The Food Programme

producer: Lucinda Montefiore.

Sheila Dillon looks at some of the new developments in airline food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

As we all get used to spending more time at home, what better opportunity for an expedition into our kitchen cupboards? What lurks at the back behind the mountains of stockpiled pasta and tinned tomatoes? And how to feel confident using only the absolute basics - from a tin of beans to a bag of flour.

Sheila masters Skype, Zoom and WhatsApp to join some of our favourite chefs and home cooks in their own kitchens, to see how they're passing the time in quarantine.

Mary Berry is keeping herself busy with gardening and jigsaws. Baker Richard Bertinet is getting used to making loaves at home after closing his beloved cookery school (luckily, he's got plenty of flour to keep him going). Food writer Felicity Cloake is taking the opportunity to sort out her freezer - and makes a dramatic discovery. And author Lola Milne is embracing the creepily perfect timing of her new book, 'Take One Tin: 80 delicious meals from the storecupboard'.

Sheila talks to Dr Rupy Aujla about the importance of maintaining a healthy diet during this challenging time. And we share recipes from the kitchens of Britain as Food Programme listeners send in tips for simple, back-of-the-cupboard cuisine.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Anna Jones.

Sheila Dillon explores cheerful, back-of-the-cupboard cuisine.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

From turning ordinary cooks into stars, to setting off trends for kitchen gadgets, viral recipes, and #WhatIeatinaday getting millions of views, people using TikTok are going mad for gastronomy.

However unlike other social media sites where picture-perfect images of food are shared, TikTok takes viewers into ordinary kitchens, and seems to celebrate (mostly) the creation of lavish looking dishes with seemingly very little skill or effort.

Food on TikTok has also become tied in with the ASMR genre (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) where creators deliberately emphasise the sounds and textures involved in cooking.

So could TikTok be the inspiration for a new generation of cooks? And can the more mature cook learn anything new? Or is the so-called Wild West of the web's version of cookery too unwieldy to properly inform? Will the hype around influencers and their inevitable marketing tie-ins put an end to any ‘authenticity' on there? And is the site doing enough to protect those with eating disorders?

Presented by Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Jaega Wise explores how food has become a star on Gen Z video app, TikTok.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sir Terence Conran speaks about Elizabeth David's influence on kitchen design. Her nephew Johnny Grey discusses the shop Elizabeth David opened in Pimlico. And Elizabeth David's editor, Jill Norman, says that today she would not have been published.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and Tim Hayward. Produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

Sheila Dillon and Tim Hayward on the legacy of Elizabeth David, 100 years after her birth.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

It was a year of contrasts: McDonalds increased the portion sizes of the beef burger it served with the launch of the Quarter Pounder, meanwhile one of the best selling books of 1971 was full of vegetarian recipes, 'Diet for a Small Planet' by Frances Moore Lappe, which argued hunger could be eliminated from the world if we stopped eating meat and embraced plant-based diets.

In the UK the food industry was innovating like never before and creating new types of processed foods and supermarkets were expanding across the country. Some embraced these changes, whereas others reacted to them, a split that was reflected in the publication of two important books that year. Delia Smith's 'How to Cheat at Cooking' offered tips on how tinned convenience foods could be used to create quick and delicious dishes, whereas, Jane Grigson's Good Things, was a celebration of slower, seasonal and more traditional cooking.

Senior staff writer at Bon Appetit magazine Alex Beggs argues 1971 was a turning point for food and explains how social changes and economic forces helped transform the way people ate in the United States (from the opening of the first branch of Starbucks to cups of instant noodles going on sale). Food historian Polly Russell explains how a similar process was also underway in the UK and how we can see the legacy of that transformation in our food today.

Dan also speaks to Professor Tim Lang about the importance of the Concert for Bangladesh, organised by George Harrison to fight famine in south Asia. He also catches up with Frances Moore Lappe to ask what 'Diet for a Small Planet' can tell us about food and our world fifty years on.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Joining Sheila to explore these ideas are Kath Dalmeny, research director of Sustain, and Christine Tacon, former CEO of the Coop's farms.

Under discussion are Growing Communities in East London, Riverford Organics in Devon, Cornish Food Market, The Real Bread Campaign, and Fareshare.

Producer: Toby Field.

Sheila Dillon meets finalists in the Food and Farming Awards offering ideas for the future

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila catches up with previous nominees and winners, looks ahead to the big food stories of the coming year, and explains how you can send in your nominations.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon and 2015's judging team open nominations for the BBC Food and Farming Awards

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This programme, the first of two, marks the 30th anniversary with a look back at the people whose ideas have shaped our thinking on food and a look forward to some of the issues that could dominate the next 30 years.

Randolph Hodgson of Neal's Yard Dairy, which has also just marked its 30th anniversary, recalls how he decided to devote his life to developing and encouraging British artisan farmhouse cheesemakers.

Sheila speaks to John Gummer MP, former minister of agriculture and secretary of state for the environment in the last Conservative government. He discusses how western society has opted for 'fast food' over quality food, and volume rather than value. He abhors the levels of food waste in society and explains how he thinks we have lost respect for food.

In the studio, Sheila discusses some of the important global issues for the future of food security in the company of Dr Susan George, author of How the Other Half Dies and The Lugano Report. Also joining Sheila is Alex Evans, author of Feeeding the Nine Billion, which was produced for Chatham House.

The Food Programme marks its 30th anniversary.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Fair trade, organic, local, authentic - all are concepts launched as food products during this time, in the form of the likes of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, Yeo Valley yogurt, the Village Bakery artisan bread and Green and Black's ethical chocolate.

So what challenges do food entrepreneurs face when success beckons? How easy is it to grow big enough to supply our increasingly large retailers, and what role do private equity investors have in progressing small entrepreneurial businesses into the big time? We talk to Langholm Capital who did just that with Dorset Cereals and Tyrrell's crisps. And we ask if it matters when food businesses that set out to change the world are themselves consumed by the industry's behemoths; is anything crucial lost?

