Shadowing Practice: I Trained A Rat To Cook Ratatouille - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Nick: This is Remy, and for the past year I've been teaching him how to cook.
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I know it sounds crazy, but what if it's not? In the movie Ratatouille, A food loving rat dreams of becoming a chef, and that dream becomes a reality when he unexpectedly becomes friends with a young kitchen worker at a fancy restaurant in Paris. The two of them team up and eventually impress the most feared food critic in all of France, and together they proved that anyone can cook, even a rat.
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It's one of the best movies ever, but that's all it is just a movie.
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But it got me thinking what if I could actually teach a rat to cook?
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Rats are one of the smartest species on the planet, with great problem solving skills and incredible memory, and even high emotional intelligence.
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And most importantly, they're very trainable.
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So I did what any YouTuber would do.
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I got a smart looking rat and built a full custom kitchen with every piece of specialized equipment a rat would need to cook the perfect dish.
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Then I brought in a food critic who's never seen the movie Ratatouille and dressed him up as Anton Ego and tricked him into eating food that had been prepared by my rat.
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And I'm going to show you how I did it before cooking anything.
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The first step is to wash your hands.
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So go over to the sink and just wash your little paws.
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I don't know if you remember from the movie, but Remy washes his hands with one single drop of water. Remy, wait right there a sec.
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I gotta wash my hands, too.
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Once we both washed our hands, it's time for Remy to choose the proper ingredients.
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This custom shelving will allow the rat to start right here.
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Then go all the way up to the top.
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And then starting from the top row, all the way down, hit all these levers that will choose the correct ingredients along the way.
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There are six ingredients here that are correct.
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The rest are wrong, so we'd better hope he doesn't choose any of those.
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Okay, Remy. Three.
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Two. One go.
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Two ingredients on the top row.
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First basil. Great job.
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Hit the oregano. Oh, you got it.
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Second row has nothing that you should hit.
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Good job. Third row yellow squash.
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Great job. Hit the zucchini.
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Come on. We just need two more eggplant.
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You got it. Uh oh. What are you doing?
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We don't eat broccoli. I'm not mad about you having a little snack, though.
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That's okay. You deserve it. We need the tomatoes to make ratatouille, though.
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Come on. Good job.
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Come on out. You're done.
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Come on. Here we go.
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Now that Remy has properly selected all the ingredients, it's time to chop.
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This part is very important.
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You ready? Let's start first with the zucchini.
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Because knives are dangerous I'm going to help with this part.
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And using remi's weight we're going to carefully go ahead and just start chopping.
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These have to be very nice thin slices.
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And I have to make sure that Remy doesn't actually eat them as we go.
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Let's go now with the yellow squash.
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Remy, you are doing a fantastic job and these slices look amazing.
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The third of our four vegetables is this eggplant.
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Probably my least favorite, if I'm being honest, Remy, but it's important in a ratatouille and we just can't skip it.
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Don't eat the eggplant. That's for later.
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The last one is this Roma tomato.
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People will often choose Roma tomatoes for ratatouille because they're a little bit firmer than most tomatoes.
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And now that all our veggies are cut, I need some help carrying them over to the next step. So the next important step in cooking is putting all of the ingredients onto the plate. Hey Remy, help me out!
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One of the most important things about being in a kitchen is having everything neatly organized, and the fact that Remy is helping me this much right now is amazing.
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Oh, don't eat the vegetables. That's for later.
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We've cut our veggies, but ratatouille is not complete without that base sauce.
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But first we need a saucepan.
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What a cool looking red Vespa you got there.
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Good job. Next up is making the sauce.
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You tell me, where do we start?
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Remy is trying to turn on the flame, which a I don't think is a good idea, and B does not seem to be working. I'm going to place you carefully over here and then turn on the fire for us. And if you can start spinning that wheel, it'll put the olive oil straight into the pot for you. There comes the olive oil.
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And keep it going, Remy. Keep going, keep going.
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And that's perfect.
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So we will go in first with our garlic and then in with our onion.
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That will be the base of a delicious sauce.
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As you know, Remy, the key to cooking off onion and garlic is making sure that it doesn't burn and making sure that you're stirring it constantly.
