Researchers analyzed charred food remains at two locations?"the Shanidar Cave in Iraq's Zagros Mountains and the Franchthi Cave in Greece?"to gain insight into how Neanderthals and early modern humans prepared food. They found evidence of cooking involving a variety of ingredients, processes and deliberate decisions. "Our findings are the first real indication of complex cooking?"and thus of food culture?"among Neanderthals," Chris Hunt, an expert in cultural paleoecology at Liverpool John Moores University and coordinator of the excavation, tells the Guardian's Linda Geddes.