Cook various eats for many (5)
I believe the answer is:
steam
'cook' is the definition.
(steaming is a kind of cooking)
'various eats for many' is the wordplay.
'various' indicates an anagram.
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'many' becomes 'm' (**).
'eats' is an anagram of 'stea'.
'stea'+'m'='STEAM'
(Other definitions for steam that I've seen before include "Invisible gas from boiling water" , "Engine driver" , "Old-fashioned power" , "Hot water vapour" , "Momentum - boiled water" .)