Yunnan cuisine is an essential component and carrier of Yunnan regional culture，and it is also an important tourism resource in Yunnan，which has gradually begun to form the aggregate development effect of “Yunnan cuisine driving the development plateau agriculture”. Yunnan cuisine plays an important role and has multiple values in protecting national culture，flourishing local economy，promoting regional coordinated development and enhancing local cultural strength. In recent years，the development of Yunnan cuisine has been highly valued by the local government，however，as a “non-mainstream cuisine”，although it has made remarkable achievements，it still confronts some bottlenecks in further development. This paper summarizes the changes as well as the consistency of Yunnan cuisine in raw materials，processing，ingredients，taste and dishing-out in the past 40 years，and the current situation and the driving forces of reform in the integration development of Yunnan cuisine，which provides reference for the accurate positioning of the development direction of Yunnan cuisine and the development of related enterprises in the new era.