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And because you have just tiny little arms that can't really stir.
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We have this automatic stir setup, but somebody needs to turn it on.
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And because I'm not cooking any of this, you are you ready.
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Let's go. Go up the steps to hit the button and here we go.
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It is on. What I like right now is that Remy is smelling to make sure everything is cooking properly. And that is the mark of a great chef.
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And it really smells amazing to get our canned tomatoes that will finish out the sauce. We've created this massive pulley system that will allow Remy to climb up these stairs. Then get in this pot and go down the pulley.
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And this will then bring the can of tomato sauce up to us, where we can then open it together. Remy. Ready?
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Go! You got this. Go go go go go!
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All the way up to the pot. The pulley should start to go.
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We boom! We got the tomato sauce. Remy.
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Great job. Now to open the canned tomatoes.
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This is an automatic can opener, and I need you to hit the button.
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Here you go. It's gonna be a little bit of a ride that looks like fun.
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And now hit it one more time to finish it.
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Our sauce, as I'm sure you can smell.
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Remy is smelling incredible.
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So now it's time to throw in those crushed tomatoes that you opened up.
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Now, when you're finished eating my ear, focus on the sauce.
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We just need to let this simmer for a little bit.
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And once you tell me it's ready, I'll help you blend it up.
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Remy, you've gotten really good at cooking because that right there is a perfect sauce.
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Stirring up this sauce is another one of those things that Remy wouldn't have done a great job with, and I think it's a little bit too dangerous.
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But remember, Remy still basically made this entire sauce all by himself.
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I just have to help with a bit of presentation to make sure it looks perfect for our food critic. Also, if you remember from the movie, linguini helped Remy all the time. For now, though, we got to taste this sauce.
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Let's get up nice and close first.
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Just smell. Smells good.
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Right? I know you want to taste.
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Let's go. What do you think?
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I'm gonna taste some while you're tasting it too?
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That's actually really good.
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Before we start to assemble the ratatouille.
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We need to preheat the oven.
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So you tell me where to stop, okay?
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Down. Down is 310 good, or do you want it a little bit lower?
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Remy seems to be losing interest.
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Maybe a tiny bit lower. Like 300.
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Is that good? We have preheated the oven and now it is time to start ladling that sauce right into our pan.
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You just tell me how many scoops you want more?
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Okay, okay.
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This just made me remember one of my favorite scenes in the movie, where Remy spreads out the sauce for the base of his ratatouille.
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It looks so good, and we have to try to make it just as smooth as that.
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Now it's time to plate. And that means Remy's gonna crawl all the way up around me and right onto my head.
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We need to do this together to layer the perfect ratatouille.
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We already have this beautifully cut plate of vegetables.
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Remy, your tail is right in front of my line of sight.
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We'll grab one slice of eggplant, one slice of tomato, one slice of zucchini, and one slice of yellow squash.
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Does that work? Yeah. I'll go right down into my pan, and then we'll just continue with those same layers going all the way around until we have a beautiful pattern.
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Remy, anytime you think of something or see anything out of place, you just have to tell me with the top down view that you have here, you probably have a better line of sight than I do. Also, while you're up there, just make sure you're keeping an eye on the oven because the second that is preheated and ready to go, we should have our ratatouille assembled and done so that we can get cooking because that food critic is hungry. We've added in our final layer and our ratatouille is ready to cook.
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Remy, why don't you just take a closer look to make sure you're happy with all this?
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The last step before putting it in the oven is to do a light covering with parchment paper, and we are good to go.
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While the ratatouille is baking, I'm going to do a few fun tricks with Remy while I remind you to go hit that subscribe button.
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I need your help to become the biggest food and cooking channel in the world.
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And also, if you're already subscribed, please make sure you go and turn on notifications so you don't miss more videos like this.
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If Remy hits the bell, that means the ratatouille is done, and the last step before we serve it to our food critic is to actually plate our ratatouille.
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This has to look perfect so that our food critic suspects.
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Nothing. Now, plating a ratatouille can be very tricky.
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We'll start collecting up small amounts of all of our vegetables.
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And again, we need to make sure the colors look really nice.
