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!