BBC Learnings · Section 8

The food delivery revolution

I'm going to order some takeaway food, Neil. Do you want anything?

Level: B2 · 94 sentences

Transcript

  1. I'm going to order some takeaway food, Neil.
  2. Do you want anything?
  3. Maybe a pizza?
  4. Fish and chips?
  5. Indian curry?
  6. Mmm, takeaway food to eat at home.
  7. That's a great idea.
  8. Yes, I'll have a poke bowl, please.
  9. What's that?
  10. It doesn't sound like typical takeaway food.
  11. It is nowadays, Georgina.
  12. Over the last few years,
  13. the explosion of food delivery apps like Deliveroo and Just Eat has seen a revolution in takeaway food.
  14. Today, it's not just pizza and curries being delivered to people's front door.
  15. There's a wide range of food dishes and styles from all around the world.
  16. And with cafes and pubs closed during lockdown,
  17. more and more food chains and restaurants are switching to delivery-only services takeaways.
  18. to bring meals to people who are isolating.
  19. Over the last few weeks,
  20. many takeaway companies have seen orders increase dramatically as people find themselves stuck at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
  21. But what are they choosing to eat?
  22. That's my quiz question for today, Georgina.
  23. Last year, what was Deliveroo's most ordered dish?
  24. Was it… a Hawaiian poke bowls, b cheeseburgers, or c chicken burritos?
  25. I would have thought it was fish and chips,
  26. but I'll go with b cheeseburgers.
  27. OK, we'll find out later if you were right.
  28. One consequence of the increasing popularity of takeaways is something called dark kitchens.
  29. Unlike apps such as Deliveroo and Just Eat,
  30. which connect customers to local takeaways,
  31. these digital dark kitchens work as just-for-delivery restaurants.
  32. Inside, chefs cook in kitchens without waiters, tables or diners.
  33. preparing high-quality dishes ready for delivery straight to your home.
  34. One of the first dark kitchen operations,
  35. Taster, was started by chef Anton Soulier,
  36. who in 2013 was working for Deliveroo
  37. when it was just a tiny company operating only in London.
  38. Now he's in charge of 12 kitchens catering for customers in London, Paris and Madrid.
  39. Sheila Dillon of BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme
  40. went to the Bethnal Green area of East London to find out more.
  41. When you go on the Taster website, the restaurant names are virtual.
  42. All of them sold as designed for delivery by Taster.
  43. What that means is all the menus drawn up by serious chefs are designed to travel well,
  44. chosen so they'll be warm, retain their texture,
  45. and won't look like a dog's dinner
  46. when they come off the back of a bike.
  47. So strangely, the delivery, the bike...
  48. has become a shaper of the foods we eat.
  49. All the restaurants on Taster are virtual,
  50. existing online and created by computers to appear like the real thing.
  51. Chefs cook the dishes using recipes and ingredients designed to travel well,
  52. be transported a long way without being damaged or their quality being spoiled.
  53. That's to avoid the takeaway food ending up like a dog's dinner
  54. an informal way to say something that looks messy.
  55. or has been very badly done.
  56. Usually the takeaways are transported in a box
  57. on the back of a delivery cyclist who rushes them from the kitchen to the customer's home.
  58. It's a very modern way of eating which Sheila thinks has become a shaper of the foods we eat,
  59. meaning that it has a strong influence on how a situation develops.
  60. However, some are worried that the increase in takeaways and delivery-only food means people are losing basic cooking skills.
  61. It's something that taster boss Anton has noted too.
  62. There is a strong underlying trend that maybe
  63. in 20, 30 years people won't have kitchens.
  64. And it's already happening in the US, for example.
  65. I love cooking.
  66. It's one of my passions.
  67. But I'm really doing it occasionally on Sundays and everything.
  68. And I think it's going to almost become a weekend hobby.
  69. People choosing to eat takeaways instead of cooking at home has become
  70. an underlying trend a general development in how people behave which is real, but not immediately obvious.
  71. And in the future, cooking at home
  72. may even switch from being a daily necessity to a hobby
  73. an activity someone does in their spare time for pleasure or relaxation.
  74. I do enjoy tucking into a takeaway sometimes,
  75. but personally I couldn't survive without my kitchen, Neil.
  76. Ah, but could you survive without Deliveroo?
  77. Remember in today's quiz question I asked you what Deliveroo's most ordered dish was?
  78. I said b cheeseburgers.
  79. But the correct answer was a Hawaiian poke bowls,
  80. a Hawaiian version of sushi.
  81. Now that's something I couldn't cook at home.
  82. Today we've been discussing the revolution in takeaways and home-delivered food,
  83. which in recent years has become an underlying trend,
  84. a general development in how people behave, or in this case, eat.
  85. Another trend has been the creation of virtual restaurants online restaurants
  86. which look like the real thing but exist only on the internet.
  87. Chefs create dishes using ingredients which travel well can be transported a long way without being damaged or spoiled.
  88. That's so the customer doesn't end up with a dog's dinner an informal expression meaning something messy or badly done.
  89. Recent developments like high-quality restaurant meals being delivered by bike are shapers
  90. of modern eating things that have a strong influence on how a situation develops.
  91. All of which means that cooking may soon become just a hobby
  92. an activity someone does in their spare time for pleasure or relaxation.
  93. For example, cycling.
  94. Or learning English.