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Cooking is an important source of indoor emissions, and exposure to cooking emissions can instigate adverse health effects. Oxidative potential (OP) is a good indicator for assessing health risk, but studies detecting the OP of cooking emissions are rare. In this paper, size-segregated samples were collected at four sites in the canteen to study the chemical characteristics and OP of particulate matter (PM) emitted from cooking. The four sites were set to study the effects of different cooking styles and kitchen types. The results showed that the concentrations of most metals, water-soluble ions, PAHs, and OP at four sites followed the trend: deep-frying > stir-frying > second floor hall > first floor hall. And the concentration at the fine fraction (PM 0.056-3.2) was much higher than that at coarse fraction (PM 3.2-18). The PM OP at four sites were 1.1642 nmol m−3·min−1, 1.2088 nmol m−3·min−1, 0.8589 nmol m−3·min−1 and 0.9507 nmol m−3·min−1, respectively. The correlation between OP and other components showed that Zn (|r| = 0.444) and DBA (|r| = 0.507) were moderately related to OP, which suggested that heavy metals and PAHs might be contributed to PM OP. The carcinogenic risk assessments of heavy metals and PAHs showed that, there might be an increasing of potential carcinogenic risk if exposure to cooking environment for lifetime. Our results were firstly helpful for PM characteristics researches on cooking emissions, and also significant to public health protection, especially for people who usually cook. • The concentration of metals and PAHs was ranked as deep-frying area > stir-frying area > hall. • The values of OP followed the trend: deep-frying area > stir-frying area > second floor hall > first floor hall. • Zn, Mn, Pb and water-soluble Mo were related to OP of PM. • The values of the carcinogenic risk assessment of heavy metals and c-PAHs were above the tolerant level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]