BOX SET: 6 Minute English - 'Food' English mega-class! 30 minutes of new vocabulary!

6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

English has many proverbs,

short and well-known phrases giving a piece of useful advice or common sense.

For example, the proverb 'actions speak louder than words'

means that what people do is more important than what they say.

And the proverb 'don't judge a book by its cover'

advises people not to form opinions about people based on how they look.

Proverbs are found in many cultures and languages

and are often passed down through the generations

to teach children lessons in life.

One famous English proverb is 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'.

In other words, eating fresh fruit is good for you. But is it really true?

Can eating an apple a day actually have significant health benefits?

That's the question we'll be discussing in this programme

and, as usual, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

But, before that, I have a question for you, Sam.

Most proverbs come from a place's history

and England has a long history of growing apples.

Over the centuries, hundreds of different apple varieties

have been grown in orchards up and down the country,

some with quite unusual names.

So which of the following is the name of a real type of English apple?

Is it a) a Taylor's gold? b) a Golden pippin? Or c) a Black Worcester?

I don't know, but I think it's b) a Golden Pippin.

OK, Sam, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.

But whatever the name of the apple, new scientific research

is showing that there really are health benefits to eating apples,

especially with the skins on.

Apple skins are full of good stuff —

fibre, vitamins, and especially 'flavonoids',

a chemical compound known to reduce blood pressure,

and improve brain and heart health.

No wonder then that when Dr Michael Mosley,

presenter of BBC Radio 4 programme Just One Thing,

wanted a snack to eat, he reached for an apple.

It's early afternoon and I'm bit peckish,

so I'm about to grab a delicious snack that could improve my blood flow,

boost my brain and trim my waistline.

Mm. This is not some exotic superfood.

In fact, it's an apple.

Dr Mosley wanted something to eat because he was 'peckish', a little bit hungry.

He wanted something healthy, but chose an apple

instead of exotic superfoods like blueberries or a banana smoothie.

If you call something 'exotic', you mean it's unusual and exciting,

often because it comes from an unfamiliar place.

Instead, he ate the least exotic fruit I can imagine — the humble apple.

But Dr Moseley thinks apples do have health benefits and he lists them.

Apples improve blood flow, boost the brain and 'trim the waistline',

a phrase which means to keep a healthy body weight with no extra fat.

Yes, one reason apples are so good for us

is that the skin is packed with flavonoids,

which help people lose weight and have even been linked to a longer life.

But that's not all.

It's the fact that there are so many different ways

of cooking and eating apples which makes them one of the nation's favourite foods.

Here's Dr Moseley again, explaining how he likes to eat his apples

to Just One Thing on BBC Sounds.

What I love about apples is they are so versatile.

I've been snacking on them, grating them into my porridge

and having them sliced with full fat yoghurt as a dessert.

But baked apples are one of my favourite ways to consume them.

It seems an apple a day really does keep the doctor away

and also keeps your heart, gut and even your waistline in good shape.

Dr Mosley eats apples in porridge, sliced with yoghurt and even baked in the oven.

He describes them as 'versatile' —

things which can be used for many different purposes

or in many different ways.

What's more, cooking or baking apples doesn't damage those healthy flavonoids,

so even the occasional apple crumble with custard can be good for you.

Apple crumble and custard, mm.

I'm not so sure that's a way to 'get in good shape',

a phrase meaning healthy or in good condition.

But, Neil, it seems the old proverb is true.

According to the science, an apple a day really does keep the doctor away.

Right, it's time to reveal the answer to your question.

Yes, I asked you about the strange-sounding names

given to some varieties of English apple.

And I said that a golden Pippin was the name of a real apple. So was I right?

Yes, you were. Golden Pippin apples were first grown in Arundel,

near the south coast of England, while the other two, Black Worcester

and Taylor's gold, are actually types of English pear.

Right, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from this programme,

starting with 'proverb',

a short sentence or expression giving some well-known, traditional advice.

If you're feeling 'peckish', you're slightly hungry.

The adjective 'exotic' describes something which is unusual and exciting,

often because it comes from a faraway place.

The phrase 'trim the waistline' means to keep your body weight healthy,

with no extra fat around your 'waistline', the area of your body above the hips.

Something which is 'versatile'

can be used for many purposes or in many different ways.

And finally, if someone is in 'good shape', they're in a good state of health.

Once again, our six minutes are up. Bye for now.

Bye.

6 Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

Kalettes, CauliShoots and Tenderstems. Can you guess what they are, Sam?

Hm, well, they sound like the names of pop groups to me.

