Shadowing Practice: Matteo Lane & Nick Make Mac and Cheese - Learn English Speaking with Video

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326 sentences

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We thought we would go over today two different macaroni and cheeses.

Nick's style and then my style.

Okay, hey everyone.

Hi everyone.

I hate you so much.

Nick and I are doing a cooking video today.

Nick, do you want to tell us where we are?

My day job is as a real estate agent, so this is at one of my listings at 315 East 65th Street.

So thank you to the owner for letting us film this year.

So today I thought we would do a cooking video.

Now, Nick can't cook.

He can make like one thing.

We thought we would go over today two different macaroni and cheeses.

Nick's style and then my style, which is...

The correct way and the pretentious way.

Let's go.

All right.

So pay attention closely, everybody, because it does get complicated.

Start off with white cheddar.

Why did you pick white cheddar, not the normal?

Because it's the best one.

And I'm just feeling a little spicy.

I don't...

Leave in the comments your favorite Kraft Mac and Cheese.

Mine actually spirals.

You start by opening the box and remove all packages.

Oh, see, it's not even the good pasta.

I hate the little shell.

Oh, I hate you.

So here we are.

So this is the cheese.

Save that for later.

So we're going to take our pan, fill it with water.

I don't know.

You're cooking.

You tell me.

Jesus, my hand was there.

Set it and forget it.

So then to prep, you grab your butter.

We'll be needing four tablespoons and your milk, which will be needing a fourth of a cup and a spoon.

Now we wait.

What was the first thing as a child you learned how to make?

We would cook with my mom every night.

So I mean, the thing I learned how to make on my own pasta with butter, I used to make pizza dough once a week and it was like fun.

Me and my brother and sister, you put the yeast, you watch it rise, and then we all could make our own individual pizzas, which I'm sure looks like shit.

First thing that I learned how to cook...

What?

Was probably those ramen...

Roadkill?

...Romen packets sautéed with roadkill.

Yeah, I was gonna say.

I did ramen packets or Kraft.

Oh, your water's almost boiling.

It's not even close to being boiled.

In about 30 seconds, it's gonna be boiling.

Anyways, now what?

Get ready.

Start making your pastas.

Get ready what?

To pour in the noodles?

Well, are you gonna salt the water?

Fuck.

Celtic sea salt.

It's literally boiling.

I don't know.

What are you waiting for?

Alright, so now that it's boiling, we take our pasta shells, to be specific, and you just pour.

But don't throw away the box because you need the instructions.

Then we take our spoon.

You've done that already.

Shut the hell up.

This is my segment.

Now we wait.

There's a great interview with Barbara Walters.

Who is she interviewing again?

Some NBA was like a racist piece of shit.

Anyway, so he had this assistant, but Barbara Walters was interviewing her.

I'm sure Barbara Walters was like, I've interviewed Fidel Castro, Putin, Obama, and Oprah.

And now I'm stuck with this slut.

She goes, what's your relationship?

She goes, I can be his anything, his friend, his confidant, his silly rabbit.

And Barbara goes, his what?

His silly rabbit?

Does he call you that?

No. The people watching will know exactly what we're talking about.

Oh yeah, she died.

Celine, when you were younger, you were the ugliest child in the world.

Why don't you tell us a little more about that?

You and I look so sad looking at this.

I can't wait for this to be done so I can eat it.

I'm genuinely excited for your pasta.

So you just keep stirring.

When it's done, it's just a guttural feeling.

Well, you can taste it.

When it's done, it's just like a guttural feeling.

Your shoulders look like a fucking curtain rod.

They're so wide.

You look like a curtain from behind.

100

One time, there was this guy who was at dinner with me, Bob and Nick.

101

Nick and I were so mean to each other, but we think it's funny.

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But he was flabbergasted.

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He was like, I can't believe you guys talk to each other this way.

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He's like, my friends and I are so sweet and nice to each other.

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We're like, that means you don't have friends.

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Yeah.

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Nick's like, well, then you can't hang out with us if you can't.

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You gotta have tough skin.

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Turns out, he didn't want to hang out with us anyways.

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So I'm just going to turn this off.

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I think it's done.

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Fuck.

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Pour it in the strainer.

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Are you gonna reserve any of that pasta water?

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Is this your segment or mine?

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Ernest question.

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Put the hot pot back on the stove.

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We need our butter.

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Quick tip for you.

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On every butter packet, actually tells you.

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So no thinking involved.

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You just go to the number four, slice right through that paper.

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You can choose either side because they're the same.

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I'm going with the top side for reasons.

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Gently toss that in.

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Let it melt a little.

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Your pasta's now completely stuck together.

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Then we're gonna get the pasta.

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Fucking Christ.

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We bring it over and just gently pour it in.

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And then we're just gonna mix.

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Mixy mixy mix.

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You want the butter to be melted.

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Now my assistant will be going into the refrigerator and getting the milk for me.

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I can't remember what you do first.

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So we're going to do the cheese.

