The Meaning of CookingIn 1785 James Boswell and Dr Johnson were trying to come up with a way of distinguishing human beings from animals. ? The beasts have memory, judgement, and all the faculties and passions of our mind, in a certain degree, ' said Boswell, ? but no beast is a cook.' Cooking is central to our lives, despite the fact that it never received the attention from serious scholars it might have had Boswell's definition caught on. The kitchen is in many ways the