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As you can see, I'm sort of picking through all the ones available to make sure that they're evenly sized throughout.
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And because this has to look perfect, I'm going to be a little bit picky.
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Once we've put together a nice stack of vegetables here, I'm going to go ahead and place that into the center of our plate.
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As you know, Remy, we need to build some height for this thing to really pop.
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And then together, we're going to press down really hard to make sure that that's in there. Now, Remy, there's sort of a moment of truth as I pull the ring mold off our ratatouille, and that should hold high and tight just like that.
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And then to finish, I'll place a few more veggies right over the top.
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We'll add just a light touch of olive oil to give them that nice glisten.
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And then this part is really important because we worked so much on this sauce, we need to carefully go right around the ratatouille.
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Then we'll grab a few leaves of parsley all around the edge just to make it look nice.
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Everything looks done except for the grand finale, which is all up to you, my friend.
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In one of the final scenes of the movie Ratatouille, Rémy places a single chive over the top of the dish, and even though I could easily help my Remy do this, I felt it only be right if Remy did the final step himself.
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We have our finished plate of Ratatouille right here, and Remy will start by jumping up this platform and onto the end of this diving board here, where there awaits this chive. Remy's goal will be to drop this chive onto the top of our ratatouille, to finish the dish once and for all.
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Here we go. Come on, come on, come on.
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Think about everything we've been through together.
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You know where to put that chive.
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Oh, that right there.
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Remy, is a perfect, beautiful ratatouille that you just made.
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In fact, I think you just made history as the first ever rat to successfully cook a ratatouille in real life.
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Now that your dish is complete, we will face our toughest challenge yet.
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Serving this to the food critic.
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And I'm gonna leave you off to the side because he can't know that you actually made it. And now that all the cooking is done, it's time to see if we can fool our food critic into eating ratatouille that was made by a rat.
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But first we'll dress him up as Anton Ego, the food critic from the movie.
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This is Dennis. He's actually a health inspector whose full time job is literally going into restaurants and making sure there aren't any rats in the kitchen.
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So because of that, and because he also hasn't seen the movie Ratatouille, I thought he'd be the perfect person to eat food cooked by a rat.
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The question is, can we actually fool him?
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Dennis: Are we done?
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Nick: Not yet.
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Dennis: Now, are we done?
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Yes. Much better.
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Nick: Please take a seat. Go ahead.
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Before we begin, I just want to be clear.
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You have no idea what's going on.
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Is that correct?
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Dennis: That's correct.
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Nick: You don't know why you're dressed up.
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You don't know what you're going to do.
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You just trusted me to come and taste some food.
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Dennis: I don't even know what it look like.
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Nick: That is true. You have not looked in a mirror.
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You have no idea what you look like.
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One more touch before we get started.
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Hold on. Dennis: Is that a green screen?
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Nick: It is indeed.
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Dennis: So, what's going on?
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Nick: Don't you worry about that.
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Dennis: Now I'm worried.
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Nick: Before we begin, would you like a glass of wine?
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Dennis: I would. Nick: I don't do this often.
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Dennis: It shows.
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Well that's good. Nick: Tell me when.
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Dennis: When. Nick: I'll be right back with your food.
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What I've placed before you is called ratatouille.
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It's actually a famous French dish.
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It's quite simple. It's just vegetables.
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There's a nice sauce that's been placed on the outside, finished off with a touch of olive oil, and very important, a single chive.
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I have transformed everything around us into a scene from this movie called Ratatouille.
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You've never seen it? Dennis: No.
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Nick: It's my favorite movie and this is one of my favorite dishes.
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Because of that. All I want is your honest feedback.
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Dennis: Let me try the sauce.
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It's very good. It's kind of a simple dish, but it was executed pretty well.
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Nick: If you're giving it a ranking out of ten on the visuals and on the taste, where are you putting it?
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Dennis: I would have to go with a nine.
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Nick: Would you order this at a restaurant?
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Dennis: I would. Nick: Does it make you want to go back in for another bite?
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Dennis: Absolutely.
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Nick: Did you think I could cook this well?
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Dennis: I did not.
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I'll be honest.
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Pleasantly surprised.
