Because eating is a universal human drive, cooking is a nearly universal cultural feature.
Specific techniques and ingredients are often regional. See Cuisine for information about the many regional and ethnic food traditions.
Please see food writing for some authors of book on cookery, food, and the history of food.
Some major cooking (in the sense of transforming raw food with heat) techniques:
Other preparation techniques:
Other information:
For recipes, see the Wikipedia Cookbook.