With the help of recordings from the archive, programme finds out how these companies have fared and why food entrepreneurs matter to the future food industry. With studio guest William Kendall: entrepreneur, farmer, and formerly of Green and Blacks.

As pioneering businesses grow, can they maintain their original ideals?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Can, and should, we learn to love bitter? Leyla spends a morning cooking with chef Alexina Anatole, whose new book Bitter is on a mission to help us do just that. After cooking with bitter greens, Leyla tracks their journey from plate back to field. While salad might seem an unseasonal thing to be eating in winter, British soils and temperature are actually well suited to growing a huge variety of winter salads, notable for their fresh taste as well as their resilience. She meets a specialist mixed leaf salad grower and hears how choosing these varieties could help reduce our reliance on Spanish salad, where climate change is making winter growing increasingly erratic.

In many ways, understanding the power of bitter foods is regaining lost knowledge that was used by our ancestors; bitter herbs and leaves were used in traditional medicine to treat a range of conditions, both physical and mental. Leyla speaks to food historian Emma Kay to retrace humanity's steps through bitter flavours. And calling in on nutritionist Lucy Williamson, she hears tips on how to apply our more modern day understanding of nutrition to everyday meals and lifestyles.

From old folklore to new scientific research, and from cooking to growing, Leyla discovers how there is plenty more to bitter flavours than might well meet the eye, or the tastebud.

Presented by Leyla Kazim.

Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.

From cooking and growing to new health research, Leyla Kazim explores the world of bitter.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

From old folklore to new scientific research, and from cooking to growing, Leyla discovers how there is plenty more to bitter flavours than meets the eye, or the tastebud.

In recent years the changes that have unfolded in the Bronx have been significant. In part the progress made, making the area more desirable to live in, and home to a more united community, can be put down to food. New York City has had a network of public gardens where food can be grown dating back to the 1880's but in recent years, this resource has taken on new meaning, and in the Bronx it's changed lives.

Sheila Dillon meets Karen Washington a woman who's using food and farming to transform her part of the Bronx through 'the Garden of Happiness', a three-quarter acre abandoned lot that she turned into an 'urban farm' back in 1988. It's gone from strength to strength and this garden, in which Mexicans, African-American, Asian and Caribbean neighbours come together to grow food, has changed a part of the south Bronx for good.

In the programme Karen Washington explains why the garden has not only become a valuable source of fresh food but has also helped solve many of the social issues in the neighbourhood.

Sheila also speaks to Marcel Van-Ooyen, head of Grow NYC, a part of the Mayor's office in New York, to hear how the city's gardens have also become part of an anti-obesity strategy.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

In New York's south Bronx, Sheila Dillon finds out how food is transforming communities.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But they didn't stop there. Nishkam S.W.A.T (Sikh Welfare & Awareness Team) was only in it's infancy. A decade on, Randeep and his central team now co-ordinate a fleet of vans, and more than 1000 volunteers, who gather several times a week to provide food and drinks, health services and support at locations across the country and the world. The project comes from the Sikh concept of 'Langar', a volunteer run kitchen found in Sikh temples, and inspired by the message of Guru Nanak. But this is food for anyone who needs it.

In this programme, chef Romy Gill cooks with some of the volunteers, and becomes part of the S.W.A.T team serving people in central London. She hears how volunteers have gravitated towards the project, inspired by the difference the project is making, and meets people coming to eat.

Presented by Romy Gill.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Chef Romy Gill joins a 1000-strong army of volunteers serving food to people in need.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But they didn't stop there. NishkamSWAT was only in it's infancy. More than a decade on, Randeep and his central team now co-ordinate a fleet of vans, and more than 1000 volunteers, who gather several times a week to provide food and drinks, health services and support at locations across the country and the world. The project comes from the Sikh concept of 'Langar', a volunteer run kitchen found in Sikh temples, and inspired by the message of Guru Nanak. But this is food for anyone who needs it.

Then in March 2020, Covid-19 struck and the UK went into lockdown. Suddenly the number of people out on the streets increased, with many people who'd been working in hospitality suddenly out of work. So how have Randeep and his 'different kind of SWAT team' managed to keep running the food service which so many have come to rely on? In this programme, we hear Romy Gill cooking with volunteers, and serving people in central London last year. And Randeep tells how his team have managed to keep their food service going under challenging circumstances. Romy also speaks to chef Ravinder Bhogal of Jikoni restaurant, one of the chefs inspired to help.

Presented by Sheila Dillon with Romy Gill.

Produced by Clare Salisbury.

A BBC Audio Bristol production for Radio 4

Romy Gill and Sheila Dillon hear how volunteers provided free food to all during lockdown.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon visits Sch怀nbrunn Christkindlmarkt and talks to organiser Gabriella Schmiedler and tea shop owner and stallholder Andrew Demmer about the business of the market, and to city guide Uta Minnich about the history of Vienna's Christmas markets.

Sheila Dillon visits the `Magic of Advent` Christkindlemarkt outside the Rathaus with press office Linda Pichler, and the Freyung Christkindlemarkt with BBC correspondent Bethany Bell, and talks to gingerbread stall holder Nela Alker.

The Viennese, in common with most European countries, celebrate Christmas on the 24th with a Christmas Eve dinner, traditionally the carp.

Sheila joins Walter Osztovics, author of men's cookery book Heroes of the Hearth (Helden am Herd), to shop to carp (from Biofisch), and for a Christmas Eve feast with Bethany Bell, and Walter's friend and keen cook, Issy Bornemann.

Sheila Dillon compares the European Christmas market to its British counterpart.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She's joined in the studio by Dr Michael Mosley whose recent investigation looked into how the composition of saturated and polyunsaturated fats changed when heated with food and resulted in the production of dangerous aldehydes. Sheila finds out what response there has been since the programme and how he's changed his own cooking and buying habits but what questions should we be asking when we eat out?

