Starting before the beginning

  Before you rush off to put on your apron and get cooking we need to create a little context. You've heard the phrase, 'You are what you eat', but there's another version that you've probably not heard. 'You are because you eat', and to explain that let's rewind the clock about fifty thousand years.

  It was about this time that we made the transition from wondering around in small nomadic groups, surviving through hunting and gathering, to being settled and growing our food. It is interesting to note that we didn't just go from one way of life to the other as a result of a meeting and a memo being circulated, but it did happen in different places at about the same time.

Warming up for some cooking

  There were also groups who gave up the nomadic lifestyle for a settled one but then returned to being nomadic, so the transition was very gradual. Anyway, settling and growing food gave us access to a different set of ingredients and way of engaging differently with food, by which I mean cooking.

  It looks like there was cooking before we settled but things really took off once we did and this made a massive difference. In fact, it seems like cooking changed the trajectory of our evolution. If it wasn't for cooking we wouldn't be the...

  Actually, come back tomorrow cos it's difficult to really get across the difference in just one paragraph, but before I go I've got to tell you that I spent this afternoon cooking shortbread and quiche with some of my favourite minions. Truly food for the soul.

Kirk out

RevoltingFood.com