Practice English Listening B1 Exercises – Eating in … and out

A

Sarah 6   John 2c   Rob 4a   James 3   Sean 1b

B

Emma   tea

Sarah   pasta

John   curries, Indonesian food, Thai food

Rob   chocolate, ice cream

James   caffeine / coffee

Sean   meat / pepperoni

Emma

Definitely tea. I went to Slovenia on holiday recently, and I was staying in a hotel and they didn’t have any real English breakfast tea. I really missed it in the mornings.

Sarah

I absolutely love pasta, and I try and eat it whenever I can, so I would find it really difficult to…to live without pasta. Pasta and pesto is my favourite meal, and I have it at least twice a week, normally when my husband’s away, because he’s always telling me not to eat so much pasta.

John

Yes, er, quite often. My wife’s from Asia, from Indonesia, so we often…we often eat hot food. Erm, I love hot food, er, curries, any Indonesian food. I also love Thai food, like a good green curry.

Rob

I guess, like a lot of people, I tend to eat chocolate in that situation – chocolate or ice cream, maybe. Definitely something sweet.

James

Only caffeine, actually, which I didn’t use to be. I used to drink a lot of coffee, but a few years ago I started noticing that it was… it was affecting me quite badly when I drank coffee. I was getting headaches and, er, I’ve never been tested for it, but, er, I’ve stopped drinking caffeine – caffeine in coffee – and I think…I think I feel better.

Sean

I like spicy ones, and I like them with meat, so maybe pepperoni. That’s what I always end up ordering in an Italian restaurant.

1 my dad caught  

2 lemon and olive oil

3 a small blue notebook

4 animals, a garden, olive trees, and grapes

5 Greek sandwich with pita bread

I = interviewer, M = Marianna Leivaditaki

Part 1

I   With me today I have Marianna Leivaditaki, head chef of the Morito restaurant in Hackney. Marianna, what was your favourite food when you were a child?

M   At home we ate a funny mixture because of my parents. Fresh fish, bacon and eggs for breakfast on Sundays, and traditional apple pies. But my favourite was fish. We ate fish every day, which my dad caught. In fact, my dad still goes fishing every night!

I   Wow!

M   Yes, we were very lucky because not all families could do that – could eat fish every day. Even on an island, fish is expensive, unfortunately.

I   Did your dad catch fish for the family or for the restaurant?

M   For both. Except for lobsters. When he caught a lobster, he never sold it; it was always for us. We boiled it and ate it with lemon and olive oil. You don’t need anything except lemon and olive oil when fish and seafood is really fresh. That’s how I cook lobsters nowadays in the restaurant, in Morito.

I   Were you interested in cooking when you were a child?

M   Oh yes. I spent every evening in our restaurant, and instead of playing with the other children, I usually helped in the kitchen. I wrote down recipes which I wanted to cook for the family in a small blue notebook.

I   So your love of food and cooking came from your parents?

M   From my parents and also from my aunt, and from many inspiring ladies who surrounded me when I was growing up. My aunt, Thia Koula, had animals, a garden, olive trees, and grapes. In the summer, I often spent all day with her. She knew everything about wild food in Crete. She only ate what she had grown or found or made herself. It’s such a beautiful way to eat.

I   Did you ever eat out as a child?

M   Never in the evening, because our restaurant was open for dinner seven days a week, but occasionally my mum used to buy me and my brother souvlaki for lunch, a sort of Greek sandwich with pitta bread. Inside it has pork, tomato, red onion, and lots of thick yogurt.

1 She studied psychology at Kent University. She traveled around southern Europe and South America. She went back to Crete and worked in the family restaurant.

2 When she was a student, she used to save money and go and eat there. Because she wanted to work there.

3 She became head chef.

4 It has more Cretan dishes on the menu.

5 Four or five times a year. They share all the food and always order too much.

Part 2

I   So did you always want to be a chef, to have your own restaurant?

M   No, not at all. I wanted to be a psychologist, and when I was eighteen, I came to the UK to study at Kent University. Then I decided I didn’t want to be a psychologist after all, and I went travelling for a bit – I’d saved some money at university because I worked in the evenings. I went all around southern Europe and also to South America, to Ecuador. I tried all sorts of different dishes and fell in love with food again, so I went back to Crete and worked in our family restaurant for two years.

I   Why did you come back to the UK?

M   Well, I wanted to continue working as a chef, but I needed a bigger challenge. And when I was a student in the UK and I missed good food, I used to save money and go to London to have dinner in the restaurant called Moro. It wasn’t Greek food, but it was Mediterranean, Spanish, North African, and I loved it. So when I came back to London, I went to Moro and I said, ‘I want a job’ – and they gave me one.

I   And what happened then?

M   Well, really slowly, through hard work, and after seven years, I became head chef. It was magic. And then the owners of Moro, Samantha and Samuel Clark, suggested that I help them open Morito.

I   How is Morito different from Moro?

M   It’s the same inspiration, and many of the dishes are similar, but because I run the kitchen, I have been able to have more Cretan dishes on the menu – dishes from my childhood. This week, for example, I’m making ntakos, a Cretan salad made with fresh goat’s cheese, tomato, and bread.

I   Do you go back to Crete much?

M   Yes, I go to Crete maybe four or five times a year. My family’s restaurant is closed now, but I go out for lunch with my friends, the people I miss when I’m in London. Food comes, and we share everything. We always order too much, and by the end of it we feel incredibly full.

I   Well, Marianna, it’s been great chatting to you, and thanks for coming in.

M   Thank you very much for having me.