English Vocabulary in Use Pre-intermediate and Intermediate » Unit 25: Cooking

Word List
  • add
  • barbecue n, v
  • boil
  • car park
  • chef
  • chop
  • clean
  • cook n
  • cooker
  • dangerous
  • delicious
  • fry
  • frying pan
  • good/bad at sth
  • grill n, v
  • horrible
  • ingredients
  • oven
  • peel
  • pie
  • raw
  • recipe
  • roast
  • saucepan
  • sour
  • spicy
  • stir
  • taste [flavour] n, v
  • tasty
Exercises

25.1 ‣ Write down five more ways of cooking food.

, _____, _____, _____, _____, _____

25.2 ‣ How do you pronounce the underlined letters? Use the index to help you.

  1. chef    Is it like shoe or chief?
  2. raw    Is it like now or door? _____
  3. sour    Is it like more or hour? _____
  4. oven    Is it like love or lonely? _____
  5. pie    Is it like pea or lie? _____
  6. saucepan    Is it like four or flower? _____

25.3 ‣ Cross out the wrong word in each sentence. Write the correct word at the end.

  1. The paella was very tasteful.
  2. My brother is a very good cooker. _____
  3. Don’t forget to heat up the fry pan before you add the aubergine. _____
  4. This chocolate is very sour. _____
  5. I’m afraid my mother has never been very good in cooking. _____
  6. You can buy this ice cream in five different tastes. _____

25.4 ‣ Which words are being defined?

  1. The flavour that something has in your mouth when you eat it.
  2. A person who cooks food as their job. _____
  3. Having a good taste. _____
  4. The large piece of equipment in the kitchen for cooking food. _____
  5. The word to describe the taste of lemons. _____
  6. Not cooked. _____
  7. Having a fantastic taste. _____. The opposite is _____

25.5 ‣ Explain what the person did, using the correct word.

  1. I got the list of food and cooking instructions.
    You got the .
  2. I bought all the food I needed for the dish.
    You bought all the _____.
  3. First I removed the skin of the potatoes.
    You _____ the potatoes.
  4. I cooked the potatoes in water.
    You _____ the potatoes.
  5. Then I cut the onions into small pieces.
    You _____ the onions.
  6. I cooked the onions in a frying pan.
    You _____ the onions.
  7. I put the potatoes together with the onion.
    You _____ the potatoes to the onion.
  8. I put in some milk and moved it round in the pan.
    You put in milk and _____ it.
  9. Then I put a little in my mouth to see what it was like.
    You _____ it.
Answer Key
A ‣ Ways of cooking food

You boil potatoes or rice in a saucepan.

You can fry sausages in a frying pan.

You grill toast or meat under a grill.

You roast meat [using oil] in the oven.

You also bake cakes [without oil] in the oven.

You barbecue meat and fish on a barbecue.

Food which is not cooked is raw.

B ‣ Preparing and cooking food

Peel the potatoes [remove the skin] and boil them.

While they’re boiling, chop an onion. [cut it into small pieces]

Fry the onion before adding some chopped tomatoes. [putting them together with the onions]

Then stir it all for a few minutes. [move it around in a saucepan using a spoon]

C ‣ What does it taste like?

Chefs [people who cook food in a restaurant as a job] always taste the food [put a small amount in their mouth to see what it is like] while they are cooking.

I don’t like the taste of too much garlic.

I tried the soup and it tasted a bit strange.

Michel’s food is very tasty [has a good taste].

Indian food is a bit too spicy for me [with a strong hot flavour].

You get ice cream in different flavours [the type of taste that food or drink has, e.g. vanilla, coffee, strawberry, etc.].

Lena said her pasta was horrible [terrible, unpleasant], but I thought it was delicious [fantastic, with a wonderful taste].

Language help

We use the word sour to describe the taste of lemons (opp sweet), but usually bitter to describe coffee that is strong and has a sharp unpleasant taste (opp smooth). Strong, dark chocolate can also be described as bitter, but this is not always negative.

D ‣ Are you a good cook?


apple pie
“I’m a bit nervous when I cook, so I always follow a recipe [the cooking instructions for a particular dish, e.g. lasagne], and make sure I have all the right ingredients [the different food you need to make a particular meal] before I start. However, I am quite good at making pies, especially apple pie.” (Pie is pronounced /paɪ/ like ‘my’.)

Common mistakes

A person who cooks well is a good cook (NOT a good cooker). The cooker is the large piece of equipment you use for cooking. You could also say that you are good/bad at cooking (NOT good/bad in cooking), e.g. I’m quite good at cooking fish.

Also we ‘cook’ a type of food, e.g. I’m cooking some beef, but we ‘make’ a dish, e.g. I’m making dessert. (NOT I’m cooking dessert.)

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