese Catering Industry, recently visited Quanzhou to deliver a keynote address at the Third Silk Road Gastronomy Development Conference.

　　Zhou highlighted that throughout the thousand-year history of the Maritime Silk Road, Quanzhou was not only known as the "largest port in the East," but also as a dynamic global culinary hub. "Quanzhou's cuisine carries the openness embedded in Chinese civilisation," he noted, "weaving a transhistorical epic of food exchange across cultures."

　　Culinary Exchanges Across Oceans and Centuries

　　From Marco Polo's account of Dehua porcelain tableware exported worldwide and Egypt's sugar-making techniques introduced to Yongchun, to the large-scale pepper trade, Quanzhou stood at the centre of global culinary flows. In the early 16th century, Portuguese explorer Diogo Lopes tasted authentic Chinese shipboard cuisine from Fujian and Guangdong traders in Malacca—one of the earliest European records of Chinese food. By the 17th and 18th centuries, missionary encounters, the "China craze" in Europe, and the spread of tea and porcelain further shaped Western perceptions of Chinese gastronomy, with Quanzhou cuisine forming part of this accelerating exchange.

　　The Five Cultural Genes of Quanzhou Cuisine

　　Zhou proposed that Quanzhou's unique culinary identity derives from five "cultural genes":

　　North–South Fusion: Ancient Central Plains cooking traditions merged with local Minyue flavours, later enriched by techniques from Beijing, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and overseas. Signature soups like oyster, pomfret, mackerel, and beef stews retain the authentic meaning of geng—meat-based broths—testifying to this fusion.

　　Confident Openness: Between the 10th and 14th centuries, Quanzhou traded with over a hundred regions, becoming the largest "spice port." Imported spices and crops such as sweet potatoes, introduced by merchant Chen Zhenlong from Luzon, were incorporated into local staples like beef soup and oyster omelette.

　　Integration of Beliefs and Foodways: Islamic halal principles refined beef dishes, Buddhist vegetarianism fostered simple but elegant meals, and Southeast Asian satay influenced Quanzhou's iconic shacha noodles—creating a table where faith and flavour converged.

　　Literati Aesthetics: Scholars and gourmets infused cuisine with philosophical depth. Lin Hong's Mountain Home Delicacies (Southern Song Dynasty) blended local ingredients with imported coriander, sesame, walnuts, and pepper, shaping refined culinary ideals. Modern reconstructions, such as the "Song–Yuan Maritime Banquet" in Shishi, revive this sophisticated gastronomic heritage.

　　Ingredient Exchange: Global ingredients reshaped local diets—sweet potatoes, maize, peanuts, cabbage, and onions all arrived via maritime trade. Foods bearing the prefix fan ("foreign") or yang ("Western") trace Quanzhou's evolving role in culinary globalization.

　　From Local Tables to Global Narratives

　　Zhou stressed the importance of reinterpreting Quanzhou's role as a world-class "culinary port" in today's context. He called for deeper research into the histories of overseas Chinese restaurants established by Quanzhou emigrants across Southeast Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas, as well as the innovations of "Hai School Fujian Cuisine." These narratives, he argued, can serve as cultural resources for China's "Overseas Chinese Cuisine Prosperity Initiative," adding confidence and global resonance to Quanzhou's food culture.

　　"Quanzhou cuisine should not remain confined to regional identity," Zhou concluded. "Its flavours can become a living epic of Chinese food culture embracing the world—where the smoke of the local kitchen rises into a global story, and the ships sailing from Quanzhou's culinary harbour carry with them the lingering aromas of East and West."