Interesting Facts About Cooking

History
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.