料 can mean 'ingredient', which is clearly relevant to cooking. But 理 seems abstract -- 'the logic/theory of ingredients', almost like the name of a science (ingredientology'?).

Well,「料理」in the sense of cuisine didn't come from Chinese.「料理」in Chinese originally meant management, while the classical Chinese word for dish (i.e. a type of food) is「肴饌」.

In Modern Chinese we normally just say「菜」or「餐」;「日本菜」means Japanese cuisine, and「西餐」means Western cuisine.「料理」is not common in Chinese, and is usually used to refer to Japanese and Korean cuisine, probably as a direct transcription of the Japanese word「日本料理」and Korean word「[韓國料理]한국요리」.

This means that「料理」in the sense of cuisine probably came from Japan (or Korea).

Dai Kan-Wa Jiten's entry for「料理」provides a quote from an essay by the Edo period Confucian scholar Majima Shounan (摩島松南).

『娛語卷之四、八〇』

吾邦市井間。酒店食樓。必以料理字爲標。猶言調烹也。料理字雖出諸書。其義大異。不知其所由。偶讀游仙窟。有料理中堂。將少府安置之語。按中古以來。kr:漢土小說書未來。人人以此書爲新奇。學士大夫亦往往誦之。當時錯會料理中堂之字。爲調烹之義。俗間相傳到今耳。

---

My translation:

The [restaurants]酒店食樓 [in]間 the [marketplaces]市井 of [my]吾 [country]邦 are [labelled]爲標 [with]以 the [characters]字「料理」[on street signs]. This [word] is what's [known]言 [as]猶 ["cooking or cuisine"]調烹. [Even though]雖 the [word]字「料理」[appears]出 in [many]諸 [books]書, [its]其 [meaning]義 is [greatly]大 [different]異 [from "cooking"], and [I] [don't know]不知 its [origin]所由. [I] [occasionally]偶 [read]讀 [the book]『游仙窟』 (famous Tang Dynasty novel), which [has]有 [the words]「料理 [central hall/courtyard]中堂」. [Here, this word] is [used]將 as a [term]語 for "a [resting/settling/sleeping]安置 [place] of an [official]少府"; [Looking at]按 [medieval]中古 times, this meaning (referring to "cooking") [didn't come]未來 from [Chinese]漢土 [literature]小說. [Everyone]人人 [treats]爲 [this]此 [book]書 (referring to『游仙窟』) [as]以 [refreshing/exciting/new]新奇, [and]亦 the [scholars and literati]學士大夫 [often]往往 [quoted]誦 [it]之. At [this]當 [time]時, the [words]字「料理中堂」were [mistaken]錯會 [for]爲 the [meaning]義 ["cooking or cuisine"]調烹, and through the [common folk/public]俗間, this [meaning] has been [passed down]傳 [to]到 the [audiences]耳 of [today]今.

If this explanation is to be believed, then「料理」is derived from

1. Chinese for managing/taking care of > resting;


2. A place where sense (1) is done (料理中堂);


3. Japanese folk reinterpreting a resting place as an eating place > cooking, cuisine.

in chinese 理 means logic (like in reason, physics, etc) and also means 'sequence'. A recipe is composed of ingredients and a sequence I guess. What do you think ?