Well, as a point of taxonomy, humans are not apes. Though we may share a common ancestor with modern apes, humans are a separate category unto themselves. The correct term would be hominid. To quote Wikipedia-

In summary, there are three common uses of the term "ape": English-speaking non-biologists may not distinguish between "monkeys" and "apes", or may use "ape" for any tailless monkey or non-human hominoid, whereas English-speaking biologists commonly use the term "ape" for all non-human hominoids as shown above.

That aside there is plenty of evidence to suggest that preferential selection of food for non-dietary benefit actually predates humans. Aside from conjecture that the ability to judge between ripe fruits and veggies from non-ripe foods granting an evolutionary advantage to some animals over others, there are plenty of examples of non-human animals choosing one food over another. With animals the important thing to remember is that often times the question isn't, "do I like this or that" but rather, "can I survive if I'm picky?"

So far as humans are concerned, the practice predates written history. There is plenty of archaeological evidence that indicate humans willfully harvested herbs and other foods such as wild onions which would have granted virtually no nutritional advantage for no purpose other than a minimal contribution to their daily calories, and would then end up in tombs, and other important sites.