Ah, yes, well, good guess, but, in fact, the truth is even stranger.

They're varieties of vegetable

being grown in the UK by a new generation of fruit and veg growers.

Forget traditional carrots, leeks and potatoes.

Vegetables today are getting a modern makeover thanks to breeding methods

which mix two different plants to produce something completely new,

known as a 'hybrid'.

The hybrid Kalette, for example, is a mix between kale and a Brussels sprout.

Tenderstems are a mix of traditional broccoli with a type of Chinese kale.

And CauliShoots are small, green stems

with mini cauliflower heads shooting out the side.

These exciting new varieties,

which look very different from traditional vegetables,

are increasingly popular on farms, in shops and in restaurants across the UK.

In this programme, we'll hear all about these new vegetables

and the people who grow, cook and eat them.

And as usual, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

Sounds good, Sam, but, first, I have a question for you.

One of the first hybrids on sale in the UK was named Cotton Candy

because of its sweet, caramel flavour,

but is Cotton Candy a) a cherry? b) a strawberry? Or c) a grape?

Well, if it's sweet, I'll guess it's a strawberry.

OK, well, we'll reveal the answer later in the programme.

The Kalettes which Sam mentioned earlier

were introduced to the British market in 2010 under the name Flower Sprouts.

They were advertised as a healthy vegetable

that could be cooked or eaten raw and became extremely popular.

The inventor of the Kalette is Jamie Claxton,

one of the UK's top seed producers and head of plant breeding firm Tozer Seeds.

Here's Jamie chatting with Leyla Kazim,

presenter of BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme.

And so how did the idea of the Kalette even come about in the first place?

We do quite a lot of blue-sky breeding

where we just try wacky stuff and see what happens.

Were you looking at a sprout and a kale

and going, "I can do something exciting with this"?

We were looking at the whole of the Brassica family.

Those are all Brassica oleracea, Brussels sprouts, kales, cauliflowers.

And just thinking how, obviously,

we knew they would cross-pollinate easily and produce unusual veg

and we were just kind of thinking we need to create something that's more modern,

you know, Brussels sprouts and kales are very traditional.

Throw a few things in together in a mixing pot

— and see what comes out. — Yeah!

Jamie says Kalettes were the result of 'blue-sky breeding'.

This phrase comes from another expression, 'blue-sky thinking',

which means using your imagination

to try to come up with completely new and original ideas.

Some of Jamie's plants were 'wacky' — unusual in a funny or surprising way.

But this was all part of the fun of breeding and growing new vegetables.

Jamie threw his ideas into the 'mixing pot',

a place where different ideas mingle together to create something new.

Hybrid vegetables add exciting new colours and tastes to traditional veg,

such as the deep purple leaves of rainbow kale,

or the sweet, nutty flavour of a CauliShoot.

As a result, they have become fashionable with many British chefs,

including Jack Stein, son of TV chef Rick,

who runs a restaurant in the seaside town of Padstow in Cornwall.

Here's presenter of BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme, Leyla Kazim, again,

talking to Jack about what makes a great new vegetable.

When you're looking at new varieties of veg, are there any particular traits

that you're looking for that will help in the kitchen?

I mean, obviously it's going to be down to taste, really,

and it's gonna be down to what it looks like on the plate,

so the colour, the texture, the taste, all these things are really important.

But I think novelty and things like the Kalettes were great.

I mean, they were originally called Flower Sprouts.

Jack names two features of great hybrid veg.

First, there's the 'texture', the way something feels when you touch it.

And second 'novelty', the fact that something is new and unusual.

Added to the surprising way many new varieties look

and, of course, their great taste, modern vegetables have provided

a welcome new addition to traditional British cooking.

And don't forget the unusual names too, Sam,

like the Cotton Candy fruit I asked you about in my question.

Yes, I guessed Cotton Candys were a new variety of strawberry. Was I right?

You were wrong, I'm afraid, Sam.

In fact, Cotton Candy is a variety of grape,

so called because they're very sweet and taste like you've been to the fairground.

OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned

from this programme about new vegetable hybrids,

plants which have been grown by mixing two different plants together.

'Blue-sky thinking' involves using your imagination

to try and think up original ideas.

Something which is unusual in a funny or surprising way

could be described as 'wacky'.

The 'mixing pot' is a place where different ideas or ingredients

get mixed to create something new.

And 'texture' means the way something feels when you touch it.

And, finally, 'novelty' is the quality of being new or unusual.

If you've enjoyed this programme,

why not take the taste test by cooking some hybrid vegetables yourself?

