Interesting Facts About Cooking

There is no clear archeological evidence when food was first cooked. Most anthropologists believe that cooking fires began only about 250,000 years ago, when hearths started appearing. Phylogenetic analysis by Chris Organ, Charles Nunn, Zarin Machanda, and Richard Wrangham suggests that cooking may have been invented as far back as 1.8 million to 2.3 million years ago. Other researchers believe that cooking was invented as recently as 40,000 or 10,000 years ago. Evidence of fire is inconclusive, as wildfires started by lightning-strikes are still common in East Africa and other wild areas, and it is difficult to determine when fire was first used for cooking, as opposed to just being used for warmth or for keeping predators away.
Wrangham proposed cooking was instrumental in human evolution, as it reduced the time required for foraging and led to an increase in brain size. He estimates the percentage decrease in gut size of early humans directly correlates to the increase in brain size. Most other anthropologists, however, oppose Wrangham, stating that archeological evidence suggests that cooking fires began in earnest only about 250,000 years ago, when ancient hearths, earth ovens, burnt animal bones, and flint appear across Europe and the Middle East. Two million years ago, the only sign of fire is burnt earth with human remains, which most other anthropologists consider to be mere coincidence rather than evidence of intentional fire. The mainstream view among anthropologists is that the increases in human brain size occurred well before the advent of cooking, due to a shift away from the consumption of nuts and berries to the consumption of meat.
Food has become a part of material culture, and cuisine is much more than a substance. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, food was a classic marker in Europe. However, in the nineteenth century, cuisine became a defining symbol of national identity. The discovery of the New World represented a major turning point in the history of food because of the movement of foods from and to Europe, such as potatoes, tomatoes, corn, yams, and beans. Food in America consisted of traditions that were adapted from England, but up until the end of this century, the presence of new ingredients along with the contact between diverse ethnic groups influenced experimentation. Industrialization was also a turning point that changed how food affected the nation.
During the period of industrialization, food began to be mass-produced, mass marketed, and standardized. Factories processed, preserved, canned, and packaged a wide variety of foods, and processed cereals quickly became a defining feature of the American breakfast. In the twenties, freezing methods as well as the earliest cafeterias and fast food establishments emerged. This point in time is when processed and nationally distributed foods became a huge part of the nation's diet.