英文原版对话1000个:723 How to be a Chef

Todd: OK, Rebecca we're talking about working in a restaurant. Now you became a chef. Can you talk about the process of becoming a chef? What do you do to get a job in a kitchen?

Rebecca: Well, there's lots of different ways, but the most common way is to become an apprentice¹ which means you go to the kitchen and work at the bottom level doing the basic chopping² - boring jobs - for maybe two or three years, and then one day a week you go to school, a cooking school. Your employer³ pays for you to go to the school. You do get paid by your employer but it's a really small wage, so, yeah. Otherwise, you can start at the bottom, like a dishwasher, and actually Australia's most famous chef started that way. He just was a dishwasher and he slowly climbed up the ladder, so you can do it that way as well.

Todd: So what about you? Did you go to cooking school?

Rebecca: Yeah, I did, but actually I dropped out after awhile, so I did that for about a year but to be honest I think you get more experience in a kitchen. Sometimes the stuff⁴ they teach you at school is a little bit old-fashioned⁵.

Todd: How much actually of what you learn do you just learn on yourself, as just a creative process? Like how much do you think you learn by watching others and how much do you learn on your own, using your own creativity?

Rebecca: I think both are really important. Actually, I learned⁶ a lot from my mother. When I was a kid, I used to watch her cooking all the time, and it wasn't until I grew up that I realized how much I understood about cooking just from seeing what she did in the kitchen, but also talking about how to do things with your colleagues I think is really important.

Todd: Now, I'm curious, you know how to cook, and everybody knows you know how to cook - family members and friends - so how... do you like to actually cook for family members and friends or is cooking a job that when you go home, you prefer not to cook for other people because it's like bringing your work home?

Rebecca: Well, I know some chefs that have nothing in their fridge and they hate cooking at home, but I'm not like that. I really love cooking for people. It's really the nicest thing you can do for someone is to give them a lovely meal. The sad thing is actually that no one will ever cook for me, because they're too scared. They always apologize before I even have a chance to eat it. "Oh, it's going to be terrible. Oh, you're a cook. I'm sorry." But actually I love food being cooked for me. I wish people would do it more.

Todd: OK. That's funny. Thanks Rebecca.

 

1 apprentice   

n.学徒，徒弟

参考例句：

• My son is an apprentice in a furniture maker's workshop.我的儿子在一家家具厂做学徒。
• The apprentice is not yet out of his time.这徒工还没有出徒。

2 chopping   

adj.波浪汹涌的，硕大强健的；削球；斩波；断续

参考例句：

• He was preparing fodder, chopping finely and mixing thoroughly. 他在准备饲料，把它切碎，拌好。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This fellow is always chopping and changing; he's very unreliable. 这个人反复无常，很不可靠。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 employer   

n.雇用方，雇主

参考例句：

• My employer deducted ten pounds from my wages this week.我的雇主从我本周的工钱中扣除了十英镑。
• His monthly salary is paid into the bank by his employer.他的月薪由雇主替他存入银行。

4 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

5 old-fashioned   

adj.旧式的，保守的，挑剔的

参考例句：

• Why do you still dress in an old-fashioned mode?你为什么还穿款式陈旧的衣服？
• Here is an old-fashioned pump for drawing water from a well.这里有一个旧式水泵可从井里抽水。

6 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。