Confucius Family Banquet Cuisine

The Confucius family developed a distinct cuisine over two millennia of banqueting for imperial officials, foreign ambassadors, and visiting scholars — a food tradition as old as the family itself and as elaborately documented. Several restaurants in Qufu now serve "Kong Fu cuisine" reconstructed from historical records and family manuscripts: dishes named after Confucian virtues, preparations that use ingredients in combinations specific to this kitchen, and the kind of attention to visual presentation that distinguishes court cooking from ordinary Chinese food.

The best Kong Fu cuisine restaurants in Qufu serve set menus for two or more people; expect to pay ¥150–300 per person for a proper banquet-format meal. The ingredients are northern Shandong staples — pork, river fish, vegetables — prepared with the refinement of a kitchen tradition that has been thinking about food very carefully for a very long time. Booking ahead is recommended.

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A story
Kong Fu cuisine — the food developed over centuries by the Kong family's professional cooks — is one of the most elaborate food traditions in China. The family employed specialist cooks for each category of dish: one cook for soups, one for meat, one for vegetarian dishes, one for pastries. The tradition included dishes invented to honor specific historical figures, and the menus kept in the family archive record 196 distinct dishes served at banquets during the Qing Dynasty.