Chinese food appeals to the senses through color, shape, aroma and taste. Shape mainly depends on methods of cutting. Cooks cut raw materials to be sliced, diced, shredded, or minced, based on the requirements of the dish and the character of the raw food. Improper cutting makes food unattractive and causes unevenness in color and taste. In stir-frying, improper cutting will result in the small pieces being overcooked and big pieces remaining raw.

Taste mainly depends on the seasonings. There are many tastes-salty, sweet, sour, pungent, fragrant, bitter and so forth. The proper use of seasonings will produce a variety of dishes to suit a variety of appetites. A good Chinese cook knows what to add, how much to add and when to add. Chinese cooks even now have created new tastes, including Mala(numbing spicy sauce), Yuxiang(tasty fish-flavored sauce), and Guaiwei(strange salty, spicy, and sesame sauce) and so on.

This article by Yang Tianqing and Daniel Kister.