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Nick: Feel free to take A few notes and I will be right back.
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Dennis: Ratatouille. An excellent flavor, but you can taste all the different vegetables.
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Nick: So, Dennis, one last thing.
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Okay, I realized I forgot to introduce you to the chef.
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Dennis: Aren't you the chef?
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Nick: So, surprisingly, I'm not actually.
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Would you like to meet him?
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Dennis: Of course.
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Oh. What? Nick: That's the chef. We spent a year training this rat to be able to cook.
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He actually prepared this ratatouille for you.
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Dennis: He did? Nick: Do you believe me?
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Dennis: No.
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Nick: Can I have the iPad? What's going through your head right now?
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Um. Dennis: Confusion. Disgust.
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Nick: It's a real rat. Dennis: Yeah.
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Nick: Are you shocked by that? Dennis: Yeah.
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Nick: Do you like rats? Dennis: No.
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They're disgusting. Nick: His hands.
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Were washed. If you were curious.
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Dennis: Okay.
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Nick: This is how we picked all the ingredients.
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The rat actually was trained to know which levers to hit.
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Yes, he did lick the ingredients once in a while.
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I'm sorry. This is actually us prepping the sauce that you ate.
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This is our olive oil pulley.
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There's the rat running. And look how it spins the olive oil down.
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Dennis: Oh, that's pretty cool.
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Nick: This is how we actually got that chive on top at the end.
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Dennis: Wasn't that nice?
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Nick: You seem like you're sort of warming up to this whole idea.
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Dennis: I don't think so.
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Nick: Are you mad right now?
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Dennis: I'm not.
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Mad. I'm shocked.
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I ate that little disappointed.
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Nick: In me or the rat?
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Dennis: In you. The rat did awesome.
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Nick: You said it was delicious.
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You admitted everything in 4K.
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Nick: Are you happy you came out here today?
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Dennis: Absolutely.
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Nick: As a health inspector and as a food critic, will you agree that anyone can cook?
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Dennis: I would think so. Nick: I need.
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You to say the whole thing.
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Dennis: I would have to agree that anyone can cook even a rat. Nick: You wanna hold him?
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Dennis: No.
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Nick: Do you really not? He's so cute.
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Dennis: Yes, he is cute.
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How did I get myself into this?
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you’ll practice listening and speaking skills using a fun, engaging video about training a rat to cook ratatouille. You’ll follow casual, conversational dialogue that mixes storytelling with step-by-step instructions, perfect for improving your ability to understand and mimic real-life English. Focus on picking up natural pauses, tone changes, and everyday phrases like “great job” or “come on out” as you practice shadowing the speaker’s rhythm.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Problem-solving skills: The ability to find solutions to challenges (e.g., “Rats have great problem-solving skills”).
- Specialized equipment: Tools designed for a specific task (e.g., “a custom kitchen with specialized equipment”).
- Thin slices: Very narrow pieces (e.g., “These have to be nice thin slices”).
- Properly selected: Chosen correctly (e.g., “Remy has properly selected all the ingredients”).
- Emotional intelligence: The ability to understand emotions (e.g., “Rats have high emotional intelligence”).
Practice Tips
The video’s tone is friendly and energetic, with a mix of slow, clear instructions and quick, excited reactions. To practice effectively, use the shadowing technique: pause the video after short phrases (like “Great job!” or “Come on, Remy”) and repeat them immediately, matching the speed and pitch. If you’re new to shadowing, try a shadowing app to slow down the audio and focus on pronunciation. Pay attention to how the speaker emphasizes words like “crazy” or “incredible” to convey excitement—this will help you sound more natural. For tricky parts, like the list of ingredients, use the shadowspeak method: repeat the words out loud while visualizing the objects (basil, oregano, squash) to link sound and meaning. Remember, the goal is to mimic not just the words, but the emotion behind them—so don’t be afraid to sound enthusiastic! With regular practice using these shadowing techniques, you’ll soon feel more confident speaking English in casual, dynamic situations.
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 cut · We've created · you've gotten |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are cut · is preheated · is called |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the most feared · the best · the smartest |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | start chopping · start spinning · finished eating |
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.