	- 3 million years - 10.000 years

Grilled or roasted
on the flames

Cooking on hot stones
Cooking on
hot stones

Boiling in a pot where hot stones are thrown into
Boiling in a pot
where hot stones
are thrown into

Cooking in a fireproof pot
Cooking in
a fireproof pot

The emergence of cooked food

Food products can be eaten in three forms: raw, cooked (def.), or fermented (e.g., sauer kraut). While raw food is natural, the cooked food is referred to as cultural (cf : Levi-Strauss). But there are several ways of cooking...

A very important step forward was made when man "was no longer satisfied with roasted or grilled food, cooked in the dry heat of flames, so he invented the cuisine prepared with moist heat. This moist cooking allows more diversity of dishes and flavors as well as a greater possibility of mixing foods in the same meal." (cf : J. Barrau).

Soups, roasted cereals, porridges, and pancakes (thick cooked porridges) are the first forms of plant-based food. They are still in use today, differing somewhat in content and preparation.

Cuisine (def.) is much older than agriculture: men cooked their wild foods before cooking agricultural food products. In Neolithic times (def.) the culinary revolution preceded the agricultural revolution.

Agropolis-Museum | History of food & agriculture | Pre-agricultural times | Next