Although the art of cooking seems mysterious at first, its elements are easy to define. You can prepare foods using different methods, with a variety of equipment, ingredients and seasonings. The great world cuisines came into being when people in diverse ecosystems and climates experimented with limited regional food resources and technologies over long periods of time.

The Chinese method of stir-frying, for example, developed where large populations made firewood scarce. Brief cooking over a hot flame, stirring constantly to avoid burning, maximized fuel efficiency. The Greeks create wonderful dishes with olive oil, mint, marjoram, flour, and other locally-available ingredients.

Likewise, Meso-Americans create fantastic dishes with corn and chilies. French cuisine, which we associate with expensive restaurants, originated in the kitchens of family farmers, as did Italian and many other cuisines. Diverse regions and ethnic groups, including those of the Caribbean, India, Italy, Japan, North America, and Southeast Asia, among others, have contributed ideas we can draw from. And we must thank the Native Americans for showing us how to use our own native wild edible plants.

Regional cuisines realized a quantum leap forward when new world ingredients reached the old world and vice-versa. The tomatoes of Italian cuisine, potatoes of Irish dishes, and hot peppers of Indian food all come from the Americas. Turkey, a crossroads between the East and West, developed an original cuisine long ago based on elements of the Middle East, Greece, and the West before incorporating new world ingredients such as eggplants and tomatoes. Such revolutionary developments transformed medieval cuisine into the old world and new world ethnic cuisines we recognize today.

When populations, along with their cuisines, were dislocated and different ethnic groups were thrown together in regions with different food resources, new creativity with food burst forth. In the Americas, for example, French and African influences transformed Haitian and other Caribbean cuisines into what they are today, while a melding of Spanish and Native American cooking styles and ingredients led to modern Mexican and Tex-Mex (another hybrid in the making) food.

Substituting healthful vegetarian and wild ingredients for animal products and refined food, and using healthful procedures and proportions in modern kitchens, offers us the opportunity create new recipes in the spirit (but not to the letter) of pre-existing cuisines.