This is a topic I've been thinking a lot about on my way to school today, we once lived in a time where there was no food, and the question was, how was it first invented? Lets take cookies and cake for example, did someone accidently mix flour, eggs, and whatever, and then accidently bake it to find out that doing that made something amazing? Was someone just curious and wanted to see what happened if you bake those ingredients? Let's go back to the very beginning, people couldn't have known that you can turn wheat into bread until someone actually tried it, but what could have been the reason for harvesting wheat and then baking it?

We don't really question food now because we know how it's made and where it comes from, but where did the original thought come from? How do you think certain foods were first discovered? Especially when it comes to baked and fried foods.

This isn't a question that can really be answered with a single simple answer. Basically "food" (or prepared dishes etc.) have evolved over the years. Like the first cookies were probably not made by accident. I'm sure the maker of the first cake was trying to find a sweet dessert or treat, and since cake is basically a sweetened bread it was a simple process. Probably add sugar, then decide to make it a different consistency so why not try maybe some eggs or milk?

Basically we started off eating fruits and vegetables then we started eating animals and from there I guess we got bored and started experimenting with different things, thus bread and pasta etc. was invented. I mean we still do this today, hence new dishes being created all the time. Dishes that no one would have thought of a thousand years ago because the dishes they're based on didn't exist back then either. Basically it's all derivative.

Eirinn : well at least now we know what we're doing, we know what will happen when we add something to something else, like a type of salt, or a sugar. Heck I can't even begin to think of what was going on when sugar was discovered, back in the day the only sweet stuff was fruits.

Well as other posters have pointed out this is a very complex  question. If you believe the Bible God tells Adam and Eve what food they are to eat. Lots of the food was vegetables and a few meats. This also backs up on what Biology, which I'm also a Biologist/forecaster, points out. The earliest humans ate veggies and fish mostly.  Before food was was grown in gardens. "food was either killed to eat by hunting or gathering. So Adam and Eve's time which was probably millions of years ago, as we don't know the Bible doesn't say, was the hunting and gathering time. Now, we got several years later again the Bible doesn't tell us if it was millions or thousands of years. But at the end of Genesis we start to see that Humans now grow their food and hunt too. Also this is were we start to see humans learn farming techniques such as crop plantation, clearing methods, gardening etc. So throw how many years humans advanced and learned better techniques. Now we do not know who invented bread. But the Bible tells us the Ancient Israelis made bread and barley to eat off of. Other ancient people also baked bread too. So nobody really knows the date. But we do know by 1800 BC Man was making bread and cooking it. 

Now, the Bible mentions how man has domesticated animals to raise as food. This would be around 1,500 BC (it may have gone on earlier) but the Bible really gives us a good clue on when humans started to domesticate cattle to eat. 

Now go to around 1,000 BC the time of King David and we can see that man has developed some of the earliest pump systems to water the crops and carry water. Centuries later the Romans improve this. After the middle ages firearms were invented this allowed food to be hunted at a longer range then the traditional weapon. Also new machines would be invented to help harvest the land. Here we see designs that the modern stove would be based off of 

Modern cooking techniques that we use today got started during the Industrial Revolution as machines that could cook the food in large amounts were invented. Now people could make several pies, cakes, pizzas and more etc. Also the industrial revolution also impacts farming.  After 1880 AD, Electricity takes food production to a new level and we start to see some modern appliances to start to show up. 

In the 1920's the modern refrigerator starts to appear now food can be cooked and stored later. But around this time America and other countries get more food ideas. World Travel being possible as the Airplane was invented in 1906 also you had people immigrating to other countries in masses allowed for different types of food to show up in other countries. For example, different style of pizza's come to America.  Also in the early 1930's the modern freeze allowed meats to be frozen. 

So you can see from the beginning of time how we have moved forward .We have gone from hunting and gathering, planting crops, baking,  raising food, water pumps, and now industrial ways. So yeah Food has changed over the years. 

tornadocam : Times tornado mentioned he's a biologist in the past 2 days: 3 lol yup love bragging about your job don't you?

It makes me wish I could see what was in the minds of these people way back then. If I was alive then, I probably wouldn't have said to myself "I want to make my own food" because until people started farming and growing plants, it was non existent, people not know what it was or even that it was possible until one person tried it, whether it was a mistake or a random experiemtent someone did.

I don't know the authenticity of the story, but I was always told Chocolate Chip Cookies were created by accident. Some lady was trying to bake cookies for an important guest. She didn't realize til halfway in she didn't have the original ingredients she needed to add for flavor. So in a rush, she mixed in a bunch of chocolate chips assuming they would just mix evenly throughout while it baked making Chocolate Cookies. Seeing how they turned out, she served them anyway, not having anything else. Everybody loved them, and the lady who cooked it was rewarded (or hired or something), by the important guest she cooked them for. I would assume a lot of food was made in this fashion, trying to create one thing, and it turning out completely different. Other than that I would assume most food comes from experimentation. I think everybody at one point in their life has mixed foods that seemed unconventional but turned out good (or really bad), and we learn new recipes or possibilities from trying it. I saw a video on Facebook the other day on how to make "Pizza Grilled Cheese", something someone had to cook experimentally to see how it turned out (they are amazing, by the way).
What really blows my mind is all the types of food the Japanese and other Eastern cultures eat. I mean who had the brilliant idea to be the first person to want and try to eat octopus? Another thing I've thought about is how many people have died / gotten seriously ill in the past from trying new foods. I mean there had to be somebody who ate something and died for everyone else to realize "Maybe we shouldn't eat that again." Or even the people who took the time to find out what was poisonous on some food, and how to remove it to make it safe. Talk about having some balls.