IELTS Speaking Practice: Paying Bills, Culinary Skills & Professional Chefs

IELTS Speaking Practice Test: Paying Bills, Culinary Skills & Professional Chefs (Band 9 Answers)

Achieving a Band 9 in the IELTS Speaking test means demonstrating to the examiner that you can converse fluently and naturally on a wide variety of topics. You must be able to pivot from discussing mundane, everyday chores to analyzing abstract, professional concepts without hesitation.

In this comprehensive mock test, we cover Part 1 questions about managing daily finances, tackle a highly unique Part 2 cue card about culinary preparation, and dive into Part 3 discussions on the importance of cooking skills for youth and the demanding world of professional chefs. Study these model answers to elevate your own performance!

Part 1: Paying Bills

1. What kinds of bills do you have to pay?

Like most adults, I have a standard array of monthly overheads. These include utility bills—such as electricity, water, and municipal gas—as well as my smartphone contract and high-speed internet. Additionally, because I manage a few digital projects, I regularly pay subscription fees for web hosting and various software platforms.

2. How do you usually pay your bills — in cash or by another method? [Why?]

I pay almost exclusively via automated online banking. Setting up direct debits for my recurring expenses is incredibly efficient. It completely eliminates the need to stand in long queues at a bank or post office, saving me a tremendous amount of time and mental energy each month.

3. Have you ever forgotten to pay a bill? [Why/Why not?]

I have, actually, though it was quite a few years ago before I had fully automated my finances. I completely overlooked a water bill because the physical envelope got buried under a stack of magazines on my desk. It resulted in a minor late fee, which served as the perfect catalyst for me to transition to paperless, automated billing.

4. Is there anything you could do to make your bills cheaper? [Why/Why not?]

Certainly. Regarding utilities, I could be much more disciplined about energy efficiency—for instance, by unplugging idle electronics or relying less on air conditioning during the summer. Furthermore, taking the time to annually compare internet and insurance providers, rather than just auto-renewing, is a proven strategy to negotiate better rates and significantly reduce monthly outgoings.

Part 2: Cue Card (Learning to Prepare Food)

The Cue Card:

Describe some food or drink that you learned to prepare.

You should say:

• what food or drink you learned to prepare
• when and where you learned to prepare this
• how you learned to prepare this
• and explain how you felt about learning to prepare this food or drink.

Band 9 Model Answer:

I’d like to talk about a rather specific and challenging dessert I learned to make last December: a layered pineapple cream cake.

I actually learned to prepare this in my own kitchen, but the context was quite unique. I wasn’t just casually baking for a weekend treat; I was treating the recipe like a formal project. I wanted to figure out a way to optimize the baking process so that these cakes could be mass-produced efficiently to minimize production time for a commercial setting.

To learn how to prepare it, I initially sourced a traditional, high-quality recipe. However, the learning process was highly analytical. Instead of just following the steps chronologically, I broke the recipe down into an intricate activity diagram. I mapped out exactly how long the sponge cake took to bake and cool, and simultaneously calculated when I should be whipping the heavy cream and reducing the fresh pineapple filling to ensure there were zero bottlenecks in the workflow.

Learning to prepare this was an incredibly satisfying experience. It wasn’t just about mastering the culinary techniques—like achieving the perfect aeration in the sponge or balancing the tartness of the pineapple with the sweetness of the cream. It was deeply intellectually stimulating to merge the art of baking with strict project management principles. Seeing the final, beautifully frosted cake, and knowing I had designed a flawless, time-saving workflow to produce it, gave me a profound sense of accomplishment.

Part 3: Cooking and Culinary Careers

Topic 1: Young people and cooking

1. What kinds of things can children learn to cook?

It’s best to start them off with highly tactile, low-risk recipes. Young children can easily learn to assemble sandwiches, mix batter for simple cookies, or wash and tear greens for a salad. As they develop their fine motor skills and an understanding of kitchen safety, they can graduate to operating the stove to make scrambled eggs or boil pasta.

2. Do you think it is important for children to learn to cook?

It is absolutely vital. Cooking is a fundamental life skill that fosters deep independence. Beyond mere survival, teaching children to cook demystifies food; it encourages them to understand nutritional values, appreciate fresh ingredients, and develop a much healthier, lifelong relationship with their diet, steering them away from a reliance on ultra-processed convenience foods.

3. Do you think young people should learn to cook at home or at school?

I believe a dual approach is the most effective. The home environment is perfect for passing down generational family recipes and learning to cook intuitively with whatever ingredients happen to be in the fridge. Conversely, school settings can provide a more structured culinary education, focusing heavily on universal food hygiene standards, safe knife-handling techniques, and the underlying science of nutrition.

Topic 2: Working as a chef

4. How enjoyable do you think it would be to work as a professional chef?

I imagine it is a profession characterized by extreme highs and lows. On one hand, it must be incredibly rewarding to express your creativity through gastronomy and receive immediate, positive feedback from delighted diners. On the other hand, the reality of a commercial kitchen is notoriously grueling. The hours are incredibly long and anti-social, the environment is sweltering, and the relentless pressure during peak service times would be deeply stressful for most people.

5. What skills does a person need to be a great chef?

Beyond the obvious prerequisite of an excellent palate and an exhaustive knowledge of flavor profiles, a great chef must possess exceptional leadership and organizational skills. They are essentially managing a highly synchronized team—often referred to as a kitchen brigade—where military-level precision and timing are required. Furthermore, immense physical stamina and psychological resilience are necessary to survive the daily grind of the industry.

6. How much influence do celebrity/TV chefs have on what ordinary people cook?

Their influence is truly colossal. Celebrity chefs have the power to single-handedly shift national culinary trends. By showcasing exotic ingredients or novel cooking techniques on prime-time television, they demystify complex cuisines and inspire amateur home cooks to step out of their comfort zones. They essentially bridge the gap between high-end restaurant gastronomy and the everyday domestic kitchen.

📚 Essential Band 9 Vocabulary (Part 2 & 3)

To help you achieve a high lexical resource score, below are the key advanced vocabulary words and phrases used in the model answers above: