Shadowing Practice: Boston Food Guide From an Off-Duty Pastry Chef - Learn English Speaking with Video

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264 sentences

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I don't like this vibe.

We're not even meaning to bully you.

I was just trying to convince him to buy some uni.

He's amazing.

And then you come in and I'm like, we have to get him.

Can you give me a damn tray of uni?

I'll take a uni.

All right, let's do it.

I'm going to take a uni.

Hi, I'm Chef Tiago Silva.

We're here to find out what I eat when I'm not baking.

First, we're going to go to Boston Provisions Market where they have an amazing butcher and fish monitor.

We're also going to go to Almendorf in Cambridge where they have grain milling, books, fun socks, like everything to get inspired.

Last but not least, we're going to visit Formaggio Kitchen where they have amazing things from all over the world, condiments, cheese.

And I think they actually have a cheese cave in Cambridge in their basement.

So we're going to go check it out.

We're at Salt Patisserie in Newton Center May and you're in my bakery.

So come check it out.

All right.

So obviously we're going to have a couple of my favorite things here.

Love me a hot latte.

Just straight espresso milk.

Nothing else.

No fancy stuff.

Our chocolate chip cookie is our must -have.

It's our biggest seller.

And you see there's a lot of chocolate.

We loaded up two types of chocolate, milk chocolate and a 58 % chocolate.

It's got crunch on the edge, gooey, chewy in the center.

There's some espresso in the dough.

It's part of the secret.

And one of my favorites is a pastiginata.

And this got a special place in my heart because it was so hard to make.

As you can see how shiny that is, a lot of times it's curdled,

and it takes a lot of effort to get it to look like that.

So we're very proud of it.

The Portuguese knew what they were doing.

So a fun thing, when you walk through Salt, you don't even notice, but you have this tree, and it's all made out of chocolate.

Everything that we put in this display case will always be made out 100 % of chocolate.

So I get to have fun, we get to change it through the seasons.

We're actually about to work on some flowers upstairs for the new piece.

All right, so we've been here for close to four years.

We're about to turn four, and we have a variety of stuff, and some things are stapled, and some things we're known for.

One of them being our quina man, which is this pastry here.

A lot of places actually have these, but they make them individual.

This is the way it was done long, long ago.

So I went back to the roots, and now we slice them.

So you can actually get a slice.

You can buy the whole thing.

We have a variety of pastries.

We have entremets.

We have eclairs.

We have gluten -free cakes, lemon tarts.

The tiramisu is fun the tiramisu means pick me up

and you could actually pick up the whole tiramisu just eat it it's in a little chocolate cup

that you can eat the whole thing so it's amazing all right

so this is the back of house this is where everything happens

and i can't do it alone obviously we have a team of people behind me

but everything is made here made in house baked fresh daily there's nothing left over

if there is leftover we actually donate it when we're done with the day

all right y 'all we're here at boston provisions market where they have savonars

and wolf's fish and we're gonna get a lot of stuff for dinner so let's go

hi i am chef tiago hi alicia welcome to boston provisions market thank you i've been going to savonars

and cambridge for a very long time

and i heard you guys opened up here

and i really wanted check it out

so i'm very excited to be here well since you know savonars

you already know our meat counter it's all the same

and this new space gives us the opportunity to put wolves

and savonars together in the same place

so we have a full selection of seafood from the area

from around the world one -stop shop one -stop shop

that's great savonars has been in business since 1939 wolves this is our centennial year 1926.

i tell everyone this if you don't have a butcher

and you don't have a fishmonger

you're doing something wrong like to me the planet would be in such a better place

if we had local butchers that we support, local fishmongers that we support.

We know where the meat's coming from.

You guys can tell us where it's coming from.

It's fresh and I love that.

I really do.

Great.

Well, let's check out our meat counter and I will get one of the butchers for you.

You can answer questions.

We can cut anything to order.

Perfect.

Thank you.

All right.

So I think I kind of know what I want to get from here, from this side.

Definitely going to take a lamb rack.

I'm going to take one rib eye

and i'm gonna take a couple of the copa you guys got cheek too oh yes we have beef cheeks

i didn't see that before no how hard it is to find that anywhere like beef cheek amazing

all right they also have an amazing fish section so we're gonna go check that one out

all right so i see a lot of stuff i want

but i can't buy it all so i'm gonna go to the pro here

and let you inspire me on what to pick from this side of the shop.

The Argentinian red shrimp are amazing.

Very sweet, very meaty.

100

And what's a really good fish for the grill?

101

All right, we're going to talk about my friend the wolf fish.

102

Is it the pretty one over here?

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Yeah.

