Cooking for all!

BBC Learning English

People and Places

Cooking for all!

Jackie: Hello and welcome to People and Places with

bbclearningenglish.com

and me, Jackie Dalton. Food and eating habits are a big

issue in Britain at the moment – everyone seems to be

worrying that the nation is getting too fat and people don

’t know how to feed themselves properly. So the government

decided 1 that teenagers are to receive compulsory 2 cooking

lessons in schools. What’s that word? Compulsory – it

means something that you have to do, that you don’t have

any choice about. Most the subjects that were compulsory

when I was in school were things like Maths and Science –

I never had had compulsory cooking lessons though, which

sound much more fun! We’re going to hear part of a report

by the BBC’s Jon Devitt. To practise your listening

comprehension skills, try to answer this question: why

might it be difficult for some schools to start teaching

cookery in September? Try to spot two reasons.

Jon

The new lessons are due to start in September but some

schools without kitchens will be given longer to adapt.

There is also likely to be a shortage 3 of teachers with the

right skills, since the trend has been to teach food

technology rather than practical cooking.

Jackie: Did you get those? One problem is that there might

be a shortage of skills – not enough people who know how

to teach cooking. The other is that some schools won’t

have kitchens, so they’ll need some time to sort that out.

In the next part of Jon’s report, he’ll tell us why

cooking has become such a big issue in Britain. This time,

try to answer this
 
question: how many Britons are expected to be obese 4 – or

very fat – in

25 years if people don’t change their habits?

Jon

The renewed interest in cooking is primarily a response to

the level of obesity 5 in Britain which is amongst the

highest in Europe, and according to government figures half

of all Britons will be obese in 25 years if current trends

are not halted.

Jackie: Did you get the answer? Jon said half of Britons

will be obese in 25 years time if current trends are not

halted, in other words, if people don’t change their

behaviour. Next we’re going to hear from Ed Balls - the

minister in charge of schools. Try to answer this question:

what does Ed Balls want young people to be able to do?

Ed Balls

What I want is for young people to be taught how to do

basic, simple recipes which they can use then at home and

in their later life, experiment with, discover the joy of

food, having got the basics under control.

Jackie: Did you catch that? Ed Balls talks about basic,

simple recipes – a

recipe is a set of instructions for preparing food. So he

wants teenagers to be able to cook basic, easy things. He

says that should be able to enjoy food, once they’ve got

the basics under control. To have something under control

means to be comfortable with it and able to
do it. I’m not quite sure if I’ve got the basics of

cooking under control. Listen again and try to spot those

three terms: recipes, basic, to have the basics under

control.

Ed Balls

What I want is for young people to be taught how to do

basic, simple recipes which they can use then at home and

in their later life, experiment with, discover the joy of

food, having got the basics under control.
 
Jackie: Next we’re going to hear the views of a well known

cookery writer in the UK, Pru Leith. Now try to answer this

question: does Pru think making teenagers to learn to cook

is a good thing or a bad thing?

Pru Leith

If we'd done this thirty years ago we might not have the

crisis 6 we've got now about obesity and lack of knowledge

about food and so on. Every child should know how to cook,

not just so that they'll be healthy, but because it's a

life skill which is a real pleasure and we deny children

that pleasure.

Jackie: Well, it’s clear from what Pru says, she thinks

cooking lessons are a good thing. In fact, she says, if

this had been done 30 years ago it could’ve prevented the

situation the country has now. She uses a very strong word

to describe the problem…she calls it a ‘crisis’. A

crisis is a situation where there are a lot of problems

that need to be dealt with quickly so the situation doesn’

t get worse. So she obviously thinks that there is a very

serious problem with obesity and lack of knowledge – she

calls it a crisis. Before we hear that clip 7 again, another

term she
uses worth looking at is ‘life skill’. A life skill is

something you can do which will be useful and important

throughout your life – such as driving, or doing well in

job interviews or, as Pru says, cooking. Listen again and

listen out for those terms: crisis and life skill

Pru Leith

If we'd done this thirty years ago we might not have the

crisis we've got now about obesity and lack of knowledge

about food and so on. Every child should know how to cook,

not just so that they'll be healthy, but because it's a

life skill which is a real pleasure and we deny children

that pleasure.

Jackie: Let’s end with a quick quiz to see if you can

remember some of the phrases we’ve looked at.

What do you call a set of instructions telling you how to

prepare food?
 
A recipe

What do you call an ability, like cooking or driving that

is useful throughout your life?

A life skill

What word did we look at meaning a situation where there

are lots of problems and something needs to be done

urgently?

A crisis

What expression did we look at that means to be comfortable

with something and able to do it?

To have it under control

Well, that’s all for this week, I hope you learned some

useful phrases. Join us again for more People and Places!