Cooking

Cooking is a process to make food ready to eat by heating it. People can cook food with fire using wood or charcoal, with a stove that uses propane or natural gas, or with a stove that uses electricity. An oven is a part of a stove that is like a box. People also build ovens out of clay or bricks.
There are several different ways to cook food. We boil food by cooking it in water. We fry food by cooking it in hot butter, fat or oil. We bake food by keeping it hot in an oven. We roast or grill food by holding it over a hot fire.
People often cook meat by boiling, roasting or grilling it. People bake bread. Some breads are fried.
Usually we cook the food in some kind of pot or pan. Sometimes people cook food by putting it directly into the fire, by wrapping the food in leaves before they put it into the fire, or holding it over a fire with a stick.
Before foods are cooked, we say they are raw. Some foods are good to eat raw. Other foods are not good for the body when they are raw, so they must be cooked. Some foods are good to eat either raw or cooked and can be used in different recipes.

Cooks at work.

A person whose job it is to cook food may be called a cook or a chef. However, the word cooker means a machine or tool that a cook might use to cook food, such as a rice cooker.
To many people, cooking is an art. To many other people, it is a job. Cooking as an art is preparing the food so it tastes and looks really good.