Cook with your soul and spirit

great big story

Mexico’s Zapotecs are an indigenous community living in Oaxaca, Mexico. Before Spanish colonization, Zapotecan civilization was a thriving epicenter of food, culture and tradition. Today, chef Abigail Mendoza is on a mission to keep those traditions alive by cooking the food of her ancestors. All the dishes she cooks—including pre-hispanic mole, stuffed chiles with Oaxaca cheese and atole—are made using ancient techniques. Recognized by the world’s best chefs for her dishes, she hopes to keep the food of her ancestors alive and thriving.

Vocabulary chunks to learn from video

• An indigenous group
• Pre-colonial era
• Keep their traditions alive
• She has become world-famous
• Keeping the traditional ways of cooking alive
• A Corn-based sauce
• She cooks chilies directly on coals
• Foods that were eaten thousands of years ago

Map of Oaxaca :

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The secret ingredient

[Green Renaissance]

‘The art of conversation around the dinner table is slowly being lost. Too many people sit with their cellphones. They are not entirely present’ – Brett

VegTable is a special restaurant in South Africa, where Brett cooks and hosts guests in his magical home. He invited us to share a meal with him. To book a delicious meal with Brett, visit VegTable

[Green Renaissance]

Vocabulary chunks to learn after watching the video :

• We love eating out
• Fancy food
• A toasted cheese and tomato sandwich
• Tasteless tomatoes
• There’s a big difference
• Present them on a palette
• By the time it reaches your mouth
• He became a mentor to me
• Pick everything out of his garden
• Dinner parties
• Multi-course meals
• It was all very new to me
• I got hooked I suppose
• Let that rest
• The art of conversation around the dinner table
• Not really entirely present
• People who are all just living in their own bubble
• People are fractured and separated
• I host people to try and make them happy
• My ultimate goal
• Step back and hear all the chatter
• Then I’ve achieved my objective
• If you love something then you put everything into it
• I guess that is probably the secret ingredient

 

 

A talking point at Nelson Mandela Square

   [tashas cafe]

Vocabulary chunks to learn after watching the video :

• Core foundations
• Made fresh on order
• Timeless environments
• Really good service
• Focusing on people who work for the brand
• We’ve pushed boundaries
• I’m one of the hostesses
• Being part of that vibe
• There are three mains things that the brand stands for
• Geographic location
• She adapts each store around this environment
• She’s created a very international location
• We wanted to create a talking point at Nelson Mandela Square
• Africa is hot, it is glamorous
• Fantastic fauna and flora
• We’ve given it a very very glamorous feel
• We’ve always envisaged this place being monochromatic
• An old Vegas hotel
• It fitted quite nicely with the African theme
• You get transported into a place that I’ve never seen before
• Clean, simple, old school, nostalgic food
• How can we grow our footprint
• At the same time be creative and innovative
• An international outlook
• Being able to pull it all together under the tashas brand is extraordinary

 Business English – English vocabulary  – ECCE speaking exam – Food vocabulary

 

UK’s First Cereal Café

Watch the following video :

Vocabulary to learn after watching video :

Cereal used to be a lot of fun

You used to get the toys in the cereal

Fun factor

We just want to bring it back

We are the owners and founders of Cereal Killer Café

Specialty Cereal Café

120 different cereals from around the world

Good or bad

For the last two days

Some are quite rare and some are quite hard to get

We have dealers across the world

Only available one month of the year

They are Halloween specials

They are very limited

Hard work

We have managed to get “ A Shit ton” of  memorabilia

Some stuff that you haven’t seen before

Weird memorabilia

The biggest cereal experience of their life

Leave on a sugar high

I absolutely loved it or I absolutely despised it