The Fangshan Restaurant is located in Yilantang Hall on the north side of the Jade Isle in Beihai Park, where Empress Dowager Cixi (1835--1908) used to take her meals after sight-seeing in the park. The food made in the Qing Palace for the emperors was called imperial food, so a restaurant operating outside the palace making and selling imperial food was only an imitation.
　　All cooks in the imperial kitchen were famous. They cooked their dishes to emphasize taste, color, and shape. In addition to the excellent taste, every dish had to look like a work of art. Many cooks specialized in making one or several dishes during their lives. The more their labor was divided, the better the dishes were. What they created was not so much a dish as a valuable work of art. Their excellent cooking skills were the key to the making of palace delicacies.