Known as "the land of fish and rice", Hunan boasts lakes, rivers, mountains, rolling hills, plains and pools, which provide Hunan with abundant food, such as fish, shrimp, crab and turtle. To make full use of these rich resources, local people created a wide variety of delicacies.

As one of the eight regional cuisines of China, Hunan cuisine is well known for its hot and sour flavor, fresh aroma, greasiness, deep color and the prominence of the main flavor in the dishes. The cuisine is with three styles: Xiang River style represented by dishes of Changsha, Dongting Lake style by dishes of Hengyang, and western Hunan style by dishes of Xiangtan.

The cuisine gives priority to abundance, fatness, smoothness and moist. It not only has the saltiness of the North and the sweetness of the South, but also the hotness and sourness of local characteristics. It is characterized by fragrance, tenderness, clearness and crispness. Its selected materials are based on the principle of being fresh and cheap but good. The cuisine is especially particular about the tastiness of raw materials. It has varied cooking techniques such as saut���ing, stir-frying, steaming and smoking. It is especially good at "stewing" dishes. However, it is most skillful in braising and baking, by which dishes of original flavor can be cooked. It has excellent cutting techniques and is both excellent in appearance and flavor. The dishes are changeable with all shapes. The special seasonings of the cuisine include soy sauce, tea seed oil, spicy oil, Chinese red pepper, fennel and cassia bark, which add color to the cuisine, which is noted for pungency. Hunan chili is especially spicy. Local people have a preference for chili and put them in almost everything they eat.

Hunan food is hot because the climate is very humid, which makes it difficult for human body to eliminate moisture. Local people eat hot peppers to help remove excess dampness and cold in the body.

Hunan's culinary specialties are akin to those of the chili-rich Sichuan dishes. Chili, pepper and shallot are usually necessaries in this division. Though descriptions of Chinese food often lump the two together to represent hot cuisine, some subtle differences exist. Hunan cuisine is also characterized by thick and pungent flavor. Hunan cuisine is known for being dry hot or purely hot, as opposed to Sichuan cuisine, the neighbor to whom it is often compared. Hunan cuisine is often spicier and contains a larger variety of ingredients. Chili, peppers, garlic and an unusual sauce, called "strange-flavor" sauce on some menus, enliven many dishes, with a somewhat drier intensity than that of their Sichuan counterparts. Sweetness, too, is a Hunan culinary passion, and honey sauces are favored in desserts such as water chestnut or cassia flower cakes. Other characters distinguish Hunan cuisine from Sichuan cuisine is that in general, Hunan cuisine utilizes smoked and curing food in its dishes much more frequently than Sichuan cuisine. Hunan cuisine dishes are often oilier and look darker than Sichuan cuisine dishes.

Another feature of Hunan cuisine is the menu will change following the season's alternation. In a hot and humid summer, a meal will usually start with cold dishes or a platter holding a selection of cold meats with chilies for opening the pores and keeping cool in the summer. In winter, a popular choice is the hot pot, for heating the blood in the cold months. A special hot pot called "lover's hot pot" is famous for splitting the pot into a spicy and a lighter side.

As early as the Western Han Dynasty, 2,100 years ago, the cooking skills of Hunan cuisine reached a high standard. During the course of its history, Hunan cuisine assimilated a variety of cuisine styles, and then developed its own style. Now it contains more than 4,000 dishes and among which over 300 dishes are very famous like fried chicken with Sichuan spicy sauce and smoked pork with dried long green beans.