Cooking is not the same topic as Food: here the questions are about the process, who cooks and how you learned, not about taste. National dishes give you an edge, as long as you explain each one in a sentence of English.
What the examiner asks on this topic
Do you like cooking?
Who does the cooking in your family?
What is the first dish you learned to cook?
Do you prefer eating at home or eating out?
Did you learn cooking at school?
What dish would you like to learn to cook?
Model answers (aimed at band 7+)
Do you like cooking?
I enjoy it when I'm not in a hurry. Cooking on a Sunday afternoon with some music on is relaxing, but cooking after a long day just feels like another task, so on weekdays I tend to keep it simple.
Who does the cooking in your family?
Mostly my mother, although my father is in charge of plov. In a lot of Uzbek families plov is traditionally a man's job, especially for big occasions, and my dad takes it very seriously.
What is the first dish you learned to cook?
Fried eggs with tomatoes, which hardly counts as cooking. The first proper dish was mastava, a rice soup. My grandmother taught me when I was about twelve, and I still make it exactly the way she showed me.
What dish would you like to learn to cook?
I'd really like to master plov myself. It looks simple, but getting the rice just right without it going mushy takes years of practice, and I'd like to be able to cook it for my own family one day.
Useful words and phrases
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| be in a hurry | be in a hurry |
| keep it simple | keep it simple |
| be in charge of | be in charge of |
| big occasions | big occasions |
| take it seriously | take it seriously |
| hardly counts as | hardly counts as |
| master | master |
| go mushy | go mushy |
How to answer
- Explain the dish: "mastava, a rice soup", "sumalak, a sweet dish made from sprouted wheat".
- Add a cultural detail about family roles: "plov is traditionally a man's job".
- For the first dish you cooked, tell a small story: who taught you, and how old you were.
- For the future, say "I'd like to master..." and why it is hard.
Practise this topic now
The AI examiner asks you these questions, listens to your answers and shows your mistakes.
Everything about Part 1: the Part 1 guide. More topics: all articles.
Practise this topic now
The AI examiner asks you these questions, listens to your answers and shows your mistakes.
