The Tans’ Cuisine (a kind of Officials’ home cuisine) refers to the banquet dishes handed down in the family of Tan Zongjun, a feudal bureaucrat who lived in the late Qing Dynasty. It was also known as ‘the Runner-up Cuisine’, because Tan was the runner-up in the imperial examination held in the 2^nd year (1863) in the reign of Emperor Tongzhi. The century-old cuisine was the only one of its kind that has survived till today. It is exclusively offered by the Beijing Hotel.