Over the past decades animal fats have lost out in popularity and newer products like coconut oil have risen in prominence. Yet a butcher from Clonmel in Tipperary has seen his dripping crowned 'supreme champion' in the Great Taste awards - could this signify a change of thinking on what was once classed 'unhealthy fats'. Meanwhile in parts of Italy a new disease is threatening olive trees.

N.B. In this programme, mustard oil is used. Due to the high levels of the allergen erucic acid present in mustard oil, EU regulations state that the oil must be marked for 'external use only'. However, it continues to be widely used in Indian cooking and is often recommended by chefs to create authentic dishes.

With a growing array of oils on sale, Sheila Dillon cuts through the latest thinking.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

How can the UK's new food museum tell the story of food, past, present and future?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A culinary prize since the 3rd century BC, cloves have been a source of conflict and competition for centuries. They're still one of the most popular spices in our kitchen cupboards.

Reporter Nick Maes travels to Zanzibar, one of the world's leading producers of cloves, to find out how the dried, unopened flower buds are grown and then processed. He hears how years of decline have been reversed and plantations extended.

Along with Jeremy Lee, Niki Segnit, author of The Flavour Thesaurus, provides a helpful guide to flavour combinations and the uses of cloves in cooking.

Sheila Dillon embarks on a journey through the world of spices, starting with the clove.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon reveals all as she continues her exploration of the modern spice world by looking at vanilla.

Reporter Vanessa Kimbell travels to Uganda to meet Lulu Sturdy, a British furniture designer who inherited a run down estate in Uganda, and within a decade has turned it into an influential source of quality vanilla beans. She follows this year's harvest and hears the incredible effort involved during the careful processing of the pods.

Chef Jeremy Lee and Niki Segnit, author of The Flavour Thesaurus provide a guide to flavour combinations and cooking techniques with vanilla.

Sheila Dillon looks at the modern vanilla trade and meets a young British vanilla grower.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

It's seen as an important book because it made the science of food accessible and understandable to domestic cooks and chefs. It explains what happens to the protein molecules in eggs when they're whisked and what unfolds in the fibres of meat when heated.

However, in the programme Harold McGee argues that his book revived kitchen science rather than introduced it. He cites figures including the 18th century Lord Rumford (an early experimenter in slow cooking) and Nicholas Kurti (a Hungarian born Oxford physicist) as the true pioneers of a more scientific approach to cooking.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon explores some of the big trends that have taken place during her career, from the growth of English wines, to the rise of supermarkets as the wine sellers to the nation.

She talks about those who influenced her in the early years of tasting and writing and what she makes of other reviewers like Robert Parker who can decide the fate of a wine around the world.

Produced in Bristol by Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon speaks to world-renowned wine writer and critic Jancis Robinson.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this week's Food Programme Angela took on one last challenge. Her task was to source ingredients from some of this year's finalists and produce a three course meal. Sheila went to watch Angela at work in her kitchen in East London.

Sheila Dillon challenges chef Angela Hartnett to make a meal from local produce.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dairy UK figures show an 18% decline in the average consumption of milk and milk products over the last 20 years. In the last year while volumes of milk sold on the market have increased slightly the value has declined. This Summer saw many dairy farmers protesting at supermarket depots, taking cows into stores and buying up all the supplies on the shelves in some branches.

Meanwhile sales of many milk alternatives are rising despite costing more. Sheila Dillon explores how these milks are made and can be used, what they give us compared to cow's milk and why they've become so popular.

Dutch 'milk addict and sommelier' Bas de Groot invites her for a tasting of milks, along with public health nutritionist Dr Helen Crawley and Professor Peter Atkins who's written about the history of milk. They discuss what could make us value the product more highly, what makes a variety distinctive and if it's possible to taste the 'terroir' of your pinta.

Do we take cows' milk for granted? Sheila Dillon asks if we need a reintroduction to it.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Marking the official opening of nominations, Sheila Dillon chats to this year's head judge, chef Angela Hartnett, about how the hospitality industry's coped over the past year - and the brand new awards categories up for grabs. Because although it's been a time of incredible stress and hardship for many in the industry, there have also been staggering displays of imagination, generosity and creativity; which is why this year's awards will focus on the people and businesses who've gone above and beyond during the pandemic.

Nominations are open until just before midnight on Monday 17th May.

For more information on how to nominate for the 2021 BBC Food and Farming Awards, visit: bbc.co.uk/foodawards

Presented by Sheila Dillon; produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Sheila Dillon and Angela Hartnett open nominations for the 2021 BBC Food & Farming Awards.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

First, in the run-up to Christmas, she takes an irreverent look at baking - and the connection between baking and being a 'Good Wife and Mother. She begins by visiting a 'Clandestine Cake Club', which meets every month in a secret location. This month's location takes the theme of the Mad Hatter's tea-party; the members have risen to the challenge and the cakes are truly extravagant. The founder of the cake club, Lynne Hill, sets out her vision for a world brought together by sharing cake. Sheila visits a cake-decorating competition for teenagers, and talks to girls about the particularly feminine lure of cake. She meets a cultural historian of cake, Professor Nicola Humble, whose book on cake traces our current passion back to Elizabethan days, and who explains the long connection between women and cake. But we also have a perspective from a man devoted to cake, former Bake-Off winner John Whaite. He reflects on the connection between gender and cake, and introduces his alternative take on Christmas Cake.

With cake recipes, both ancient and modern, for the website.

Producer: Elizabeth Burke.

Sheila Dillon takes an irreverent look at baking and the history of cake.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Businesses from bars to hotels are facing a massive worker shortage, as job vacancies in the sector hit their highest levels since records began. Last month, in an open letter to the government, various hospitality professionals warned that the sector was `close to imploding` because of acute labour shortages. And the cracks are showing, as outlets still struggling post-lockdown are forced to resort to a skeleton staff: reducing opening hours or even closing altogether.

While some blame the pandemic and others point to a drop in EU workers after Brexit, figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest the industry was struggling to find and retain staff even before these events.

