Hello. This is 6 Minute English from
BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
And I'm Georgina. I'm going to order
some takeaway food, Neil,
do you want anything?
Maybe a pizza? Fish and chips?
Indian curry?
Hmmm, takeaway food to eat at home -
that's a great idea. Yes,
I'll have a poke bowl,
please.
What's that? It doesn't sound like
typical takeaway food.
It is nowadays, Georgina! Over
the last few years the explosion
of food delivery apps
like Deliveroo and Just Eat has seen
a revolution in takeaway food.
Today it's not just pizza
and curries being delivered to people's
front door - there's a wide range
of food dishes
and styles from around the world.
And with cafes and pubs closed during
lockdown, more and more
food chains and restaurants
are switching to delivery-only services -
takeaways - to bring meals
to people who are isolating.
Over the last few weeks many takeaway
companies have seen orders
increase dramatically as
people find themselves stuck at home
due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But what are they
choosing to eat? That's my quiz question
for today, Georgina - last year
what was Deliveroo's
most ordered dish? Was it:
a) Hawaiian Poke bowls?
b) Cheeseburgers?
or, c) Chicken burritos?
I would have thought it was 'fish and
chips', but I'll go with b) Cheeseburgers.
OK, we'll find out later if you were right.
One consequence of
the increasing popularity
of takeaways is something called
'dark kitchens'. Unlike apps such
as Deliveroo and Just Eat
which connect customers to local
takeaways, these digital 'dark kitchens'
work as just-for-delivery
restaurants. Inside, chefs cook in
kitchens without waiters, tables or
diners, preparing
high-quality dishes ready for delivery
straight to your home.
One of the first 'dark kitchen' operations,
Taster, was started by chef Anton Soulier
who in 2013 was working for Deliveroo
when it was just a tiny company
operating only
in London. Now he's in charge of twelve
kitchens catering for
customers in London, Paris and
Madrid.
Sheila Dillon of BBC Radio 4's The Food
Programme went to the
Bethnal Green area of east London
find out more.
When you go on the Taster website the
restaurant names are virtual,
all of them sold as 'designed
for delivery' by Taster. What that means is
all the menus, drawn up by
serious chefs are
designed to travel well, chosen so they'll
be warm, retain their texture
and won't look
like a dog's dinner when they come off
the back of a bike. So strangely
the delivery,
the bike, has become
a shaper of the foods we eat.
All the restaurants on Taster are virtual
- existing online and
created by computers
to appear like the real thing.
Chefs cook the dishes using recipes
and ingredients designed to
travel well - be transported a
long way without being damaged or their
quality being spoiled.
That's to avoid the takeaway food ending
up like a dog's dinner - an informal
way to say
something that looks messy or
has been very badly done.
Usually the takeaways are transported
in a box on the back of a
delivery cyclist who
rushes them from the kitchen to the
customer's home. It's a very
modern way of eating, which
Sheila thinks has become a shaper of the
foods we eat - meaning that
it has a strong influence
on how a situation develops.
However some are worried that the
increase in takeaways and
delivery-only food means
people are losing basic cooking skills.
It's something that Taster boss
Anton has noted too.
There is a strong underlying trend that
maybe, in twenty, thirty years people
won't have
kitchens - and it's already happening in
the US for example. I love cooking,
it's one of
my passions but I'm rarely doing it -
occasionally on Sundays and everything as
it's almost going to become a
weekend hobby.
People choosing to eat takeaways
instead of cooking at home
has become an underlying trend
- a general development in how people
behave which is real but
not immediately obvious.
And in the future, cooking at home may
even switch from being a
daily necessity to a hobby
- an activity someone does in
their spare time for pleasure or relaxation.
I do enjoy tucking into a takeaway
sometimes but personally
I couldn't survive without
my kitchen, Neil.
Ah, but could you survive without
Deliveroo? Remember in
today's quiz question I asked
you what Deliveroo's most ordered dish was.
I said b) Cheeseburgers.
But the correct answer was
a) Hawaiian Poke bowls - a Hawaiian
version of sushi.
Now that's something
I couldn't cook at home!
Today we've been discussing the
revolution in takeaways
and home-delivered food which
in recent years has become an underlying
trend - a general development
in how people behave,
or in this case, eat.
Another trend has been the creation of
virtual restaurants - online restaurants
which look
like the real thing but exist
only on the internet.
Chefs create dishes using ingredients
which travel well - can be
transported a long way
without being damaged or spoiled.
That's so the customer doesn't
end up with a dog's dinner
- an informal expression meaning
something messy or badly done.
Recent developments like high-quality
restaurant meals being delivered
by bike are shapers
of modern eating - things that have
a strong influence on how
a situation develops.
All of which means that cooking may
soon become just a hobby - an
activity someone does in
their spare time for pleasure or relaxation,
for example cycling...
...or learning English.
That's all we have time for today.
Happy cooking and goodbye for now!
Bye!