And remember to join us again soon for more trending topics

and useful vocabulary, here at 6 Minute English.

— Goodbye for now. — Bye-bye.

6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Sam.

And I'm Neil.

In this programme, we're finding out all about food flavours.

Although everyone knows what food they like the taste of,

the science behind flavours is complex.

Flavour involves much more than tasting with the tongue,

it's also influenced by how food looks, smells, and even how it's described.

In this programme, we'll be meeting the 'flavourists',

scientists who combine different natural and artificial ingredients

to create the flavours we love to taste in our food.

And, of course, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

Sounds delicious, Neil, but, first, I have a question for you.

No-one really knows why, but certain flavours seem to work well together.

Some scientists think classic combinations like lemon and lime

or strawberries and cream are so popular

because their chemicals overlap in special ways.

Sometimes this creates new, interesting and unusual flavours.

So what weirdly popular combination

was invented by British chef Heston Blumenthal?

Was it a) dark chocolate and sea salt? b) milk chocolate and chilli?

Or c) white chocolate and caviar?

Well, I've tried sea salt and chocolate, I think it tastes great, so I'll say A.

OK, Neil, I'll reveal the correct answer at the end of the programme.

Nowadays, the flavour industry is big business.

Flavourists work in high-tech laboratories,

and every new ice cream, crisp or toothpaste flavour

is the result of years of scientific research.

But it wasn't always like that.

Here's food historian Dr Nadia Berenstein

describing the beginnings of the flavour industry in the 19th century

to Ruth Alexander, presenter of the BBC World Service Programme, The Food Chain.

There's really only a handful of people

and maybe a dozen or so companies that are really involved.

And at that point, they really are kind of working with secret recipes

that were kept very secure and sometimes passed down

within families from father to son.

So it really seemed like a guild structure from the Middle Ages at that point.

Was it seen as some kind of dark art?

Yes, the term 'black art' does come up

in some of the early writing of people who are producing flavours at this point.

To begin with, there were only around a 'dozen', that's 12,

companies experimenting with food flavours.

The recipes they used were kept secret

and only shared with family or trusted friends.

Dr Berenstein compares these companies to a 'guild',

an organisation of people who do the same job, or have the same interests.

Because it was so secretive and mysterious,

people saw making flavours as a 'dark art',

a method of achieving something in a clever, but dishonest or wicked way.

But all this changed after the Second World War,

when the invention of 'processed food',

which could be bought in supermarkets and kept fresh at home in the fridge,

increased the demand for new and exciting flavours.

Here's Dr Berenstein again explaining the work of present-day flavourists

to BBC World Service Programme The Food Chain.

So essentially becoming a flavourist today is still an apprenticeship process.

There's no academic path to it, right?

Your training is on the job, working alongside a master flavourist

at a flavour and fragrance company or at some of the bigger food companies,

will have their own flavour divisions.

It's a scientific profession for sure, you have to know a lot about chemistry.

But it is a creative profession.

At the very heart of this industrial food system, there's these craft artisans,

who are essentially designing the molecule by molecule,

the flavours that shape the way that food is made to taste.

Today's flavourists learn that art by serving an 'apprenticeship',

a period of time spent working for a skilled master,

often for low payment, in order to learn their skills.

Although a background in chemistry is important,

you can't study flavours at university.

Their training happens 'on the job', at your place of work, while you are working.

Dr Berenstein calls flavourists 'craft artisans',

people doing skilled work with their hands,

and she describes their creations as 'the marriage of science and art'.

Yes, I love the idea of the flavourist as a magician,

adding a pinch of this flavour or a drop of that oil

to create the perfect magical taste.

I wonder if that's what British chef Heston Blumenthal was trying to do?

In my question, I asked

what popular flavour combination was invented by chef Heston Blumenthal?

And I said it was a) dark chocolate and sea salt. So was I right?

It's true that sweet and salty flavours go together well,

but the correct answer was white chocolate and caviar,

a combination described by Swiss master flavourist Francois Benzi

as "weird but wonderful".

Right, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned,

starting with a 'dozen', which means 'twelve'.

Something described as a 'dark art'

refers to a method of achieving something in a clever but dishonest way.

A 'guild' is an organisation of people who do the same job.

An 'apprenticeship' is the period of time an apprentice spends watching

and working with a skilled master in order to learn their skills.

When you do something 'on the job',

it happens in the workplace, while you're working.

And finally, an 'artisan' is a person doing skilled work with their hands.

Once again our six minutes are up.

— Bye for now. — Bye-bye.

6 Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Sam.

And I'm Rob.

