BBC Learning English Word Facts Lyrics

BBC Learning English
Talk about English
Live webcast
Thursday June 21 , 2007

About this script, Callum says ...
Sorry, this is not a word for word transcript of the programme as broadcast. This is the script we used when we went into the studio but it isn't always exactly what we said during the programme.

Callum: Hello this is Talk about English. I'm Callum Robertson.

William: And I'm William Kremer

Callum: In the programme today we're talking about food and cooking

Anita Cormac: It's a fundamental life skill I believe and it's a very caring and sharing thing to be able to do,

William: We talk to one of our listeners who is an enthusiastic cook

Wendy: I actually love it. I enjoy cooking, it's not a chore for me.

Callum: And we'll also have a selection of vocabulary on the topic in word facts.

Word Facts example: Leaving your greedy dog in the same room as your freshly made cake is a recipe for disaster!

William: That's all coming up in today's Talk about English.

Callum: Well William, it is about lunch time now, are you hungry, would you like
something to eat, can I make something for you?

William: Sure, that's very kind of you, thanks. I am a bit peckish. What are you going to make.

Callum: See if you can guess what I'm doing.

COOKING NOISES

William: Aah, smells delicious. You're frying an egg. But it's incredible.

Callum: Why's that?

William: Well you're frying an egg and you're not even moving.

Callum: Well of course I'm not really frying an egg. It's just a sound effect.

William: I knew that

Callum: But I could fry you an egg if I wanted to which is handy because today we're
talking about food and cooking.

William: Yes indeed and to start us off here's our first collection of word facts!

WORD FACTS 1 Word Facts
Our first word today is Food - Four letters, three sounds, one syllable, food. What we eat. Food is a noun and appears in a number of phrases and expressions, not all of which are connected with eating. You can buy food in a food-hall and prepare it using a food-processor. You have to cook it carefully because you don't want to get food-poisoning. The food-chain is a term in science to describe the natural system where one living thing is eaten by another.

It's important to try and keep chemicals out of the human food chain, that's why farmers can't use some medicines on their cattle.

Small creatures like insects are at the bottom of the food chain. Large animals like humans are at the top of the food chain. But the food-chain can also be a humorous expression to describe your position in a company.

I've just started here so I'm at the bottom of the food chain. But I hope I can work my way up in a few years.

Another expression using food is when something makes you think carefully about a
particular subject, it gives you food for thought.

My lecturer thinks I might be following the wrong course. What he said really gave me food for thought.

Word Facts (and that's a fact)

Callum: And there'll be more 'word facts' throughout the programme. Our guest today is
Anita Cormac. Anita is director of a campaign called Focus on Food.
Unfortunately she couldn't join us in the studio but earlier I spoke to her on the
phone. First I asked her to tell me about Focus on Food.

Anita Cormac: Focus on Food is all about teaching people to cook. To cook from fresh ingredients and we do that in schools and we do that in the community.
Why do you need to go out to teach people how to cook?
We really do need to teach people how to cook because, especially young people, we find in this country there's been a growing disconnection with where food comes from, how to prepare it, how to cook it. What constitutes quality food? And so Focus on Food is all about taking those messages, but a little bit more than taking the message. It's about actually doing it, teaching people to cook and teaching other people to teach cooking skills. And how do you do this? Do you take a kitchen with you?
We certainly do take kitchens with us! We have cooking buses which are actually not buses at all but huge lorries, shiny lorries that when they're stationary they expand on both sides to create a teaching kitchen, a full size kitchen for teaching sixteen children or sixteen adults at a time. And inside each cooking bus are full size cookers, sinks, work-benches, tables and about I suppose around a thousand separate items of cooking equipment.

Callum: That was Anita Cormac. There'll be more from her later in the programme and
if you would like to see her Cooking Buses we have some pictures on the
website. They really are quite incredible.

William: (Comment on interview - recent report stating that many children don't know
where food comes from)

Callum: Time for some more word facts.

WORD FACTS 2
Word Facts
Our next word is recipe. R - E - C - I - P - E. Recipe. It has three syllables with the stress on the first syllable. Recipe. A recipe is the set of instructions for how to make a particular food. It often goes together with the verb 'to follow'

I think it's very important to follow recipes precisely. It's the only way to know what you will get !
I never follow recipes exactly, I don't have the patience. I just put in whatever I can find.

The preposition which is used with recipe is 'for', but it usually not stressed and sounds like /f?/

Do you know a good recipe for chicken soup?

To be a recipe for something is also an expression for something that is very likely to happen.
One of the most common phrases like this is 'a recipe for disaster'.

Leaving your greedy dog in the same room as your freshly made cake is a recipe for disaster!

Word Facts (and that's a fact)

Callum: You're listening to Talk about English from BBC Learning English dot com.

William: Still to come, more from Focus on Food director Anita Cormac.

Callum: And I speak to one of our listeners about her love of cooking.

William: But now here are details of today's competition. We want you to send in
pictures or videos of a meal that you have cooked.

Callum: You can upload a file directly to us from the competition page. We'll put the
pictures on the website and the winner will be chosen by a vote from people
visiting the site. Be sure to send a description of your dish as well.

