鲁菜通常较咸，汁色普遍较浅。鲁菜注重选料，精于刀工，善于炊技。作为我国北方菜系的代表，鲁菜烹饪技术广泛用于明清两代的宫廷菜。川菜选料范围大，调味及炊技变化多样。据统计，川菜的品种在五千种以上。川菜最大的特点是口味重，以麻辣著称。最难归类的粤菜强调轻炒浅煮，选料似乎不受限制。粤菜源于明清，在发展过程中不仅吸收借鉴了中国北方烹调和西餐烹调的精华，同时也保持了自己的传统特色。扬州菜以江苏省境内的扬州、南京、苏州等地的地方菜式为基础之大成。扬州菜注重选料的原汁原味，在菜的装饰上讲究形态的艺术性和颜色的鲜艳性，扬州菜实际上糅合了南北菜系之精华。也有人以八个字来归纳这四大菜系的口味特点，即“南淡北咸，东甜西辣”。

Shandong cuisine is generally salty, with a prevalence of light-colored sauces. The dishes feature choice of materials, adept technique in slicing and perfect cooking skills. Shandong cuisine is representative of northern China's cooking and its technique has been widely absorbed by the imperial dishes of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties. Sichuan cuisine features a wide range of materials, various seasonings and different cooking techniques. Statistics show that the number of Sichuan dishes has surpassed 5,000. With a rich variety of strong flavors, Sichuan food is famous for its numerous varieties of delicacies, dominated by peppery and chili flavors and best known for being spicy-hot. Cantonese cuisine, the hardest to categorize, emphasizes light cooking with seemingly limitless range of ingredients. Cantonese cuisine took shape in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the process of its development, it has borrowed the culinary essence of northern China and of the Western-style food, while maintaining its traditional local flavor. Yangzhou cuisine bases itself largely on the three local cooking styles of Yangzhou, Nanjing and Suzhou, all within Jiangsu Province. While emphasizing the original flavors of well-chosen materials, it features carefully selected ingredients, also, the artistic shape and bright colors of the dishes and more ornamental value. Yangzhou cuisine is essentially a combination of the best elements of northern and southern cooking. According to some others, the characteristic flavors of China’s four major cuisines can be summed up in the following expression: “The light southern (Canton) cuisine, and the salty northern (Shangdong) cuisine; the sweet eastern (Yangzhou) cuisine, and the spicy western (Sichuan) cuisine.”