[throwaway173738]

I have zero expertise either, but I find this field fascinating. Cooking makes it easier to chew so we can devote less of our skulls to chewing muscles. At birth our skulls are barely small enough to fit through the birth canal in one orientation, and one of the prerequisites for a baby to be born is that it’s facing head down and shoulders rotated into that orientation. Maybe cooking is beneficial because it allowed us to have a bigger braincase but also it gave us access to more nutrients from the same food.