Why Cook Well. We eat because we have to. Civilization is nothing more than a ten thousand year old human experiment to test the freakish theory that mankind could eat without being eaten. Four million years earlier, our australopithecine ancestors crawled down from some God-forsaken trees to run with sweaty persistence after the meaty goodness left for scavenger animals. This, they called a meal. The world we have inherited is only a savannah away from that prehistoric reality. We have to eat to survive, but it’s what we eat and the quality of that food which gives our lives pleasure and meaning. The question our human experiment should answer is “Why should we cook well?” If survival is the purpose of culinary consumption then what benefit is served by eating food of higher quality, flavor and beauty? Would not our human condition be sufficiently served through the daily ingestion of ground chicken speckled cheese spread sprayed from a can? We eat because we have to, we cook because we care. Through trial and tribulation (and falling out of trees) modern man has come to understand that a meal is much more than a life sustaining substance. A meal is a celebration of life: it is an expression of art and love and a way to communicate through preparation, presentation and sharing. We eat because we have to, we cook because we care, we share a meal because a meal is a manifestation of our passion for life and each other. To cook well is to take a food source of vegetable or meaty goodness and convert it into something of pleasing sensations of taste, smell, and texture. It is an act of purest altruism, a performance of sincerity and joy. Why would a self diagnosed intelligent species take the time and energy to prepare food for the culinary delight of others? Why bother with the triviality of recipes and technique when rawhide shoved into pile of burning coals would sufficiently make food more digestible and a better energy source? Because we know, instinctually, that life is short, though long enough. We understand that our mortality is wondrous thing, allowing us the luxury of savoring the good things brought before us. The art of preparing food, and creating from it a meal goes beyond the act of cutting, slicing, baking, boiling or frying: it is the culmination of a ten thousand year in progress experiment where mankind is learning that he might not only eat without being eaten, but that he can cook and care, share and love and live our lives to the top. We eat because we want to, we cook because we love. Please vote for my essay and help me get published: http://bourdainmediumraw.com/essays/view/76