Take the Qing Dynasty as an example. Generally speaking, the emperor's meal time includes two meals, an early morning meal and an afternoon meal, and a mid-evening snack and a midnight snack. According to the historical records of the Qing Dynasty, the standard imperial diet of the Qing emperors consisted of seventy or eighty dishes, in addition to snacks and fruits. Before each meal, there are special eunuchs who "taste" the dishes to ensure that each dish is safe and non-toxic, and then the emperor can be invited to dinner. Later, the method of silver needle poison detection was gradually derived.
The emperor basically eats alone, and others can only serve him, and these meals are actually inexhaustible! If the emperor is happy for a while, he will send meals to ministers, concubines, princes and eunuchs at this time. The winner will stand at a separate table and finish his meal. Even if they are not hungry or don't want to eat, they will show the appearance of "delicious", otherwise it is likely to cause the dragon's heart to be unhappy.
After dinner, the palace will sell the emperor's leftovers outside the palace in the name of imperial cuisine. Especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was quite popular for people to buy and sell leftovers from emperors. After all, in people's eyes, these meals are quite precious.
Among them, the relatively complete products are sold to restaurants at a 50% discount, and then sold to rich people in the name of imperial cuisine after processing; Inferior goods are handed over to take-away merchants outside the palace to sell on the street. Although ordinary people know that it is leftovers, they don't feel sick. On the contrary, it is a bloody battle, which shows that the profits of businessmen in this line are high.
This article is an informal academic paper. If you have a different view of history, please leave a message to correct me.