The aims and objectives of cooking food are as follows:

• Cooking increases palatability.

• Cooking helps to provide a balanced meal.

• Cooking sterilizes the food partially.

• Cooking retains, as far as possible, the nutritive and flavoring ingredients.

• Cooking gives a variety to the menu, as one food item could be cooked in various ways and given different textures, e.g. mutton in a soup, roast joint, croquettes, stews, keema, sookha meat, boti kababs, etc.

• Cooking preserves food for a longer time.

Some foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are highly palatable when eaten raw. However, most foods must be cooked to be acceptable to the human plate.

The main purposes of cooking food are:

• to improve its natural flavor and palatability;

• to destroy pathogenic organisms an injurious substances which may be found on raw foods;

• to improve digestibility, and;

• to make its maximum nutritive value available in a palatable form.

The following are the advantages of cooking:

• Cooking makes the food easy to chew.

• Cooking softens the connective tissues in the meat and makes animal foods more digestible.

• Cooking makes complex foods split into simpler substances.

• Cooking helps to kill harmful bacteria. It makes the food safe to eat.

• Cooking preserves the food.

• Cooking increases palatability. It improves taste and enhances the flavour.

• A wide variety of dishes can be made by different methods of cooking: boiling, frying, roasting, microwaving, baking, smoking, etc.

• Cooking makes the dish more colorful. It develops new flavors in food.

• Cooking makes the food to appreciable texture.

• Cooking makes food more appetizing.

• Cooking provides balanced meal.

• Cooking adds more nutritive value to food.