So what's at the heart of this crisis - and more importantly, how can we fix it?

Sheila Dillon assembles a panel of hospitality insiders to find out: talking to Kate Nicholls, chief executive of the national trade organisation UKHospitality; Sarah John, the founder and director of Boss Brewing, a craft brewery based in Swansea; and Niall McKenna, chef and owner of James Street & Co restaurant group in Belfast, comprising two restaurants and a cookery school.

We also hear from chef and restaurateur Angela Hartnett on how kitchen culture is changing for the better; and Samantha Evans and Shauna Guinn - co-founders of the Hang Fire Southern Kitchen in Barry, Wales - tell us about their decision to close permanently because of staff shortages.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Lucy Taylor in Bristol

Sheila Dillon and guests discuss why hospitality businesses just can't get the staff.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Join Sheila Dillon in her kitchen where she's joined by some of the UK's best pudding makers to share some of the secrets of great pudding, and why they matter to them.

Olia Hercules makes a pudding from her childhood in Ukraine, a cheesecake made from the 'cheese of all cheeses'; Regula Ysewijn bakes an early version of a Bakewell Pudding using apricot kernels and sweetmeats; Melissa Thompson brings Jamaican nostalgia into her own pudding invention, Guinness Punch Pie; Jeremy Lee cooks his Granny's Steamed Treacle Dumpling and chef Anna Higham who's book 'The Last Bite' is a celebration of seasonal fruit puddings, makes a rice pudding with a rhubarb compote.

So what it is about pudding that delights people so much? And why don't we eat them as much as we once did? Sheila speaks to food historian, Ivan Day, who has spent a lifetime researching and recreating puddings from the past, to see what he makes of our relationship with them now.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Join Sheila in her kitchen with some of the UK's best pudding chefs.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In 1964 Myrtle Allen, a mother and farmers' wife turned her home in Cork into a restaurant like no other. Ingredients were grown on the family farm, foraged locally or sourced by producers nearby. Unusual for its time, menus were written on a daily basis and traditional Irish recipes were celebrated.

The restaurant influenced people's thinking on what a restaurant could be. In 1968 Myrtle was joined by a young ambitious cook from Dublin, Darina O'Connell. She married into the family and became the now much celebrated Darina Allen, cook, writer and television presenter.

The Food Programme looks at five decades of work, in food, by the two women, from the original restaurant Ballymaloe House to the world famous Ballymaloe Cookery school. It features adventures in Paris, pioneering ideas on how food should be bought and sold as well as campaigns to keep food traditions alive.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

How two women, Myrtle and Darina Allen, revolutionised food in Ireland with their cooking.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Sarah Langan.

Did the horsemeat scandal really did halt the decline of the high street butchers?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Although there may still be enough eggs on the shelves of our supermarkets, the programme discovers that egg products used in some of our most popular dishes are in ever shorter supply and some may even be replaced with egg substitute produced by the dairy industry.

Three different food producers explain how the use eggs on a large scale and the impact the EU changes have made on their access to supplies of whole, liquid and frozen products.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Sheila Dillon looks at changes to egg supplies following the EU's ban on battery cages.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She talks to Vincent Doumeizel author of The Seaweed Revolution who believes seaweed is an answer to many of the crises we face as a species. In St Austell bay, Cornwall she meets Tim van Berkel from the Cornish Seaweed Company and sees one of the few seaweed farms in the UK. What is the current state of Seaweed farming? We hear from Elisa Capuzzo CEFAS. Leyla meets Douglas McMaster at his restaurant Silo to talk about seaweed as an ingredient. She also talks to Olly Hicks, adventurer and seaweed farmer who has a licence for a huge seaweed in Devon but is currently selling the seaweed for use in agriculture.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sam Grist

Could seaweed farming be the answer to some of our biggest issues? Leyla Kazim finds out.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This year supplies of soya have tightened and the world price is approaching a record high. Because it's so widely used it has become a powerful trigger for food price inflation. For this reason, the food industry is now looking for alternative sources of protein.

The rise of the soya bean in the west has been a relatively recent development. Its history as a food crop in south east Asia goes back 5000 years as an ingredient for traditional foods like tofu, soya sauce, Tempe and soya milk. Then, in the 1930's, technology was developed in the United States that allowed the protein and oil in the soya bean to be extracted on a large scale.

From that point on it has become one of the most important and widely used ingredients in our food supply. In the last fifteen years alone, the global soya crop has doubled, most of which can be found in north America, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

If world demand increases where will these new supplies of the soya bean come from? Dan Saladino reports on the latest trends.

What is the future for one of the world's most successful and controversial crops, soya?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Keen to understand the differences between the British and American food systems, one day he made a call out of the blue to Sheila Dillon. Once in London, he fixed up meetings with Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Arthur Potts Dawson.

The Food Programme joins Mark on his personal journey into the world of the campaigning chef.

Produced by Rich Ward.

Mark Bittman, chief food writer at the New York Times, meets three campaigning UK chefs.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

From a population that was close to ten million, wild Atlantic Salmon numbers are now down to below two million. It's cousins further south, the wild Pacific Salmon hasn't seen declines of anything close to this.

The author of the ground breaking food books on Salt and Cod, Mark Kurlansky has now turned his attention to the decline of the wild salmon and tells Dan some of the factors that are causing the crisis, from the pollution and dam building in the 19th century, to overfishing on the 20th and the effects of climate change on the oceans in the 21st century. Because the fish goes from being a freshwater fish to becoming an ocean going one, salmon provides, Kurlansky argues, the perfect barometer for how we how humans are treating our our planet, both the land and the oceans.

Mark Bilsby of the Atlantic Salmon Trust adds his concerns about the impact the salmon farming industry is having on the wild fish population, from the huge numbers of sea lice that can radiate out from farm pens, containing thousands of fish, out the sea, infecting wild salmon. Escaped fish are also a problem he says. Earlier this year, more than seventy thousand farmed salmon escaped from one pen because of storm damage, Bilsby says events such as these are resulting in a weakening of the salmon's gene pool as the domesticated (and genetically different) farmed fish is now breeding with the wild species.

