What the song is about
A man walks into his kitchen one evening and cooks dinner for his hungry friends. He describes every step: washing his hands, cutting vegetables, boiling water, frying chicken, tasting the sauce and setting out the plates. At the end, dinner is served. The big band music becomes part of the scene as he moves to the rhythm while he cooks.
Useful words and expressions
Kitchen objects
- cutting board: a board you cut food on
- chef's knife: a large kitchen knife
- pot / frying pan: for boiling / for frying
- stove, oven, bowl, spatula, wooden spoon, plates
- slice: cut into thin, flat pieces
- chop: cut into small pieces
- grate: rub cheese against a grater to make small shreds
- boil, stir, mix, bake, fry, flip, pour, squeeze, taste
- piping hot: very hot, just right for eating
- a pinch of salt: a very small amount, held between two fingers
- turn the stove on high: set the heat to the highest level
- it sizzles: the hissing sound food makes when it fries in hot oil
- I do the best I can: I try as hard as possible
- cooking up a storm: cooking a lot of food with great energy (informal)
- Dinner is served: a formal way to say the food is ready
- Bon appétit: a French phrase also used in English, meaning "enjoy your meal"
Grammar
Present simple for a sequence of actions. The verses list actions one after another: I wash my hands… I take the wooden cutting board… I slice the yellow onions. This is how people describe a routine or give a step-by-step account, much like a recipe.
Present continuous for what is happening right now. I am moving to the rhythm, I'm cooking up a storm, and We are cooking in the kitchen describe actions in progress.
Will for the future. The cooking will be fun, I will feed my hungry friends.
Quantities. a pot of water, a drop of olive oil, a bit of cheese, a pinch of salt. These are useful patterns with uncountable nouns.
Careful: song language
Some lines bend normal English for the rhyme or rhythm:
- preparing all the beans is there mainly to rhyme with greens. It is a vague phrase in a cooking context.
- I squeeze a lemon slice: people usually squeeze a lemon wedge or half. Slice was chosen to rhyme with spice.
- it has a lovely spice: more natural is it's nicely spiced or it has a lovely flavor.
- a spoon of sugar: in everyday English you say a spoonful of sugar.
- just exactly like that: just and exactly mean the same thing here, so normally you use only one: just like that.
- The dinner is almost ready: usually you say Dinner is almost ready, without the.
- a lot of rising steam is a fragment without a verb. In speech you would say there is a lot of rising steam.
- The singer switches from I in the verses to we in the chorus. That is a song choice, not a grammar rule.