Callum: You can find all the details on the website.

William: Time now, for more word facts!

WORD FACTS 3
Word Facts
Our next word is the noun 'ingredient' - i - n - g - r - e -d - i -e - n - t

The plural is regular, you add an 's' , ingredients, but notice that the 't' at the end of the
word becomes silent. It's not p___ounced. Ingredient, ingredients

Ingredients are the different things that go together to make a meal.

I always try to use the freshest ingredients when cooking.
A cheese omelette doesn't have many ingredients. Just eggs and cheese, and maybe salt and pepper if you like.

Ingredient is also used for something that is very important to making something effective. It often goes together with adjectives essential, vital or important.

Good communication is an essential ingredient of a successful relationship.

Word Facts (and that's a fact)

Callum: Now let's hear some more from my conversation with Anita Cormac from the
Focus on Food campaign. I asked her if she was a good cook but first I wanted
to know how she got interested in cooking to begin with.

Anita Cormac: I, very briefly I went to a friend's house and saw her mother making a cake actually and before that I thought that cakes came out of packets that you bought in the shop and I'd no idea that you could make cakes and I became very interested in cooking after that and I really enjoyed good quality food and my mother who was an otherwise extremely intelligent women just wasn't a cook and I didn't enjoy food at home and I was determined to learn this myself and then was taught at school. Cooking at school really opened my eyes and actually I became
a food teacher in schools.
Would you say that you were a good cook?
I am actually, I mean it sounds rather immodest really but I am quite a good cook, yes.
And how would you describe a good cook, what makes a good cook?
I think fundamentally someone who loves food and is interested in quality food and is
interested in what happens when you prepare it and somebody who wants to create food for other people. It's a fundamental life skill I believe and it's a very caring and sharing thing to be able to do, whether you do it alone for other people or whether you cook, you know, with a number of other individuals. It's a very levelling thing. It's celebratory, it's also every day and I think a good cook is somebody who is quite sensitive about flavour and taste and texture of food. Really likes to produce something out of more inexpensive ingredients. It's not all about the most expensive foods that you can buy.

William and Callum discuss, are we good cooks?

Callum: One of the easiest things to cook is an omelette and Anita gave me her
instructions on how to make the perfect omelette. Unfortunately we don't have
time to put it in the programme but you can download it from the website

Now time to chat to one of our listeners on the phone.

Wendy
Hello, who am I talking to today?
Hi Hi, my name is Wendy.
I come originally from Peru but at the moment I'm living in Spain.
Well today in the programme we're talking about cooking. Do you like cooking?
I actually love it, I love it, it's one of the hobbies and tasks I have to do every day. I enjoy cooking, it's not a chore for me. I like to improvise, I like to use different ingredients all the time. I sometimes take the recipes but I end up changing them.
Right, when did you start to like cooking? Was it when you were a child or later in life?
Later in life. You know my mother always taught to me how to cook but then I, I don't know, I just got passionate about cooking. Perhaps sometimes watching the programmes on TV, you know, when you have a glass of wine and you just, it's more entertainment than a task or something that you have to do.
Right, right. And what's your favourite dish to cook? Do you have a favourite?
Well a Peruvian dish I like a lot is with rice and coriander and chicken.
And what would you say are the secrets to being a good cook?
Well for me it's improvise all the time.
What do you mean by improvise? Maybe people don't know that word?
Yea, improvise is just, for example if you have some ingredients or some products in your fridge don't think of a particular recipe, just say, 'right, what can I do with potatoes and tomatoes and eggs and couscous, that's all what I've got left, and a bit of coriander, for example. So perhaps you could make an omelette and as a side dish you could put a bit of couscous and just I don't know, some tomato slice by the side, so to make it look appealing. Right so it's being creative with what you've got but also don't, you know, just try to imagine new things, just like throw anything together and see what comes out?
Yes, and you have to be careful if things go together. For example, I don't know, I would never put red wine in a fish dish. I would always go for white, for example. Just be careful, I mean be creative and don't, don't think about it as a chore because it's great fun, specially when you eat it,
Yes indeed, so Wendy, thank you very much for joining us on the programme today, and good luck with all your cooking in the future.
Thank you very much I'm sure that I'll keep cooking because I love it.

William: That was Wendy in Spain talking about cooking. (comment on Mancunian
accent)

Callum and Wiliam comment on Wendy's English accent and some of the vocabulary she uses: not a chore, to improvise

BELL

Callum: And that bell tells us we are nearly at the end of the programme, but it's time
for a sixty second recap of today's topic. So listen out for these questions - can
you answer them?

60 second recap

Callum: What is the word for the instructions for making a meal?

(PAUSE)

William: recipe, recipe

Callum: How do you spell recipe?

(PAUSE)

William: r - e - c - i - p - e

Callum: Something that makes you think really carefully about something gives you
food for what?

(PAUSE)

William: It gives you food for thought, food for thought.

Callum: What is the word for the different things that you use to make a meal?

(PAUSE)

William: ingredients, ingredients

Callum: Well that's all from Talk about English today.

William: Remember to check the website for details of the competition, pictures and
downloads.

Callum & William: Goodbyes