【正文】 the Western diet idea is prominent personality, which is mainly because of Chinese and Western countries?philosophical thought and hence arises from the formation cultural spirit and ways of thinking. IV. Significances to the Hotel Catering Departments Based on the Study The study of Chinese and Western food culture differences can not only make us better understand the eating characteristics of the Western nations, but also sum up our own diet characteristics in order to get others to make up our own weaknesses and learn from all the scientific and advanced concepts, put aside our culture in the dross, improve and enhance the quality of our diet. At the same time by means of such wrapup and research, we can carry forward the Chinese nation39。s traditional culture. However, in the Western culture, In the progress of conquering the nature and fostering a scientific awareness, the West pay special attention to the development of rational thought. Rationality has bee typical of Western culture. Rationality means that in the process of the exploration of nature we make sober reflection, analysis and rigorous logic reasoning, and seek to act in line with the objective laws of nature. At the same time in the process of understanding the nature, people continue to understand themselves. Another major feature of Western culture is that they focus on personal dignity., taking the individual as a center. The interests of everyone are clear enough. Everyone has his own living space, without mutual interference. Cultural differences affect the differences in diet. The idea is that when 第 14 頁 共 18 頁 people eat the food production and consume in the process of forming ideas, they are impacted greatly by natural sciences, humanities, especially philosophy. Different philosophical thought and the resulting formation of cultural spirit and ways of thinking will produce a different concept of diet. China39。 embodied in the cooking is reflected in the five flavor harmony. That is, cooking food needs to make “five flavor harmony” on the basis of retaining the natural tastes of raw materials, using the basic law of five element theory to guide the reconciliation, which not only accords with the timing, but also with the season in order to cook out delicious dishes.. So, in Chinese food almost every dish needs two or more of the raw materials and a variety of spices to reconcile in the cooking. Even homestyle cooking is generally reconciled with meat and vegetables, such as the Jiu Huang Chao Rousi, pineapple Sweet and sour pork, tomatoes, scrambled eggs and ribs winter melon soup. Chinese people regard “to cook dish” as cooking which means bine cooking and blending into one for a beautiful taste. Here we put stress on the measurement and the overall coordination. It contains a wealth of dialectic thinking of Chinese philosophy. Everything is measured according to the wonderful taste and the coordination. The frequent changes within the degree lead to the richness of Chinese cuisine and its varieties. The key reason why Chinese food has its own unique charm is that it has its wonderful taste. However, the generation of the delicious taste lies in the wonderful reconciliation of the initial taste of food, the cooked flavor after heating, the ingredients and excipies, as well as the sauce flavor of harmonic integration. Therefore, the Chinese cooking is not just as simple as a 1 +1 = 2 thing, but 1 +1 is equal to 3 or more. 第 9 頁 共 18 頁 C. Different Food Objects The Westerners have the traditions of nomadic and seafaring nations, leading their living mainly on fishing and hunting and supplementary on the cultivation they have more meat food and all they need in their daily life are taken from animals and even the refining materials of medicine are also taken from animals. They pay more attention to the intake of animal protein and fat, and their diet structure mostly consists of animal dishes, mainly beef, chicken, pork, mutton and fish. Therefore, meat has a high proportion in the diet. In modern times, the crop farming has been increasing a lot, but the proportion of meat in the diet is still higher than that of Chinese people. According to a survey of Western Botanist, there are more than 600 kinds of vegetables for Chinese people, six times more than in the West. In fact, in Chinese cuisine, the vegetarian is a mon food. Meat dish bees a mon diet only in the holidays or in affluent families, so ever since ancient times there is a saying of vegetarian food which leads a dominant position in everyday diet. The Chinese make the plantbased dishes to be the main dishes, which has many ramifications with the Buddhists advocacy. They regard animals as beings, while plants as no soul, therefore, they advocate vegetarianism. In introducing the characteristics of the Western diet, the Westerners put more emphasis on nutrition than the Chinese. They have relatively welldeveloped food industries, such as canned food, fast food and so on. Although the taste is monotonous, it can save time, and it is rich in nutrition, so generally the people in their countries can grow stronger than the Chinese people: 第 10 頁 共 18 頁 They have tall height, long legs, wide shoulders and muscular body, while the Chinese have diminutive body, narrow shoulders, short legs and weak constitutions. According to the fact that the Western diet is significantly different in the characteristics of the food objects from the Chinese diet, someone called the Chinese plant character, and the Westerners the animal character. The differences of the diet content between the Chinese and the Western are