Culture File 2
Let s take a fresh look at & British food!
What do you know about British food?
Lovely British food!
1 With a partner think of three words to describe
British food. Compare your ideas with the class.
v
1 British meal times haven t changed much
u
since the 1950s. We eat breakfast between 7.30 and 9am.
2 Find out if anyone has eaten British food. What
Some of us are hungry again at around 11am, so we have
did they think of it?
 elevenses (tea or coffee and a piece of cake) and then we have
5 lunch between 12 and 2pm. The evening meal is called  tea in
3 Complete the table with your ideas about British
the north and  dinner or  supper in most other places. We eat
food and eating habits.
this between 6 and 9pm. Families with children often eat
earlier, but many people eat between 7.30 and 9pm.
Meal Time Typical food
What we eat has changed a lot, though! British food used to be
Breakfast
10 laughed at around the world. People thought it was too
traditional, and badly cooked. Vegetables were boiled for at
Lunch
least an hour, even when they only needed five minutes. It was
Evening meal
often difficult to buy foreign ingredients, and we didn t eat
things such as pasta, pizza and rice. In the past, breakfast was
15 often bacon and eggs (and sausage, fried tomatoes, fried
mushrooms, fried bread and baked beans!) Nowadays people
Reading
prefer cereal, fruit, toast or yoghurt. Lunch used to be a big
4 Read the text about British food and eating habits
cooked meal such as meat and two vegetables, but many
opposite. Check your answers to Exercise 3.
people just have a sandwich at work now.
20 And the evening meal is quite different, too. People coming to
5 Answer these questions sbout the text.
live in Britain from other countries have brought their food with
1 What are  elevenses ?
them - for example, the top favourite take-away meal is the
2 What do people in the north call their evening
Indian curry. And cooking is now a very popular hobby in the
UK, so our evening meals are much more exciting than they
meal?
25 used to be. Celebrity chefs with TV programmes and best-
3 How long did many British people used to boil
selling books have taught us to cook lots of different dishes
their vegetables for?
from all over the world.
4 What did breakfast often used to be?
The UK s favourite chef is Jamie Oliver - a young man in his
twenties, with a young wife, a new baby, a guitar and a scooter!
5 What did people used to eat for lunch?
30 He is particularly popular with teenagers and young adults. His
programmes are filmed in his own home, with music, friends
6 What is the top take-away meal in the UK?
and a very relaxed style. Jamie s latest project was to take a
group of problem teenagers and teach them how to be chefs in
just two months - then he gave them a restaurant to run!
7 Why are evening meals in the UK more imaginative
nowadays?
8 Who has taught the British public to cook
differently?
Project
9 Who is Jamie Oliver particularly popular with?
Choose one of these projects:
10 What are his programmes like?
A Make a project about food and eating in your
Discussion
country. Include meal times, typical foods, popular
6 Work with a partner. Complete the chart for your
foods, and any recent changes in people s attitude
country s food and eating habits.
towards food. Are TV cookery programmes popular?
Do you have  celebrity chefs ? Include your favourite
Meal Time Typical food
recipe if you have one.
B Find out about restaurants in your town/city. Do a
survey of the different types of restaurant  style,
price range and who they are popular with. Has
there been any change over recent years in the sort
of restaurants you have?
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Teachers notes Culture File 2
Let s take a fresh look at & British food!
Topic: British food
5 Students work either on their own or in pairs. Deal with
Grammar: Present perfect
any further vocabulary or comprehension questions here,
Present simple
then go through the answers.
Present simple passive (are filmed)
Answer key
Past simple
1 Tea or coffee or a piece of cake at around 11am.
Past simple passive (were boiled)
2  Tea .
have + breakfast, lunch, etc.
3 At least an hour.
used to
4 Bacon, eggs, sausages, fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms,
Vocabulary: Food
fried bread and baked beans.
Meals and eating habits
5 A big cooked meal such as meat and two vegetables.
6 The Indian curry.
7 Because cooking is now a very popular hobby in the
Lesson notes
UK.
8 Celebrity chefs.
What do you know about British food?
9 Teenagers and young adults.
1 You might need to help students with vocabulary here.
10 They are filmed in his own home, with music,
You could even write a selection of words on the board
friends and a very relaxed style.
(some good, some bad) for weaker students to choose
6 You may like to open this out into a class discussion when
from. You could choose these words yourself, or elicit
pairs have completed their charts. There might be some
some from the class.
disagreement about typical foods!
2 This can be done either in pairs and reported back to the
class, or as a class, with you co-ordinating the comments.
Project
Students doing Project A can use some of the information
3 Students complete this alone or in pairs. Don t check the
generated during the lesson. For Project B, students might
key until after the reading exercise.
like to include leaflets or menus from their chosen
Answer key
restaurants.
Meal Time Typical food
Breakfast 7.30  9am Cereal, fruit, yoghurt,
Optional extension activity:
toast
Invite students to bring their favourite recipes to class. If
Lunch 12  2pm Sandwich
they know any English recipes, they could bring these.
Evening meal 6  9pm Dishes from all over the
(They could even cook something and bring it to the lesson
world
for others to taste!)
Reading
4 Before students read, you may want to pre-teach all or
some of the following vocabulary:
Nouns: breakfast, piece of cake, vegetables, ingredients,
pasta, rice, eggs, sausage, fried tomatoes, mushrooms, bread,
baked beans, cereal, fruit, lunch, meat, take-away meal,
curry, celebrity chef, best-selling book, dish, scooter
Verbs: be laughed at (= when people think something is no
good, so they laugh at it), be boiled, prefer, be filmed,
Other: hungry, between, often, foreign, relaxed
Students read the passage and check their answers to
Exercise 3. Go through the answers with the class.
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