Rory Campbell and Ian Roberts of Mowi, the world's biggest producer of farmed salmon explain the changes they are making in order to make their industry more sustainable and how schemes such as the Aquaculture Stewardship Council are helping to bring lice levels down and improve welfare standards.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino investigates fears of wild Atlantic salmon's possible extinction in 20 years.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the first of a three-part special summer series, Dan starts his own food journey in Dorset. He'll share stories with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Mark Hix, and go on the trail of some long-hidden buried fungi, as well as an oddly elusive cheese: the Dorset Blue Vinny.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Dan Saladino revisits Derek Cooper's hunt for British regional foods, four decades on.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan goes to Wales to find out how the tradition of fishing for sewin in tiny boats called coracles is faring. When Derek visited the Gower Peninsula, cockles were in short supply and had to be sourced from outside of Wales. Dan visits Swansea market to ask how the cockle trade is doing now and to see if the famous Welsh laverbread is as popular today as it was when the original series was filmed in the mid 70's. At that time, Derek Cooper feared that some of the traditional Welsh foods and skills were about to be lost forever. Dan finds out whether those fears became the reality, as he asks how Welsh identity is expressed through its food.

Producer: Sarah Langan.

Dan Saladino revisits Derek Cooper's hunt for British regional foods, 40 years on.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan re-watches the original 1970s A Taste of Britain tv programme with historian Peter Brears, writer Christopher Hirst, and those who remember the people and places in the original film.

Presented by Dan Saladino and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

From Yorkshire pudding to tripe, the change in regional foods.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Thirty five years on Sheila Dillon retraces the footsteps of the first programme, made around the River Severn in Gloucestershire, to follow up some of its stories and discover what has happened since to the region's food culture.

Sheila speaks to Charles Martell, today one of Britain's greatest cheesemakers who was filmed in the programme trying to revive the tradition of farmhouse Double Gloucester.

The Gloucester Old Spot pig was reported in the 1973 programme as being near extinction. Sheila talks to farmer and one of the original members of the Rare Breeds Preservation Trust Eric Freeman to find out what happened to the breed.

Ingrid Bates, viticulturist at Thornbury Castle explains how the vineyards just planted at the time of the 1973 programme are producing grapes that are now processed by a local winery into thousands of bottles of wine.

Sheila Dillon also talks to two members of the Cadogan family who have held fishing rights along a four mile stretch of the Severn for centuries to find out if they still catch wild salmon.

Richard Cook from the Severn and Wye Smokery explains what he thinks needs to happen to ensure a commercial future for Severn salmon.

Sheila Dillon revisits local food traditions from the 1973 seriece 'A Taste of Britain'.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

As chef proprietor at Quo Vadis in London's Soho, and previously at the Blueprint Caf退, Jeremy Lee has been creating ever-changing regional, seasonal and historically inspired British cuisine. He learned in the kitchens of some of the key creators of what's often called the Modern British Cooking movement, the qualities of which he has made distinctively his own.

He chats to Sheila Dillon about the influences which have shaped his cooking, from growing up in a food-loving family in 1970s Dundee to the joy of shopping for the very best seasonal produce. Sheila hears about his reverence for his growers and suppliers, how he is inspiring a new generation of chefs, and of course, tastes his famous smoked eel sandwich.

Featuring chefs Simon Hopkinson and Charlie Hibbert, food writer Rachel Roddy, and Frances Smith of Appledore Salads.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

The food story of one of the most loved and admired chefs in the business, Jeremy Lee.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Susie Barrie joins the harvest at the end of a landmark growing season for homegrown wine.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this edition of The Food Programme, Sheila Dillon is at the 'Taste the World' tent and uncovers some of the food stories and experiences that have shaped these unique performances.

On the journey Sheila encounters Guo Yue, who grew up in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution and is now a master flautist and respected cook. There's also Nano Stern from Chile, Qu退b退cois band Le Vent Du Nord as well as South Louisiana's Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys.

In the company of Taste the World's host Roger de Wolf, there will be roux bubbling, passionate story-telling and a culinary phone-call to the deep wilderness.

How cooks from 12 countries gathered to share food and music on stage at Womad.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon has been going to the festival for many years, and in this programme finds out why Abergavenny Food Festival has had such success, how it continues to stay relevant, and what impact it has beyond the town.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan

Abergavenny Food Festival: 25 Years and Counting

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this edition of the Food Programme, Sheila Dillon asks if the British public are increasingly opening their minds to the possibilities of a complete plate of food with no meat?

The Food Programme's Carnivore-in-Chief Tim Hayward embarks on a mission to experience what vegetable, pulse and grain can offer.

Along the way meet Yotam Ottolenghi, Denis Cotter and encounter a flower-strewn van, some perplexed football fans and 'pasta' made from radishes.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Can a new wave of vegetarian chefs and food writers change mainstream cuisine?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

For Zoe Adjonyoh, restaurateur at Zoe's Ghana Kitchen in London and author of cookbook of the same name, this is a difficult term. Africa is the second biggest and most populous continent in the world and its 54 countries are home to a plethora of localised and regional cuisines. Yet, so many of these cuisines have failed to make a mark in mainstream restaurant culture internationally and in the UK, can a new interest in promoting African flavours help us to discover more about them?

This programme is Zoe's guide to getting to know African cuisines becoming more available in the UK. She meets British chefs and cooks exploring their African heritage through food, and asks them the worth, or worthlessness of the term 'African food'.

The first of The Food Programme's 2018 season of African food stories in Britain.

Presented by Zoe Adjonyoh

Produced by Clare Salisbury.

Food writer Zoe Adjonyoh wants you to think again about saying 'African food'.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Agritourism is in its infancy in the UK, where a young generation of chefs have decamped from the city to the countryside to take on farms, and ensure they have absolute control over how their ingredients are sourced.

