Kunming Taishi Cake

Kunming Taishi Cake

　　Taishi Cake is one of the famous traditional snacks from Kunming, Yunnan. It is best enjoyed with a cup of hot tea, exuding the refined elegance of a high-ranking scholar-official. The cake has a flaky crust, aromatic flavor, and comes in both savory and sweet varieties, making it a must-have delicacy for literary gatherings and social meetings among scholars.

　　Among the Beijing-style pastries, there is also a type of Taishi Cake. According to veteran pastry chefs, this cake was invented by Wen Zhong, the Grand Tutor of King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty. When King Wu of Zhou attacked King Zhou, the latter sent Grand Tutor Wen Zhong to lead troops in defense. Wen Zhong created a sweet pastry to serve as rations for his soldiers on the march. Later, this pastry spread to the public and came to be known as Taishi Cake. As a result, Wen Zhong is revered as the patron saint of the pastry industry. Before the liberation of Beijing, every trade had its own patron deity, worshipped and respected like a god or bodhisattva—such as the traditional Chinese medicine industry venerating Sun Simiao as the Medicine King, the construction industry honoring Lu Ban, and the butchery trade revering Fan Kuai, among others. Of course, the story of Wen Zhong inventing Taishi Cake is just a legend with no historical evidence. Nevertheless, the Taishi Cake has remained popular over time and is one of the Eight Great Pastries in the Beijing-style pastry tradition. Its fillings include date paste, red bean paste, or white sugar, among others. Nowadays, some pastry shops mistakenly write “Taishi Cake” as “Taishi Cake” (with “太史” instead of “太师”), likely due to a typographical error.