Cooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour and/or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in an effort to achieve the desired result. Constraints on success include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools and the skill of the person cooking.
The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the myriad nutritional, aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural and religious considerations that impact upon it.
Cooking frequently, though not always, involves applying heat in order to chemically transform a food, thus changing its flavor, texture, appearance, or nutritional properties. There is archaelogical evidence of cooked foodstuffs (both animal and vegetable) in human settlements dating from the earliest known use of fire.
Living foods diet adherents advise against the use of heat in the preparation of food: they believe that temperatures above 106°F (41°C) destroy essential enzymes in the food, which they believe are necessary for proper digestion and nutrition.
