魯菜通常較咸，汁色普遍較淺。魯菜注重選料，精于刀工，善于炊技。作為我國北方菜系的代表，魯菜烹飪技術廣泛用于明清兩代的宮廷菜。川菜選料范圍大，調味及炊技變化多樣。據統計，川菜的品種在五千種以上。川菜最大的特點是口味重，以麻辣著稱。最難歸類的粵菜強調輕炒淺煮，選料似乎不受限制。粵菜源于明清，在發展過程中不僅吸收借鑒了中國北方烹調和西餐烹調的精華，同時也保持了自己的傳統特色。揚州菜以江蘇省境內的揚州、南京、蘇州等地的地方菜式為基礎之大成。揚州菜注重選料的原汁原味，在菜的裝飾上講究形態的藝術性和顏色的鮮艷性，揚州菜實際上糅合了南北菜系之精華。也有人以八個字來歸納這四大菜系的口味特點，即“南淡北咸，東甜西辣”。

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.”