There is not a single soul who would say that he or she hates to eat. If there's one thing that binds people from all over the world, that would be the desire to fill one's stomach. Although our cultures have different kinds of food trips and tastes, eating is but a must not just because of the issue of survival but also of pleasure. There are times when we don't just eat to keep ourselves alive, but because we crave for something and that we just want to satisfy our taste buds. This explains why some people, even after taking their meals, still look for food that matches their tastes on that particular moment.



Food also plays a vital role in our society. One is preservation of culture and the other is determining the social classes. As many scholars say, food is part of one's culture. The preparation, the choice of ingredients, tastes, and ways of cooking are greatly based on the cultural traditions of a particular community. So, through the community's patronage of its traditional food, it is able to help preserve its cultural heritage. If food discloses one's culture, it can also determine one's social class. Thus, the more money you have the more you can afford to eat in fancy restaurants and buy as many food as you want. But if you belong to the lower class of the society, you can hardly buy a meal.

Knowledge about people's food needs and preferences is advantageous to those who are interested in learning the behavior of a society when it comes to its nutriment.

History has it that our ancestors had to create fire before they could cook their food. But because of technological advances, we now have different methods, techniques, and equipment like the Alimento Kitchen Scale for measuring the ingredients that we can use to produce a delicious masterpiece. It is also amazing to know that before, there are no course on cooking. In fact, there was no such thing as culinary arts before. People just learned to cook through the transfer of knowledge from parents to children.

As we face the challenges of industrialization (where life is fast-paced and everybody seems to be pretty much occupied with his personal concerns,) the traditional method of transferring knowledge is deteriorating. Youths nowadays do not have the knowledge on cooking. In fact, most of them are dependent on instant or easy-to-cook food as it is less time-consuming. The irony is, now that we have discovered different ways of cooking, we are spending less time doing it.

But there must be a means to preserve the tradition of cooking. Maybe not through the mother-child transfer of knowledge but through the internet. Since people are busy and internet is accessible, online lessons on cooking is beneficial to those who want to learn but do not have the luxury of time to enroll in cooking school. Furthermore, this can serve as a good business opportunity for people who want to start a food business or a restaurant without attending everyday classes. As long as you have that big appetite to learn via the internet, the free online course on cooking will serve your interest.

If you are interested in taking a free online course, all you have to do is to type in www.worldwidelearn.com and in an instant, you are linked to various companies offering free online cooking courses. The various links like the Fabulous Foods Online Cooking School (www.fabulousfoods.com) provides free instructions on the basics of cooking, different cooking tools, and actual preparation of food and even wine. They also provide recipes that can be used for different occasions. Culinary Institute of America's website, www.prochef.com, offers interactive videos that give step-by-step instructions on how to cook various rice recipes. This site is a good source for people who want to use rice, the most revered staple food around the world, combined with other delicious ingredients to complete a sumptuous recipe in the preparation method known as rice cooking.

Our love for eating must equal our love for cooking. We should not just depend on restaurant-prepared foods or easy-to-cook foods. Now that we are blessed with different cooking equipment and methods, we should maximize our resources and make use of them for our development. Maybe after taking the free online course, you will be included in the list of professional chefs worldwide or even become a successful entrepreneur in the food business.