Jaega Wise visits Coombeshead Farm in Cornwall, where guests can eat, sleep and explore where their food comes from and understand how it's produced. The farm is managed by Tom Adams, who previously ran a successful food truck and restaurant in London.

She also talks to Hugo Guest and his wife Olive, who again left London behind to set up a farm restaurant and guest house in Devon. They discuss the influence of Italian agritourism on their venture, which opened just after the Covid-19 lockdowns.

We hear the thoughts of Gabriella Parkes, a researcher in rural tourism from Harper Adams University, on how the pandemic gave a boost to rural tourism and an interest in locally produced food.

Caroline Millar from Scottish Agritourism and the Global Agritourism Network tells the programme how Scotland aims to take inspiration from Italy for its own burgeoning agritourism industry.

Jaega discusses with chefs Dan Cox and Hugo Harrison the lengths they and others have gone to in order to chase the perfect produce.

She also talks to Tom Adams, Dan Cox and Hugo Harrison about the cost of establishing this kind of enterprise, and whether it's inevitable that these places remain accessible only to wealthy people.

Finally, hotel critic Fiona Duncan sums up why staying and eating on a farm - as in Italy - is a truly immersive experience, and how more of these could invigorate the UK's restaurant and hotel scene.

Presented by Jaega Wise.

Produced by Fiona Clampin.

On the trail of the pioneers bringing Italian-style agritourism to the UK.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Over the past 25 years he has hosted countless programmes - including Can't Cook Won't Cook and Ready Steady Cook for a decade. He has presented series for US and South African television, been a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, and was awarded an MBE in 2020. His latest TV series, 'Ainsley's Good Mood Food' is all about cooking food to boost your mood.

In this interview, Ainsley takes us back to the early days of family dinner parties, a summer in France, and his journey to TV stardom. He also discusses what it's like to be the subject of many many memes and where he finds his seemingly perpetual energy. Jaega also speaks to school friend and the other half of Ainsley's 90s pop group The Calypso Twins, Paul Boross, and hears from Ainsley superfan, Radio 1 Breakfast DJ Greg James, who's obsession with Ainsley turned him into a viral sensation.

Presented by Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Jaega Wise meets TV chef Ainsley to talk life, cooking, his influence and being 'memefied

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Born in Lancashire, from a very early age Alastair Little paid careful attention to the food and flavours around him. On early holidays around Europe with his parents, his eyes (and tastebuds) started to open up to a new world of possibility. After graduating from university, a career in food was far from clear; but 1970s Soho in London became the launchpad for a self-taught chef who has had a real and lasting impact.

His eponymous restaurant in Frith Street was pioneering; and legendary - and a new generation of chefs passed through its kitchen, sat at the tables and drank at its bar. His books, including Keep it Simple (written with Richard Whittington) and Alastair Little's Italian Kitchen, transmitted his simple, thoughtful approach to home cooks all over Britain.

Featuring chefs Angela Hartnett and Jeremy Lee, baker and food writer Dan Lepard, former Editor of the Good Food Guide Tom Jaine, and the chef, restaurateur and writer Jacob Kenedy.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon meets pioneering chef and food writer Alastair Little.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Alice Waters founded the restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley in 1971. Her life had been changed forever by experiences as a student in France and at UC Berkeley, where the Free Speech Movement lay the ground for the big political movements of the sixties. Alice and her restaurant went from these humble and idealistic beginnings to international recognition.

With a focus on local, organic ingredients and farmers' markets before they were widely celebrated she moved on to educate children and prisoners about growing and cooking food. In her own words Alice's food journey became a 'delicious revolution'.

As debates in the US rage about healthcare and the nation's relationship with food, this is a story of one woman's attempts to show the way to an alternative way to eat. It's a story that took her from small French taverns to Californian growers and even to the White House.

Producers: Rich Ward & Dan Saladino.

Californian chef and campaigner Alice Waters shares her food story with Sheila Dillon.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With the UK now outside of the EU's Single Market and Customs Union, new border controls are in place and a new system for exporting goods is in place.

One exporter working under this new system is David Noble whose business is based on the Scottish west coast. He describes the delays he has experienced and the extra costs he has encountered.

The company which moves most of the UK's fish across Europe is called DFDS. The head of their 'cold chain', Eddie Green explains the range of factors that disrupted fish exports, from confusion over paperwork to IT system failures.

Dan also looks at some of the longer term questions being posed by the Brexit deal, for example, how much extra fish do we now have access to?

To answer this Dan has some help from Radio 4's More or Less team who not only examined the stats behind the UK's new quota regime but also explained the calculations in a sea shanty (lyrics were by Kate Lamble, to a traditional tune, arranged by Freda D'Souza and mixed by James Beard. The singers were David Denyer, Sophie D'Souza, Will Ashcroft and on bass Moose).

The UK's exclusion zone is also on the agenda. It had been expected to be set at 12 miles but in the Brexit deal it stands at six miles from the coast. People from the industry explain why this is a big issue for them.

But what about the role of British consumers? Can our eating habits help shape the future of the post-Brexit industry? Chef Mitch Tonks explains why we need to eat a more diverse range of fish to help our fishers.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino finds out what the Brexit deal means for the UK's fishing industry.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Panettone is a traditional Italian Christmas cake. John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at University College London and author of 'Delizia! A History of the Italians and their Food' traces the history of this highly industrialised product from its Milanese origins, and the manufacturing of this 'tradition'. Reporter Dany Mitzman visits the Corsini Biscotti panettone factory in Tuscany where panettone is made in the traditional artisan style, using a mother yeast, slow proving, and cooling tipped upside down to allow the dome shape to set naturally, without additives. Their panettone is sold in through the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range. But you can make your own - Fred Manson returned from an Andrew Whitley breadmaking course clutching a panettone recipe, and has been making his own ever since.

