Cooking is a process to make food ready to eat by heating it.
Cooking is often done in a kitchen using a stove or an oven . It can also be done over a fire (for example, over a campfire or on a barbecue ).
The heat for cooking can be made in different ways. It can be from an open fire that burns wood or charcoal . It can be on a stove or in an oven that uses propane , natural gas , or electricity .
There are several different ways to cook food. Boiling cooks food in hot water. Frying (deep or shallow) cooks food in hot butter , fat or oil . Baking and roasting cook food by surrounding it with hot air. Grilling means cooking food on a metal grill that has heat under it.
People often cook meat by boiling, roasting , frying , or grilling it. Some foods such as bread or pastries are usually baked .
Usually food is cooked in some kind of pot or pan . Sometimes people cook food by putting it directly into the fire, or by wrapping the food in leaves before they put it into the fire.
A person whose job it is to cook food may be called a cook or a chef . The word cooker means a machine or tool that a cook might use to cook food. Rice cookers and pressure cookers are examples.