The cuisine based itself largely on the three local cooking styles of Yangzhou, Nanjing and Suzhou, all within Jiangsu Province. While emphasizing the original flavours of well-chosen materials, it features carefully selected ingredients. In addition, the artistic shape and bright colors of the dishes add more ornamental value. Yangzhou cuisine is essentially a combination of the best elements of northern and southern cooking.

Yangzhou was a military fort and a cultural center in ancient times, and was one of the most flourishing commercial cities in China. Extravagant consumption stimulated the thriving catering trade and the development of cookery. Every rich salt merchant employed a skilled cook who specialized in cooking a certain delicious dish. When a salt merchant treated his guests to a banquet, he often borrowed cooks from other salt merchants. In this way, the cooks exchanged their cooking skills and improved the cooking in Yangzhou.