ABSTRACT
“Food.” in contrast to raw material or “foodstuffs” that are the basis of prepared dishes, consists of any given unit of edibles that is accepted in a particular culture. An apple, a bowl of soup, or a steak are equally “foods.” “Cooking” refers to ways in which foods are prepared, whether by the mechanical processing of a foodstuff (peeling an apple), or the chemical process of applying one material or another to a foodstuff (extracting nutriments from vegetable and protein into hot water to produce soup). Cooking methods are varied, but fall into several well-defined classes that most cultures use to one degree or another. Cutting, pickling, drying, simmering or boiling, baking, roasting, etc. are ways of cooking foodstuffs either to make them palatable or nutritious, or to make them more attractive or interesting. When cooking particular foods becomes elaborated into a set of fixed requirements, that are also associated with rules regarding” presentation and participation or exclusion from particular food events, we have a cuisine. The choice of foodstuffs, their preparation, the rules of the cuisine, aesthetic rules regarding food appreciation, and ancillary issues such as food loci, are a “food culture” which generally differ in line with overall cultural and sometimes national differences.
