What is your favourite food?
Food questions are a gift: everybody has an opinion and a memory attached to one dish. The examiner is listening for describing words (taste, texture, smell) and for whether you can explain why you like something, not just name it.
Name one dish, say what it is in a sentence if it's local, then say what it means to you: who makes it, when you eat it, or why nothing else comes close.
Sample answers at 3 bands
Same question, three answers. Read them out loud and notice what changes: not longer words, but more detail, better linking and a bit of you in it.
My favourite food is pizza. I like it very much because it is very delicious. I eat it maybe one time in a week with my friends.
Why it scores Band 5.5: It answers the question, but "very delicious" is the most common phrase in Part 1, and "one time in a week" is a slip ("once a week"). Nothing here tells the examiner what pizza is like for you.
It has to be my grandmother's plov. It's a rice dish with lamb, carrots and lots of cumin, cooked slowly in a huge pot. She only makes it for big family occasions, so for me the smell of it is basically the smell of a celebration.
Why it scores Band 7: A specific dish, explained clearly for someone who doesn't know it, with a personal connection. Good range of vocabulary ("cooked slowly", "occasions") and a nice closing line.
I'm going to cheat slightly and say my grandmother's plov, rather than plov in general, because restaurant versions just don't compare. Hers is rich and a bit smoky, and the rice at the bottom of the pot goes crispy, which is the part everyone fights over. It's comfort food in the truest sense.
Why it scores Band 8: It qualifies the answer naturally, uses precise taste and texture words ("rich", "smoky", "crispy"), and ends with a phrase used exactly right. That flexibility is what Band 8 sounds like.
Bands are our estimate against the public IELTS Speaking band descriptors. In the real test your band comes from all three parts, not one answer.
The follow-up questions
Part 1 stays on one topic for three or four questions. These are the ones that usually come next.
- Is there any food you don't like?
- I can't stand olives. I've tried them maybe ten times because everyone tells me I'll get used to them, but they still taste like salty soap to me.
- Do you prefer eating at home or in restaurants?
- At home, most of the time. It's cheaper and I know exactly what's in the food. Restaurants are more for special occasions, or when nobody can be bothered to cook.
- Has your diet changed since you were a child?
- Quite a bit. As a child I lived on bread and sweets. Now I eat a lot more vegetables, partly because I cook for myself and partly because I've started to care about my health.
- Can you cook?
- A little. I can make a few simple dishes really well, mainly pasta and eggs in about ten different ways. Anything with more than five ingredients makes me nervous.
Words that lift this answer
- comfort food
- Food that makes you feel safe or happy, often from childhood.
- rich / spicy / savoury / bland
- Taste words that are more precise than "delicious".
- I can't stand…
- A strong, natural way to say you dislike something.
- it has to be…
- A natural way to start a favourite answer.
- a home-cooked meal
- Food made at home, often by family.
- a staple
- A food people eat all the time: "Rice is a staple in my country."
Mistakes that cost marks here
- "Very delicious". Delicious already means very tasty; try "really tasty", "incredible" or describe the taste.
- Naming a dish from your country and not explaining it. Assume the examiner has never eaten it.
- "One time in a week". Say "once a week".
Reading answers won't move your band. Saying them will.
Take a full Cambridge Speaking test: the examiner's questions are played out loud, you answer, and you get a band for fluency, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. 10 free corrections a day.