As a teenager Sheila Dillon's Christmas culinary rebellion took the form of baking a bouche de noel, the buttercream sculpted chocolate log believed to originate in France, and still produced by the hundred in smart patisseries today. Yule logs are now a popular range for both patiseries and supermarkets in the UK. This year's BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Award Food Champion, baker Richard Bertinet, baked Sheila his own take on the classic cake, adorned with gold leaf and powdered cabernet grape, and food historian Ivan Day tells its history in the UK.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Panettone and chocolate logs: Sheila Dillon embraces our newer Christmas cake traditions.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila is joined by Liz Galbraith CREATIVE DIRECTOR of BBC Food Group, to discuss the changing fashions in depicting dinner, and to marvel at the photos Food Programme listeners have sent in. Say cheese!

Sheila Dillon explores the world of amateur food photography.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Charles was cook for the crew of the 1914 Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton. A disastrous expedition which ended up lasting for more than two years. The men were forced to camp on moving ice flows, and eventually a remote Antarctic beach on Elephant Island. But against all odds, every man on Shackleton's ship The Endurance survived. In August 1916, the men were rescued. They were on the edge of starvation.

During their time on the ice, Charlie Green cooked tirelessly using his creative flair to concoct meals out of exceptionally meagre means. His food kept the men alive. He went back to the Antarctic with Shackleton on the expedition which would be Shackleton's last. But then, despite living until the 1970s, he faded into obscurity. Known only for slide shows that he gave locally with the well-known images of the expedition.

One hundred years on, another Antarctic chef Gerard Baker, uncovers the extraordinary life led by Charles Green and his version of two years cooking for the men of the Endurance. One of the greatest survival stories of all time.

Presented by Gerard Baker and Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury.

The story of Charles Green, Shackleton's chef who kept the men of the Endurance alive.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this edition, The Food Programme is collaborating with the British Library to bring you highlights from the 'National Life Stories' archive. Historian Polly Russell picks voices which shed light on hidden parts of the food industry, from restaurant kitchens to the high street. And in recounting these histories to today's chefs, restaurateurs and shop owners, she finds how working in British food has changed.

Presented by Sheila Dillon with Polly Russell & Barley Blyton

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Historian Polly Russell and an archive with a century-long story to tell about UK food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The first stop is Liberty Kitchen - a finalist in the Best Street Food or Takeaway category. This social enterprise operates at Pentonville Prison, where inmates produce a diverse range of 'street balls', including classic Italian meatballs, macaroni cheese balls and veggies balls; these are then sold at London street food markets.

Genevieve visits the bustling prison kitchen with founder Janet Boston, before checking out the Liberty Kitchen stall at Leather Lane market in Clerkenwell - and hears overwhelming praise from current and ex-inmates involved in the scheme, who say it's giving them hope of employment post-prison.

Next up, Genevieve checks in with Food and Farming Awards judges for the Cook of the Year category: Jeanette Orrey, co-founder of the educational initiative Food For Life, and Paula McIntyre, a cook, food writer and lecturer.

They've been to the Moray region of Scotland, to visit finalist Logie Primary: a rural school with just 28 pupils. Although it's small, this primary school's making a mark with a food-focused social enterprise that's teaching pupils food and kitchen skills, and at the same time bringing together the local community. The school's older pupils launched the Cup of Joy Community Cafe two years ago, using vegetables grown in their school allotment and eggs from the school chickens; today, it's not only teaching them valuable nutrition and life skills but providing a hub for this rural community.

Our final stop is London, where the judges for this years' Pat Llewellyn New Talent Award - Ben Adler, whose late wife Pat inspired the award; and Barney Desmazery, food editor at large for BBC Good Food magazine - have been to Ealing to join the team behind Fat Macy's supper club: a dining experience with a differenc

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Reporter Jean Snedegar talks to farmer Joel Salatin.

Sheila Dillon speaks to Professor Wayne Teel, who teaches in the department of Integrated Science and Technology at James Madison University in Virginia.

Reporter Ray Kershaw talks to historian and fish farmer, Philipe Machenay, about the production of 8000 tonnes of fish in the 1200 lakes of the Dombes region in eastern France near Lyon, a system which is at least 800 years old. They are joined by some fishermen for the annual harvest.

Sheila talks to Professor Bob Orskov of the McCauley Institute near Aberdeen who has been working with rice farmers in Vietnam.

Sheila is joined in the studio by Peter Bradnock, Chief Executive of the British Poultry Council and science writer, Colin Tudge.

Sheila Dillon asks what ancient forms of intensive farming can teach us today.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Andrew Wong grew up helping out in his parents' Chinese restaurant in central London, convinced that he would never work in hospitality himself.

But the `magic` of the industry drew him in - and today he's chef-patron of a restaurant on the very same site as his parents' place, but totally transformed.

In the decade or so since its launch, A.Wong has built a reputation for lunchtime dim sum, with an evening menu showcasing imaginative interpretations of regional and historical delicacies: from ‘Barbecued Forbidden City Sweetcorn with Wagyu Beef Meat Paste and Truffle' to ‘Toasted Sweet Potato with Salted Black Bean Sauce, Black Tapioca and Liquorice Soy'. It's also the first Chinese restaurant outside Asia to have earned two Michelin stars.

Jaega Wise visits the Pimlico restaurant to find out how Andrew's fascination with China's food heritage has inspired this unique dining experience; one that seeks to bring to life a rich and diverse culinary culture.

We also hear from cook and food writer Fuchsia Dunlop, who specialises in Chinese gastronomy and has written six books on the country's cuisine; and Dr Mukta Das, a research associate for the Food Studies Centre at London's SOAS University, focusing on Chinese food and culture - who collaborates with Andrew to dig into dishes and delicacies from the past.

Presented by Jaega Wise

Producer by Lucy Taylor in Bristol

Jaega Wise meets the chef bringing Chinese culture and history to life through his food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Angela Hartnett is seen as an icon in the food industry - she started out learning on the job in Cambridge - and later rose up working for Gordon Ramsey, first at The Aubergine, and later at the Connaught Hotel, where she earned her first Michelin star.

