The topic of food and the customs around preparing food come up often in the IELTS Speaking Test.

It is useful to look at this topic area and think about how to select language and organise

a response if you're asked to talk about food, cooking and diet.

Let's begin by listening to someone talk about the various meals she has during the day:

I usually have breakfast every morning, and lunch in the early afternoon, a sandwich usually

or some instant noodles, but the main meal of the day for me is normally dinner.

Let's go over the language of meals. She mentioned breakfast, the morning meal, lunch, the meal

we have in the middle of the day and dinner, which is the evening meal.

So what other words are there?

In the United States and Britain another word for dinner is supper.

In Australia the word supper isn't used very often and usually refers to a light meal late

at night.

In Australia the other word for dinner is tea.

Tea can also refer to afternoon tea or high tea, a formal English meal of small sandwiches,

scones and a cup of tea.

A tea break or a coffee break is a short time during the working day when people have a

break with a cup of tea or coffee.

Food and drink consumed between meals during the day or night are called snacks.

You might hear people talk about 'brunch', which is a mid morning meal that combines

breakfast and lunch, a bit like the Chinese yum cha.

Yumcha is quite familiar to westerners these days and it would be reasonable if asked what

your favourite meal is to talk about it as the speaker does here:

The family usually gets together on Sunday for a traditional Chinese banquet, or yum

cha, either at home or in China town, but usually I eat on my own, or have lunch at

work with a colleague.

So what might you be asked about meals?

You might be asked what you usually have to eat for breakfast or whether you eat breakfast

at all.

Another common question is 'What is the main meal of the day?'

How does the speaker answer that?

I usually have breakfast every morning, and lunch in the early afternoon, a sandwich usually

or some instant noodles, but the main meal of the day for me is normally dinner.

Her answer is dinner, but, as would be expected, she expands her answer to talk about other

meals too.

It is important to distinguish between meal and staple. Staple means the basic food most

commonly eaten. For most people in Asia this is rice as it is with our speaker:

Rice is the main staple in my diet.

Staples in other countries are potatoes, and wheat in its various forms such as bread,

pasta or couscous.

When preparing for the IELTS Test, it is important to brainstorm a variety of topics and issues

- to begin to develop your own ideas, and build up possible responses.

You should:

think of examples think of reasons

think of useful vocabulary

To start you could divide the topic of food into various aspects such as: meat, fish,

vegetables and herbs and spices.

Cooking styles: boiling, frying and steaming.

Cuisines: Italian, Indian and Japanese.

Cooking utensils: pots, pans and woks.

Eating utensils: plate, bowl, knife, fork, spoon, chopsticks.

There are many things to say and ask about these things. With food types, you might want

to say that you don't eat meat and that you are a vegetarian. You may even avoid eggs,

milk and fish as well, in which case you are a vegan.

You could be asked why people choose to be a vegetarian or a vegan.

A good reason to be vegetarian is that it is a healthy diet, something our speaker is

aware of:

I try and have a healthy, balanced diet - not much fried, fatty food, and a good mix of

fruit and vegetables.

You may be asked about what healthy food is or if junk food is bad for you and why.

With utensils it's possible that you may be asked to compare chopsticks with forks with

a question like:

Do you prefer to eat with chopsticks or a fork?

Now let's see if you can work out what question might have prompted our speaker's reply. Listen

to the clip, and think what question might have been asked.

Rice is the main staple in my diet. I try and have a healthy, balanced diet - not much

fried, fatty food, and a good mix of fruit and vegetables.

Perhaps she was asked: 'Describe what you usually eat?' That would require describing

in the answer.

Or

'What do you usually eat?', where you would have to identify what you eat.

Which question is more likely? Listen again:

Rice is the main staple in my diet. I try and have a healthy, balanced diet - not much

fried, fatty food, and a good mix of fruit and vegetables.

She's identified or named the things she usually eats, so the most likely question would be:

'What do you usually eat?'

Let's try it again. What question? Think about the language function she uses:

The family usually gets together on Sunday for a traditional Chinese banquet, or yumcha,

either at home or in China town, but usually I eat on my own, or have lunch at work with

a colleague.

What about: 'Is it better to eat alone or with others?'

That needs you to give an opinion. She talks about eating alone, but doesn't say that it's

better or worse than eating with others.

So that's not right. She explains who she eats with and when, so it's more likely to

be: 'Who do you usually eat with?'

Does the answer fit? Let's try it.

The family usually gets together on Sunday for a traditional Chinese banquet, or yumcha,

either at home or in China town, but usually I eat on my own, or have lunch at work with

a colleague.

Let's try one more. What might the question be?

I don't cook much. My mother is a good cook, and can create great meals just from a wok!

We have many dishes including roast duck - my favourite.

What about 'Can you cook?' She doesn't really say if she can or can't. She just says she

doesn't cook much. It's probably: 'Who does the cooking where

you live?'

I don't cook much. My mother is a good cook, and can create great meals just from a wok!

We have many dishes including roast duck - my favourite.

These questions might be asked individually in Part 1 of the Speaking Test, or joined

together in Part 2.

Part 2 is the long turn, where you have to talk for one to two minutes in response to

a prompt card like this:

Talk about what you usually eat every day.

You should say:

what you eat who you eat with, and

who does the cooking where you live

Let's listen to the response:

I usually have breakfast every morning, and lunch in the early afternoon, a sandwich usually

or some instant noodles, but the main meal of the day for me is normally dinner. That

often consists of some meat, maybe grilled, some steamed vegetables and rice.

Rice is the main staple in my diet. I try and have a healthy, balanced diet - not much

fried, fatty food, and a good mix of fruit and vegetables.

The family usually gets together on Sunday for a traditional Chinese banquet, or yumcha,

either at home or in China town, but usually I eat on my own, or have lunch at work with

a colleague.

I don't cook much. My mother is a good cook, and can create great meals just from a wok!

We have many dishes including roast duck - my favourite.

That's all for now.

To find more information about the IELTS Speaking Test, visit our Study English website.

Good luck with your studies.