104

I've never actually had that, never seen it, so...

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The flesh itself is very similar to monkfish.

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Okay.

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It's a little bit sweeter than monkfish.

108

Okay and a little bit more delicate.

109

All right, that sounds great.

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I might try that on the grill.

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Yeah.

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I think you sold me on that.

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All right, so the goods are secured.

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It's way more than eight in a day.

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I promise you guys that.

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But it's for the week, and the family's going to be hella happy.

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All right, we're here at my other stop, which is Elmendorf Bacon Supplies in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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They have so much stuff in this little shop and some amazing owners.

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I can't wait to show you guys.

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Come on in.

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Yo, Teddy, man.

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Yo, what's up?

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How you doing?

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How are you?

125

Thanks for coming in.

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Yeah.

127

All right, guys, so I know what you guys do, but I want you to share with everyone else.

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Tell them a little bit about everything you guys do here, because you do a lot.

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Elmanderth Baking Supplies is a baking supply shop, a grain mill, and a cafe bakery.

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We've been open since 2018.

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We kind of want it to be like a one -stop shop for baking

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and grain and things that kind of be like a happy place, whimsical, not take ourselves too seriously,

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but do some really cool things with grain and flour.

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Everything we bake is made 100 % now with what we mill in -house in the back.

135

Yeah, not many places have that, so that's amazing.

136

Yeah, just a really fun place that inspires people to get into baking

137

and kind of deepen what they do a little bit.

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All right, so I love coming here because there's so many things.

139

Obviously, books.

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You can't get enough books as a pastry chef, so they have a lot of variety.

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But also tools, you know.

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You want to get inspired in this industry, and sometimes it's just walking around, looking at books, looking at tools, having a coffee.

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And then not only do we have all the tools, books, but also a lot of ingredients.

144

Some things I've probably never tried or seen in brands.

145

These are probably everything that they are milling, all the different grains.

146

Probably one of my favorite little corners here in Elmendorf, I have the socks.

147

It's a coffee pot and a sock.

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How can you not like that?

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A ramen sock.

150

Come on.

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And a butter sock.

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I love these.

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I have these.

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They're great.

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All right.

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I want to know what's one of your favorite things in here

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because there's a lot of product in here I have a weird affinity for tree products boiled cider.

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This is a really cool one

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So it's an old

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New England thing and I think everybody knows about about cider, right?

161

Yeah, well cider is just cider that's been reduced down to a really thick syrup

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and I like it because it kind of is a incredibly

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Delicious concentrated apple flavor without any like bullshit.

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It's just a cheat.

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So I don't cheat I want to see some milling so yeah, of course Yeah, we'll show you the mill.

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So what you see behind you is the mill.

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It's a stone mill made in Vermont.

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It's pretty simple.

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There's two stones in there right now.

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The grain goes in the very top.

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One of the stones spins, the other stone doesn't spin at all.

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Very cool.

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The grain goes in, flour comes out, all the grain is local.

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We do about maybe a thousand pounds a week, which isn't that much.

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That's awesome.

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It's still awesome.

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A thousand more than I do.

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True.

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It's true.

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It powers our little bakery and we sell flour up front to people

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and then to a few of the restaurants and bakeries and areas as well.

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Thanks so much for coming in, man.

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Yeah, man.

184

Really appreciate it.

185

Always good seeing you guys.

186

Good seeing you, buddy.

187

All right, so we're at Formaggio Kitchen.

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I promise it's my last stop for the day before I light my grill.

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They have a bunch of specialty ingredients.

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They have wine, which is great, and pairs with what?

191

Cheese.

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And they have a cheese cave.

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A cheese cave right down there.

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So let's go check it out.

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Hi, how are you?

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Hey, welcome, Tiago.

197

Thank you.

198

Thanks for having me.

199

Start out, we got a lot of food in the car.

200

I'm going to be excited for everything.

201

I'm going to cook, and I definitely need something to drink.

202

And wife likes red wine that's a little light, fruity.

203

So maybe you can recommend something.

204

That would be awesome.

205

Yeah, that's my flavor profile as well.

206

This is a producer from Oregon that I'm really excited about.

207

It's a husband and wife team.

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The wife actually hand prints the artwork.

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This is a Mondeuse.

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It's a nice light fruity red that I think your wife would definitely like.

211

Sold.

212

Alright, so I've been here a lot before, but for those who have not, how would you explain this amazing shop to them?

213

Yeah, so Promaggio Kitchen has been around actually since 1978.

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But the thing about us is we're a direct importer.

215

And so what that means is we're actually going over to Europe.

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We're forging relationships with small artisans.

