I may be biased on at least two accounts, but Catching Fire, How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham is an astonishingly well done piece of work. I say two counts of bias because not only am I a lover of every single scrap of food and cooking lore or fact I can devour; but also because until I read this Harvard biological anthropologists work, I had assumed his thesis as a given. That is, that pre-humans evolved cooking before, or at least concurrent with growing their extra large brains. I am still surprised that it was ever disputed, but I think this excellent presentation of all the facts makes it the strongest, most likely answer, by far. Wrangham book is both brilliant and accessible, weaving together primate studies, forensic anthropology, nutritional science and primatology, with a wonderful story of our origins. He posits that about 1.87 million years ago our ancestors first tamed fire, then began cooking, and then these memes forced the evolutionary changes that make us human (small gut, small jaw, large brain, hairless, ground dwelling, primates). He doesn’t stop there though, he then goes on to provide ample evidence along with additional notes on the cultural changes (pair bonding, division of labor by sex, etiquette, and free time) that are prevalent today because we are able to cook our food source (thus hyper-energize and have these luxuries).
The book certainly elevates the importance of my chosen vocation, to become fundamental to everything human, with this, I can agree. But even if you are not a cooking nut, the book touches on so many key areas of science (evolution, chemistry, history), human history, and diet; and is so well written, that I believe you will find it absolutely mesmerizing. It also is an excellent, perfectly logical, factual, debunking of the “a calorie is a calorie” notion. Give it a try, I bought both the audio and hard cover versions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catching_Fire:_How_Cooking_Made_Us_Human
http://www.amazon.co…n/dp/0465013627
