This article is about the preparation of food. For a general outline, see Outline of food preparation. For varied styles of international food, see cuisine. Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, cooking brisket in instant pot and craft of using heat to prepare food for consumption.

Types of cooking also depend on the skill levels and training of the cooks. Cooking is done both by people in their own dwellings and by professional cooks and chefs in restaurants and other food establishments. Preparing food with heat or fire is an activity unique to humans. Archeological evidence of cooking fires from at least 300,000 years ago exists, but some estimate that humans started cooking up to 2 million years ago.

The expansion of agriculture, commerce, trade, and transportation between civilizations in different regions offered cooks many new ingredients. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that early hominids may have adopted cooking 1. Recently, the earliest hearths have been reported to be at least 790,000 years old. Communication between the Old World and the New World in the Columbian Exchange influenced the history of cooking.