Hangzhou cuisine can be traced back to the Southern Song Dynasty more than 1000 years ago. At that time, Lin 'an was a bustling Kyoto, with famous chefs from the north and south and businessmen from all directions gathered here, and hangzhou dishes reached its peak. It is understood that hangzhou dishes is divided into "Lake School" and "Cheng Xiang School" in history. The former takes fish, shrimp and poultry as the main raw materials, and is good at techniques such as raw frying, stewed and tender frying, paying attention to the clear, fresh, crisp and tender taste and retaining the original flavor. The latter is mainly meat, and the cooking methods are mainly steaming, stewing, boiling and burning. Pay attention to light oil, light pulp and tender taste, and pay attention to the combination of fresh and salty.

Hangzhou cuisine is called "Hangzhou cuisine" mainly because today's Hangzhou cuisine is mainly developed from "Lake" schools. The place where this genre was popular at that time was in downtown Hangzhou, which is now around the West Lake.