When someone feels sad or in a bad mood,

they often try to feel better by eating their favourite food.

I usually go for a peanut butter sandwich myself.

Do you have a favourite comfort food, Rob?

Maybe a cream chocolate eclair.

'Comfort food' is a type of 'emotional eating',

eating lots of food because we feel sad, not because we're hungry.

But, unfortunately, most comfort food is high in carbohydrates and sugar

and after a few minutes, it leaves us feeling even worse than before.

Today, scientific research into the relationship

between what we eat and how we feel is growing.

In this programme, we'll be investigating the connection

between our food and our mood.

We'll hear how healthy eating makes us feel better

and, of course, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

Great. But first, I have a question for you, Sam.

People who link what we eat with how we feel make a simple argument.

The food you eat supplies nutrients and energy to the brain

and the brain controls our emotions.

Now, that might sound simplistic,

but the brain is a vital link in the connection between food and our mood.

So, Sam, my question is how much of the body's total energy

is used up by the brain? Is it a) 10%? b) 20%? Or c) 30%?

That's a good question.

I'll say it's a) 10%.

Right, well, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.

Emotional eating is often caused by feelings of depression, anxiety or stress.

Chef Danny Edwards, who has suffered with depression,

works in one of the most stressful places imaginable, a busy restaurant kitchen.

BBC World Service programme The Food Chain

asked Danny about his eating habits at work.

Actually, when you're working in a kitchen environment for long periods,

your appetite can become suppressed, because you sometimes don't want to eat

or you don't feel like you can stop and eat and all of that.

So it very often is grabbing something on the go,

which, obviously, as we know, is not great for us.

So you go for something that's quick,

so hence why a lot of chefs have quite a bad diet.

Even though he's surrounded by food,

Danny says that working under stress actually decreases his 'appetite',

the feeling that you want to eat food.

In a busy kitchen, there's no time for a sit-down meal,

so Danny has to 'grab and go' —

take something quickly, because he doesn't have much time —

although he knows this isn't very healthy.

So when even chefs have a difficult relationship with food,

what about the rest of us?

Professor Felice Jacka is an expert in nutritional psychiatry.

She's studied the effect of eating a 'healthy diet',

foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables, wholegrain cereals and olive oil,

on people suffering depression.

Professor Jacka found that the patients whose mental health improved

were the same patients who had also improved their diet.

But Professor Jacka's ideas were not accepted by everyone.

Here she explains to Jordan Dunbar,

presenter of BBC World Service's The Food Chain,

about the opposition her study faced from other doctors.

So I proposed to do this for my PhD study

and everyone thought I was a bit bananas, you know,

and there was quite a bit of, I guess, eye-rolling, maybe?

I'm not surprised by that,

because the discipline of psychiatry was very medication and brain-focused.

What did people say in the field? Were they sceptical?

Oh, hugely sceptical, and sometimes very patronising.

But this again comes from the fact that general practitioners, psychiatrists,

medical specialists get almost no nutrition training

through all those years of study.

When Professor Jacka investigated the link between food and mood,

her colleagues thought she was 'bananas', a slang word meaning 'silly' or 'crazy',

they 'rolled their eyes', a phrase which describes the gesture

of turning your eyes upwards to express annoyance, boredom or disbelief.

Other colleagues were 'patronising' —

they behaved towards her as if she were stupid or unimportant.

Professor Jacka thinks this is because most doctors

have little or no training about nutrition and the effect of food on mental health.

But her ground-breaking research, named 'the smile trial',

has been successfully repeated elsewhere,

clearly showing the link between eating well and feeling good.

So the next time you're feeling down and your brain is calling out for a doughnut,

you might be better eating an apple instead.

And speaking of brain, Sam, it's time to reveal the answer to my question.

Aha, yes, you asked me how much of the body's energy is used up by the brain

and I guessed it was 10%.

Well, I'm afraid you are wrong.

In fact, around 20% of the body's energy goes to feeding the brain,

even though it only makes up 2% of our total body weight.

OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned

from our discussion about 'emotional eating' —

that's eating too much food because of how you feel, not because you're hungry.

'Appetite' is the desire to eat food.

If you 'grab and go', you take something quickly because you don't have much time.

Calling someone 'bananas' is slang for silly or crazy.

If you 'roll your eyes', you move your eyes upwards,

to show you feel annoyed, bored or don't believe what someone is telling you.

And, finally, if someone is 'patronising' you,

they speak or behave towards you as if you were stupid or unimportant.

That's the end of our programme.

Don't forget to join us again soon

for more topical discussion and useful vocabulary here at 6 Minute English.

