One of Dowager Empress Cixi's lady's maid named Ronger was convinced by an author to transcribe her memoir. It's a very detailed description of Cixi's daily life. She described food in great detail:

For breakfast there are dairy products, pastries, and porridge. After smoking two pipes an eunuch with a surname Zhang (he was described as very trustworthy) would bring out milk tea that he made (other food were generally made by the kitchen). Porridge can be made from many different grains from around the country. There were also almond tea, fresh soy milk, a soup made from beef marrow, baked cakes made with sesame paste, sweet pastries, fried pastries, duck liver, chicken gizzard, etc.

at 10:30 sharp it's a first formal meal. A menu from 1861* has the following item: Two kinds of hot pots: lamb with tofu and duck with cabbage. Four stews: Swallow nest with roasted duck, swallow nest with white duck, swallow nest with "red and white duck" (not sure what that is), and swallow nest with shredded vegetable. Four kinds of medium bowls: swallow nest with fat duck, fresh shrimps, pigeon eggs, duck kidney. Six kinds of plates: Swallow nest with shredded chicken, pork with shark fin, mushroom with chicken, wild duck meatballs, fruits and peaches, roasted duck, roasted pig. Four snacks: Braised chicken, sliced chicken, fried sugar cake (I'm guessing it's like a donut?), alfafa cake.

The imperial kitchen was a very large organization. Ronger said she's not sure how many people there are but at least 300. There are about 100 numbered stoves, three people per stove. One is responsible for cooking, one for plating/pairing, one for doing miscellaneous work. The miscellaneous work person must select the most perfect ingredient then it must be inspected before handing it to the plating/pairing person for prep work for slicing and gathering other ingredients. Another inspection happens before handing them to the cook. An inspector is watching every move. All dishes are made from silver, supposedly silver can turn black if there is poison. The dishes are then passed to eunuchs who will wrap them in yellow silk. The silk will not be opened until it reaches the table. The kitchen is so organized that it is known who prepared each dish (and individual person can be rewarded or punished accordingly).

Memoirs by Puyi and his brother Pujie also described elaborate meals they've had even after the Xinghai Revolution, however their menu have been reduced to 6-7 dishes made by the imperial kitchen and a few snacks made by the maids/eunuchs.

*Almost every meal in the palace was been recorded into a document (called 膳底档 in Chinese). I don't know if there is an English translation but it's possible to find tidbits of it in various published books.