217

And oftentimes, we're the first one registering them with the FDA and importing their products.

218

Oh, wow.

219

That's awesome.

220

So that's why you find a lot of products you can't find anywhere else here.

221

Yeah.

222

And that's actually why we have a cheese cave as well, is because we're importing the cheese by boat.

223

And we want, like, a happy environment for the cheese to live in.

224

A happy environment for the cheese.

225

Exactly.

226

All right, so we have anywhere from 200 to 300 different cheeses on this counter at a given time.

227

So it's pretty overwhelming.

228

So we're tasting all of them, right?

229

Yeah, let's go.

230

So this is Buda Grand Cru.

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It's aged for 36 months.

232

Okay.

233

And it has a lot of those tyrosine crystals in it, so you'll get a little crunch.

234

Mmm, that's some good cheese.

235

That was really good.

236

This is from Wisconsin.

237

It's called Shabby Chew.

238

And it's goat's milk.

239

It's super creamy, but I love how rich it is.

240

That's good.

241

That's really good.

242

Alright, so we're gonna go downstairs where we have our cheese cave under the store.

243

Alright, that's awesome.

244

So that's the happy place, right, for the cheese?

245

Definitely.

246

Oh, wow, this is awesome.

247

It does not smell like what I thought it would smell.

248

Really?

249

Yeah.

250

Yeah, no. So this is, again, the cheese happy place because it's the right humidity and temperature for the cheese.

251

We don't actually age cheeses down here.

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It's just kind of a storing place to keep them happy before we sell them.

253

So we have anything from 80 pound wheels of pompe, 70 pound wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano.

254

And then we also have like some smaller little wheels like this, Garocha from Spain.

255

Well, thank you so much.

256

This was very informative.

257

Thanks so much for stopping by.

258

All right.

259

Take care.

260

All right.

261

So I am done shopping for the day.

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I do not want to shop anymore, but it was all good.

263

You guys got to see all my favorite spots.

264

Thank you for following along, but you could also follow me at Chef Tiago on Instagram and see some more cooking videos.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Boston Food Guide From an Off-Duty Pastry Chef”. This video has 264 sentences and 2276 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:33. The speaker talks fast, about 197 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
mill noun	/mɪl/	A grinding apparatus for substances such as grains, seeds, etc. (Some are small and simple, and some are large and complex.)
grain noun	/ɡɹeɪn/	The harvested seeds of various grass food crops, especially wheat, maize, rye, barley, and rice.
bake verb	/beɪk/	To cook (something) in an oven (for someone).
cave noun	/keɪv/	A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
sock noun	/sɑk/	A knitted or woven covering for the foot.
chef noun	/ʃɛf/	The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household.
inspire verb	/ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/	To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by…
butcher noun	/ˈbʊt͡ʃə/	A person who prepares and sells meat (and sometimes also slaughters the animals).
bakery noun	/ˈbeɪ.kə.ɹi/	A place in which bread (and often other baked goods such as cakes) is baked and/or sold.
cider noun	/ˈsaɪ̯.dɚ/	An alcoholic, often sparkling (carbonated) beverage made from fermented apples.
wolf noun	/wʊlf/	Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
pound noun	/ˈpaʊ̯nd/	A unit of weight in various measurement systems.
provision noun	/pɹəˈvɪʒ.ən/	An item of goods or supplies, especially food, obtained for future use.
flour noun	/ˈflaʊ.ə/	Powder obtained by grinding or milling cereal grains, especially wheat, or other foodstuffs such as soybeans and potatoes, and used to bake bread, cakes, and…
cheek noun	/t͡ʃiːk/	The soft skin on each side of the face, below the eyes; the outer surface of the sides of the oral cavity.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
make out of verb		To construct from; to create (something) using (a material or substance).
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come on in verb		Synonym of come in (“to enter”).
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
following along		Keeping up with; understanding.
go back to verb		To stem from; to originate in.
open up verb		To open.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I don't like this vibe.
We're not even meaning to bully you.
All right, let's do it.
I'm going to take a uni.
How can you not like that?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	we've been · has been · I've never actually had
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	be made · are stapled · is made
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	man, which is · stop, which is · wine, which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 68 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: chef /ʃɛf/, provision /pɹəˈvɪʒ.ən/, delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/, flesh /flɛʃ/, specialty /ˈspɛʃ.əl.ti/
Long words — get the stress right: ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, humidity /hjuːˈmɪd.ə.ti/, affinity /əˈfɪnɪti/, informative /ɪnˈfɔːmətɪv/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like mill, grain, bake.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Boston Food Guide From an Off-Duty Pastry Chef - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?