Everybody's a author

What defines an author? This is the prompt we have been given for our first essay. A lot of people think only writers with published books are authors, but thats not really a fair definition of authorship. Could a music artist be an author? After all they are publishing their own song, sure they aren't writing a book but they're still writing something and adding beats and rhythms and what not. Could a video game artist be a author? They design a game, the idea, the story, the characters and plot, along with many other factors. Video games are published and sold to the public just like books, but many people don't think of a video game as a book. In my mind all of these people are authors, they create something based off their own idea.
For my topic I want to write about how a chef is a author. I think a chef's recipe is their own mini book, each ingredient serving as a character that adds to the flavor (or story). Chef's come up with their own recipes that they think of and they even do research to get the best recipe they can. They test out certain ingredients and see which one taste the best and based off this trial and error (research) they come up with a recipe that they then share with the public.