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158 free Food trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
65 free food trivia questions with answers. Sixty-five multiple choice food trivia questions covering the whole plate: world cuisines, ingredients, cooking science and famous dishes. The early questions are the warm-up kind most home cooks will get; the later ones are built as hard food trivia for people who think they know food, and they turn to the strange corners of the culinary world: the fish that only licensed chefs may prepare, the cheese Italy bans from sale, the shark that is poisonous until it has been buried, the coffee that passes through a civet, and the pharmacist who gave chillies their heat scale. It works as a stand-alone quiz, a pub trivia round with a hard finish, or a challenge for the food nerd in your group chat. Every answer has been checked against a reference source, shown under each question once you answer, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
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Q 01Which spice is the hand-picked, dried stigma of a crocus?
Saffron
Saffron is the dried stigma of Crocus sativus; each flower yields only three threads, all picked by hand, which makes it the priciest spice by weight.
Q 02Which blue-veined Italian cheese is named after a town near Milan?
Gorgonzola
Gorgonzola takes its name from the Lombard town of Gorgonzola, east of Milan; the blue-green veins come from Penicillium moulds introduced into the cow's-milk curd.
Q 03Which kitchen verb means simmering a sauce, stock or wine so water evaporates and the flavour thickens and intensifies?
Reduce
Reduce a liquid and you are just boiling off water; stocks, wine, vinegar and juices are all reduced until the concentration a recipe wants is reached.
Q 04Which fruit is botanically classified as a berry, despite its common culinary perception?
Banana
Botanically, a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary, containing many seeds. Bananas fit this definition, unlike apples (pomes) or strawberries (aggregate accessory fruits).
Q 05Which saffron-tinted Valencian rice dish takes its name from the wide, shallow pan it is cooked in over an open fire?
Paella
Paella simply means frying pan in Catalan and Valencian, so the dish is named for its cookware; the pan itself is also called a paellera.
Q 06What is the main ingredient in hummus?
Chickpeas
Chickpeas are the base of hummus; the Arabic word hummus itself means chickpea, and the full name hummus bi tahina adds the sesame paste it is blended with.
Q 07Which East Asian mushroom is named in Japanese for the tree whose dead logs it grows on?
Shiitake
Shiitake combines shii, the chinquapin tree Castanopsis cuspidata, with take, mushroom; it was traditionally cultivated on felled shii logs.
Q 08Ghee, a clarified butter, is commonly used in which cuisine?
Indian
Indian cooks have used ghee since ancient times, and because the water and milk solids are removed it keeps for months without refrigeration and smokes far less than butter.
Q 09Hand-pressed nigiri sushi took off as street food in 1820s Edo; what has that city been called since 1868?
Tokyo
Tokyo was Edo until 1868, when the Meiji government renamed it 'eastern capital'; nigiri was the fast food of Edo's merchant class, and 'Edomae' names that Edo-style sushi.
Q 10What grain is couscous traditionally made from?
Wheat
Couscous consists of small steamed balls of crushed durum wheat semolina, a type of wheat, and is a staple food in North African cuisine.
Q 11What is the primary ingredient in tofu?
Soybeans
Soybeans are tofu's main ingredient: soy milk is curdled with nigari or gypsum and pressed into grades from silken to extra firm; its making was first recorded in Han-dynasty China.
Q 12Which thorny Southeast Asian fruit is nicknamed the 'king of fruits'?
Durian
The durian is a tropical fruit known for its large size, thorny exterior, and potent, often polarizing aroma, which earns it the title 'king of fruits'.
Q 13What cooking method submerges food in hot oil at about 350-375°F?
Deep-frying
Deep-frying differs from pan-frying by depth: the food is under the fat entirely, originally lard and today most commonly oil, so it cooks from every side at once.
Q 21What type of fish is most commonly used for traditional British fish and chips?
Cod
Cod is the classic fish-and-chips fish across most of England; haddock is the usual alternative in Scotland and the north-east, and both are battered and deep-fried.
Q 22What is kombucha primarily made from?
Fermented sweetened tea
Fermented sweetened tea is all kombucha is: the culture, nicknamed the tea mushroom, eats the sugar and leaves a sour, lightly fizzy drink thought to have originated in China.
Q 23What is the traditional Japanese fermented soybean paste often used in soup?
Miso
It is high in protein and played an important nutritional role in feudal Japan.
Q 14In Japanese cuisine, what is mirin?
A sweet rice wine
Mirin is a sweet rice wine of roughly 14% alcohol and high sugar; it glazes grilled dishes and balances salty soy sauce in teriyaki.
Q 15What traditional French pastry is made from choux dough and often filled with cream?
Éclair
Éclair is French for 'flash of lightning'; the oblong choux-pastry shell is filled with crème pâtissière and topped with chocolate or coffee icing.
Q 16What is the primary ingredient in guacamole?
Avocado
Avocado, mashed, is the base of guacamole; the name comes from Nahuatl ahuacamolli, 'avocado sauce', and the dish dates from Aztec-era Mexico.
Q 17What chemical compound is primarily responsible for the sensation of heat in chili peppers?
Capsaicin
Capsaicin triggers the TRPV1 heat receptor in mammals, causing the burn; birds lack that sensitivity, so they eat the peppers and spread the seeds.
Q 18Which nut is primarily used to make marzipan?
Almonds
Almonds, ground and blended with sugar, make marzipan; it is moulded into fruits and animals and wraps Battenberg cake and Christmas stollen.
Q 19Fresh Italian pasta is usually made from flour and which ingredient, unlike dried pasta?
Eggs
Dried pasta is typically durum semolina and water; the fresh kind uses all-purpose or low-gluten '00' flour with eggs.
Q 20What is a roux typically made of?
Flour and fat
Flour and fat, usually butter, cooked together make a roux; the longer it cooks the darker and nuttier it gets, which is why a Cajun gumbo roux can be the colour of chocolate.
Q 24Which vegetable is known as aubergine in some parts of the world?
Eggplant
Eggplant is the North American name for aubergine, the nightshade Solanum melongena; the name comes from early cultivars with small white egg-shaped fruit.
Q 25Sauerkraut's sourness comes from which acid, made by bacteria already living on raw cabbage leaves as they ferment it?
Lactic
Lactic acid bacteria are naturally present on cabbage, so sauerkraut needs no added culture, only salt; the same family of microbes sours yogurt.
Q 26What is the main ingredient in polenta?
Cornmeal
Cornmeal simmered in water or stock makes polenta, a northern Italian staple; once cooled and set into a loaf it can be sliced and baked, fried or grilled.
Q 27What is the outer layer of citrus fruit, rich in aromatic oils, called when used for flavor?
Zest
Zest is the coloured outer peel of citrus, packed with aromatic oils; massaging it into sugar draws them out into what bakers call an oleo saccharum.
Q 28What is the primary ingredient in pesto sauce?
Basil
Basil is the heart of pesto alla genovese, pounded with pine nuts, garlic, cheese and olive oil; the name comes from the Genoese verb for pounding in a mortar.
Q 29Which US city is so tied to sourdough that a sourdough bacterium was named after it?
San Francisco
San Francisco lent its name to Lactobacillus (now Fructilactobacillus) sanfranciscensis, the bacterium behind its tangy gold-rush-era sourdough; the 49ers' mascot is even called Sourdough Sam.
Q 30What is tahini primarily made from?
Sesame seeds
Sesame seeds, hulled and ground, make tahini; the paste is used from the Balkans to South Asia and is the base of halva.