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That's actually how I do it.

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I do the butter then the cheese then the milk.

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It's exactly, I do it the same way.

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Did you want to interrupt any more?

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Yes.

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Now we just lightly pour the finely grated cheese.

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Oh my god.

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Take the bag, you want all the contents.

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Stir.

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Now you may be thinking to yourself, Ugh, this looks dry.

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Dry no more.

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And then you just stir it together.

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Listen to that.

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Sounds like Mateo's jerking off off camera.

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Now this is a PSA.

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That's what it looks like afterwards too.

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If it sounds like that, go to your doctor.

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Then to top it off, optional, I do this.

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You don't have to.

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We add some pepper.

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I forgot how aggressive you are with the pepper.

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Oh Jesus, this comes out fast.

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Good thing I like peppers.

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Nick, that's enough pepper!

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Oh, I didn't realize we were making it to Mateo's liking.

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And then you stir it.

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Let's feed each other.

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I do not want to feed each other.

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No, come on, we do the arms now.

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No, Nick.

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Just try.

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Think of the memories.

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I don't want memories with you.

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Think of the memories.

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Just try it.

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Ready?

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Why are you out there?

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Because we've got to hook arms.

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So we're feeding ourselves.

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You're an idiot. And?

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I think it's great.

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A little peppery.

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Get something to wash that down?

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It's like spicy.

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You can feel the back.

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There's a grit to it.

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How did you mess up?

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There you have it.

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How did you mess up Kraft Macarty and Cheese?

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You ruined it.

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Alright, now you show us.

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Okay, one more bite.

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Oh, so it is good.

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Three bites.

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I'm hungry.

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So, I'm doing an Italian four cheese macaroni and cheese recipe I saw recently on the Pasta Queen.

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But I've had it before in Italy and it's very good, so let's go over the ingredients.

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We have whipping cream, whole milk, pepper, ground nutmeg, gorgonzola dolce, it's like a sweet gorgonzola.

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This is parmigiano reggiano, and then this is fontina, and some butter, like Nick, shell pasta.

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I'm gonna stop you right there.

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Does your mother know that you lie?

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30 seconds ago did he say I'm making a four cheese Italian mac and cheese.

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How many cheeses did you just say?

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Okay, you're right.

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How many cheeses did you just say?

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Do you want more Fontina?

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How many cheeses?

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If a car ran you over, I would sleep so soundly.

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And I'd still be right.

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Three cheeses.

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Well, we were supposed to have provolone.

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No one had it and the only provolone they did have was sliced provolone.

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So, okay, in a saute pan we are going to mix heavy whipping cream.

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You didn't whip it though.

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It's called heavy whipping cream, Nick.

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And some milk.

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We're gonna let that start to simmer.

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Actually, I'm gonna put the butter in while we do it.

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Here we go.

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Nick and I saw Wicked.

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We really liked, we've, you know.

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One of our favorite shows.

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Like a year ago.

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It was good.

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The girl playing Elphaba, I think she had an off night.

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Look, I used to be a performer.

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We all have off nights.

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But the one part that specifically just really got us together is No Good Deed.

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No Good Deed.

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And anyone that's seen the show, the part where it's like, dun, dun, dun, dun.

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She's stepping back and the fan's there and she goes, No good deed not over the fan.

228

And she realizes she's not over the fan, but anyone that knows how wind works is when you start, the wind will just take you up.

229

But if it's already going and you step into it, it's just a recipe for disaster.

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So we're in the audience and she's like, no good deed, but nothing's happening.

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And all of a sudden you see her realize

232

and she steps on the fan and everything just goes a wall and she goes, no good deed goes unpunished.

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And then we're like, Charity goes, oh, and she's like trying to get out of it, but she's like caught in the cape.

234

Not supposed to be a funny moment.

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We could not stop laughing.

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There was so many times Nick and I just grabbed each other.

237

And then in the same song, Spotlight hits her.

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She's not in the light.

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So it was Spotlight.

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She needed to go over blocking again.

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Yeah, that was...

242

It might have been the eighth show that week. Who knows?

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She tried.

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She tried.

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Yeah, I mean the show's good.

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I mean the singers are all- It's a great show.

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It's a great show, but it just- I think she was just- I think the night- It was an off night.

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Matteo has them all the time.

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Butter and milk have started to- I feel like that's a lot of liquid.

250

Our butter and milk have started to boil.

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We're gonna take all of our Parmesan, put in our Parmesan cheese.

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We're probably putting more Parmesan here too.

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I'm putting in our Fontina.

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Okay.

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Turn this.

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Wanna, Fanta?

257

Would you like me to salt it?

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I would not.

259

Okay, we're gonna salt our water.

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It's Celtic, so...

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Yeah, I don't know what Celtic salt...

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You gotta do this while we salt it.

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This looks great.

264

Will you chop more Parmesan cheese?

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We're gonna add our gorgonzola dolce.

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Gorgonzola dolce.

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A nice, rich flavor.