— Bye, everyone. — Bye-bye.

6 Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

Have you ever been to an 'all-you-can-eat buffet', Sam?

You know, a meal in a restaurant where you can eat as much food as you like.

Yes, I went to an Indian buffet once.

I didn't eat all day before the meal,

but I only managed to finish three or four plates. Well, maybe five.

It sounds like 'your eyes were bigger than your belly, or stomach',

a phrase describing someone who has taken more food than they can eat.

In this programme, we'll be discussing buffets,

a feast of many different food dishes

where diners are allowed to eat as much as they want,

or as much as their stomachs will allow.

And of course, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

The popularity of buffets is booming,

especially in Middle Eastern and Asian countries,

where the variety of foods means there's something for everyone.

But feasts are big and boastful.

Usually, too much is cooked and buffets have been criticised for waste.

We'll hear more soon, but first I have a question for you, Sam.

The word 'buffet' originated from the French name

for the table on which food was served,

but buffets themselves don't come from France.

So in which country did buffets begin?

Was it a) the United States of America? b) Sweden? Or c) China?

Well, the US is famous for supersizing food, so I'll guess a) America.

OK, Sam, we'll find out the answer later in the programme.

John Wood, owner of cooking company Kitchen CUT, knows a lot about buffets.

He used to run a 1,000-seat breakfast buffet

at the five-star Jumeirah Beach hotel in Dubai.

Here, John shares his observations on human buffet behaviour

with BBC World Service programme The Food Chain.

There are different people that treat buffets in different ways.

Some people will think this is a great opportunity

to try little bits and lots of everything and come back as many times as I like.

And other people just, you know, whether they don't like getting up and down,

which is understandable, from their table just want to pile it high.

And people, you know, they want to get value for money.

So, you know, if you're paying, you know, $100, $200 a head for a buffet,

you're gonna pile it up high and take the most expensive things you can,

you know, and get your money's worth.

John says buffet diners want to get their 'money's worth',

get good value for the money they spend,

so they often 'pile up' food on their plate.

If you 'pile something up', you gather a large amount of it into one place

to build what's called a 'pile'.

But buffets are not just about eating until you explode.

They're also an opportunity to show off to your friends.

Weddings are big in India and usually include a buffet.

The richer the people getting married, the bigger the buffet,

sometimes inviting as many as 5,000 guests.

If each guest eats around six dishes,

we're talking about a seriously big buffet.

Sandeep Sreedharan is a wedding caterer in Goa in South India.

He owns a company which provides the food and drink for special social occasions.

Here he talks with Ruth Alexander,

presenter of BBC World Service The Food Programme

about organising an Indian wedding buffet.

It's a very vicious circle, I think, right?

Everybody wants to overwhelm everybody around you.

OK, that's the aim. They are out to impress.

They want to wow the guests, knock their socks off.

Knock their socks off.

They should just go back saying, "I couldn't eat even half of it!", you know?

Some people, they just come for eating.

They don't even worry about whose wedding it is and things.

They know that, "Who's the caterer?" You know?

"Oh, these guys are catering it, oh, my God, this is going to be great!".

Wedding buffets are designed to amaze

and overwhelm the guests with their huge displays of food.

They need to 'wow' the guests or 'knock their socks off',

an idiom meaning 'to amaze and impress someone'.

The problem is that no matter how extravagant and expensive one buffet is,

the next one has to be even more impressive,

something Sandeep calls a 'vicious circle',

a difficult situation which has the effect of creating new problems,

which then make the original situation even worse.

It seems the secret to enjoying a buffet is trying a little bit of everything,

without stuffing yourself until you can't move,

although in the past, I think that was exactly the idea.

OK, it's time to reveal the answer to my question.

Where did the buffet originally come from?

I guessed it was from the United States. Was I right?

That was the wrong answer, I'm afraid, Sam.

In fact, buffets are thought to have come from Sweden in the Middle Ages.

OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned starting with the expression

'eyes bigger than your belly' or 'eyes bigger than your stomach',

used when someone has taken more food than they can eat.

If you 'pile up' your plate,

you gather a large quantity of food together into a pile.

The phrase to 'get your money's worth'

means to get good value for the money you have spent.

A 'vicious circle' is a problematic situation

having the effect of creating new problems,

which then make the first situation even worse.

The idiom 'to knock your socks off' means 'to wow, amaze or impress someone'.

And, finally, a 'caterer' is a person or company

which provides food and drink for special social occasions.

Once again, our six minutes are up. Bye for now.

Bye-bye.

6 Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.