Kitchen Vocabulary: The Food Words Every Learner Needs
Growing up in Bangladesh, I helped my mother cook rice on a clay stove every evening. We called it chul. In Sydney, the first kitchen I worked in had six different types of pan and names I had never heard: sauté pan, stockpot, ramekin. I spent my first week pointing and hoping no one noticed. Vocabulary saves you from pointing.
- Name 8 common kitchen items in English
- Use verbs for cooking methods
- Say a simple recipe instruction
| Noun | Cooking verb | Example |
|---|---|---|
| pan / pot | fry / boil | Fry the onions in a pan. |
| oven | bake / roast | Bake the bread for 30 minutes. |
| knife | chop / slice | Chop the vegetables finely. |
| bowl | mix / stir | Stir the sauce in a bowl. |
🧠 Grammar: imperative for instructions
Recipes use the imperative (base verb, no subject):
Chop the onion. Add salt. Stir well.
No ‘you’. No ‘please’. Just the action. This is standard English recipe style.
Write three recipe steps for a dish from your country using imperatives: First, ____. Then, ____. Finally, ____.
Bring in real objects or pictures. Point, drill the word chorally, drill a sentence. Kitchen vocabulary is highly visual — use that.
English language content. Not a substitute for qualified instruction.