268

I don't have the arm strength for this.

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Alright, now we're gonna put in a little bit of nutmeg, a little pepper, a little.

270

You want me to add the parmesan?

271

No, not yet.

272

Looks like you're making cheese soup.

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Remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the mom had.

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Cheer up, Charlie.

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Mmm.

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Mmm.

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Do you want to try some, Nick?

278

Cheese soup?

279

I'll pass.

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Das.

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Okay.

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Here you go, here you go.

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Follow it.

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You're gonna burn yourself.

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You do it yourself.

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I don't wanna fucking burn you.

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Second round of Parmigiano.

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Reggiano.

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Reggiano.

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How would Liza do, Alphaba?

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I'm the one you want.

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It is me.

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It's me!

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So if you can't!

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And Lady Gaga is Glinda wheeling her in.

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She rises with her.

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I'm just gonna reserve some pasta water.

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Getting a dream, as strange as it seems.

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Okay, pour our pasta in.

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I feel like it's missing pepper.

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I have pepper in it, Nick.

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I don't have an obscene amount of pepper in it.

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It's all white, I don't see any pepper.

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A gorgeous three cheese sauce.

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I've turned the heat off by now.

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So the heat, once you put the pasta in, turn the heat off.

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You didn't want the rest of that shell, Nick?

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Fucking idiot.

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Yeah, of course.

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He doesn't say that when I was a place to eat.

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Well, I just had whatever.

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Well, you couldn't finish yours because you didn't lick your own.

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Yeah, well you didn't even ask.

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Alright, and here we go.

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Macari and cheese.

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Fucking Christ, you burning me.

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You burned us with your pepper.

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I feel like missing provolone.

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Provolone is literally the mildest cheese, it's just there for texture.

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Alright, that's it.

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If you want to buy this apartment, Nick, how do they do it?

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There will be a link in the description for the property if you want to come see it.

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And if not, there's also links to follow me and Matteo on social media.

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Come see me on tour, the al dente tour, Matteolaincom.com, and I have merch.

325

And, uh, yeah.

326

Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Matteo Lane & Nick Make Mac and Cheese”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: cheese, Nick, pasta, pepper, butter. This video has 326 sentences and 2233 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:10. The speaker talks at a natural 170 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% 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

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pasta noun	/ˈpɑ.stə/	Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating.
pepper noun	/ˈpɛp.ə/	A plant of the family Piperaceae.
boil verb	/bɔɪ(ə)l/	To heat to the point where it begins to turn into a gas.
pour verb	/poɹ/	To cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it.
parmesan noun	/ˈpɑːmɪˌzæn/	A hard, full-fat Italian cheese from Parma or its neighboring province Reggio Emilia.
provolone noun	/ˈpɹoʊvəloʊn/	A semi-hard cheese made of whole milk from cows. It comes primarily from Southern Italy.
deed noun	/diːd/	An action or act; something that is done.
gorgonzola noun		A blue-veined Italian cheese, made from cow's milk.
stir verb	/stɝ/	To disturb the relative position of the particles (of a liquid or similar) by passing an object through it.
whip noun	/ˈwɪp/	A lash; a pliant, flexible instrument, such as a rod (commonly of cane or rattan) or a plaited or braided rope or thong (commonly of leather) used to create a…
dolce noun	/ˈdoʊl.tʃeɪ/	A soft-toned organ stop.
fontina noun		A pale yellow cheese from Valle d'Aosta in Italy.
macaroni noun	/ˌmæk.əˈɹoʊ.ni/	A type of pasta in the form of short tubes, typically boiled and served in soup, with a sauce, or in melted cheese; a dish of this.
packet noun	/ˈpæk.ɪt/	A small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel
cheddar noun	/ˈt͡ʃɛdə(ɹ)/	A cheese styled after the Cheddar cheese made in Cheddar.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go over verb		To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze.
mess up verb		To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss.
cheer up verb		To become happier or less downcast.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
get out of verb		To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
step back verb	/stɛp ˈbæk/	To stop what one is doing and evaluate the current situation.
stick together verb		To physically combine or join together by adhesion.
throw away verb		To discard (trash, garbage, or the like), to toss out, to put in the trash.

Sentences worth repeating

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

Why did you pick white cheddar, not the normal?
What are you waiting for?
She goes, what's your relationship?
Does he call you that?
Why don't you tell us a little more about 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	You've done · I've interviewed · I've had
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being boiled · be done · was flabbergasted
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	style, which is · milk, which will · guy who was

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 93 contractions and reduced forms, such as gonna, I'm, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: preposition /ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/, pretentious /pɹɪˈtɛn.ʃəs/, optional /ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/, instruction /ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: macaroni /ˌmæk.əˈɹoʊ.ni/, preposition /ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/, refrigerator /ɹɪˈfɹɪd͡ʒ.əˌɹeɪ.tɚ/, ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/

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 pasta, pepper, boil.

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: Matteo Lane & Nick Make Mac and Cheese - Learn English Speaking with Video

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