Yummy!

Yummy!

The objective

To effectively explain/write out favorite recipes for cooking

The language

Imperative: Mix..., take out..., chop...

Connectors: First, second, third, next, finally

The set-up

Go to a cooking website and find any old recipes. Choose maybe something that clearly looks really good or something a bit strange or exotic that might not appeal to everyone, for example. Now turn it into a gap-fill. Take out the title, and at random some keywords like quantities, ingredients, temperatures and verbs.

The low-down

Tell students that they are going to read a recipe from a popular website. Ask them to read through the recipe and guess what they think is missing in each blank. When they´re finished, invite groups to combine and share their ideas until they have a definitive version. When they´re ready, read aloud the original recipe. Congratulate the group that came the closest and ask them to guess the name of the recipe.

Now what?

Now ask students to write a recipe together in their pairs/groups. It could be something as simple as a sandwich or cocktail, or something more complex. The first exercise should have served as a pretty good model so that they write something very close in form. Invite pairs/groups to share their recipes with others and comment. Would they prepare it? Why or why not?

Time to teach

Here we could look at the vocabulary of food and cooking or the language forms (imperatives, giving instructions).

More talk-time

Do you like to cook?

Who´s the cook in your family? Why?

What do you cook well?

What would you like to know how to cook?

Do you use cook-books? If so, how often? What type?