During that time she started to become a familiar face on British Television, appearing regularly on Hell's Kitchen and the Great British Menu.

In 2010, Angela bought Ramsay out of the restaurant she still runs today - Murano - where she received another Michelin star.

In January 2022, Angela was awarded an OBE for her services to the hospitality industry, and for the work she did for the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this conversation, Angela reflects on her campaigning, changes in the industry, and family life.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Chef Angela Hartnett OBE shares stories of her life in hospitality with Sheila Dillon.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

On the menu was pumpkin soup, spiced up with a spoonful of chutney from finalists The Tracklements Company, and served with a rather superior cheese on toast made with ciabatta from winner and artisan baker Alex Gooch and cheese from finalist Brenda Leddy's Stichill Jersey cows.

For the main course (in Monday's programme), there was a roasted loin of rare breed Gloucester Old Spot pork from Richard Lutwyche, winner of the Derek Cooper category, an example of successful conservation of a breed through consumption of its meat.

And for dessert, a blow-out of lemon posset made using cream from Stichill Jersey cows, and a crostata combining the Tracklement Company's seasonal medlar jelly, with spiced poached pears. A perfect feast for a cold winter's day.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Angela Hartnett cooks a winter's feast from the 2010 Best Producer Finalists' ingredients.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Companies creating precision fermentation-made dairy believe it could play an important part in reducing the environmental impact of traditional dairy production, and provide a much needed source of alternative protein. But as this new industry emerges it's still not known how consumers will take to animal free dairy, and if it can scale up enough to make the products widely available and affordable to make an impact.

In this programme, Leyla Kazim visits a company in London creating an animal-free cheese, and asks if it can ever be the same as a traditionally-made product. And as this new industry grows - how far could it go in making dairy more sustainable?

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

How far could animal-free dairy alternatives go in disrupting dairy production?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The food story of the early settlers is told by Michael Symons, former restaurateur, academic and author of One Continuous Picnic: A Gastronomic History of Australia. In 1788, convicts and peasants arrived to an uncultivated land and farming and food were quickly geared towards large scale agriculture and exports of meat and dairy to the British Empire.

In more recent years Australia has become a place of pioneering, experimental chefs and home to some of the world's greatest ingredients as well as the source of global food trends. Sheila tells the story of this major transition with the help of food writer Charles Campion, on tour in Sydney and Melbourne.

The story also weaves in a hunt for indigenous aboriginal foods and the account of a man whose contribution to Australian food culture was to bury 80kg of Roquefort cheese to the French national anthem. Both are fascinating episodes in a colourful and surprising food story.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

How Australia, built on bulk exports of cheese and meat, became a gastronomic leader.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Leyla Kazim meets chef Adriana Cavita at her new Mexican restaurant to talk about growing up with Avocados and how she has tackled the issue of their sustainability. Leyla talks to food systems expert and the writer of a forthcoming book on avocados Honor Eldridge about the issues in the production of avocados in the Global South. She also gets a mini tour of avocado trees growing in London from garden designer and tropical plant fan Rob Stacewicz. Political commentator Ash Sarkar talks to Leyla about avocado's status as a meme in our public discourse. Wahaca owner and chef Thomasina Miers makes an alternative for Leyla to try.

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sam Grist

Leyla Kazim explores responses to the growing anxiety around avocado production.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The 2009 Food and Farming Awards judges tour the UK visiting winners and finalists.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

For a nearly a decade Magnus, who is one of the world's most celebrated chefs, travelled through the region (which includes Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and the Faroe Islands) and reached an important and controversial conclusion.

He argues that the Nordics has the most diverse and the deepest baking culture in the world today. His research resulted in a hefty tome, The Nordic Baking Book (Phaidon), full of more 700 of the thousands of recipes he discovered when he visited cooks in their homes.

Why the world's most diverse baking culture? Magnus's reasoning is that because the region covers such a vast geographical area and its population is spread out across remote villages, information spread slowly historically. This includes recipes and so a huge amount of diversity can still be found in these isolated pockets. When it comes the depth of the baking culture, Magnus points to the fact that fresh yeast is so ubiquitous in the Nordic countries, you can often buy a packet from a newsagents or convenience store.

I also has some dramatic climatic extremes, as summer starts to arrive in one area, there can be snow and ice in another. This means that while wheat can be grown in one location, only barley, rye or oats might only be possible in another. Again, this adds to the richness of its baking culture. To illustrate this Magnus takes Dan to a communal oven set in a remote farmhouse in northern Sweden to show how families gather once or twice a year to make flatbreads with barley and rye, a speciality of an area called Jamtland.

Meanwhile, another kind of diversity is flourishing in the region's fields with the rediscovery and revival of ancient grains. Farmer Fintan Keenan describes some of the old (but new) varieties; what they taste like and why they might prove to be important for all of our food futures.

Presented by Dan Saladino.

One of the world's great chefs, Magnus Nilsson, takes Dan Saladino on a Nordic baking tour

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A world away from the burnt burgers and charred sausages of the British barbecue experience, the 'barbecue belt' of the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee to Texas captures a story that goes beyond food. From politics and class to race and gender: barbecue has become a vital American institution.

A cooking technique requiring endless patience, effort and care, Dan Saladino talks to some of barbecue's biggest enthusiasts about how their modern approach is shaping our oldest form of cooking.

Producer: Anna Miles.

Dan Saladino explores one of the food world's most misunderstood words - barbecue.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon reveals the finalists for the 2015 BBC Food and Farming Awards.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury.

The finalists of the BBC Food and Farming Awards 2017 are revealed.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

At the beginning of the year thousands of Radio 4 listeners from all parts of the UK sent in nominations, describing the work of their food heroes. Now, six weeks on, the judging team has decided who the finalists are.

Dan Saladino introduces the 24 finalists across ten different categories from Best Drinks Producer to Best Food Market and from Best Local Food Retailer to Best Streetfood and Takeaway. The judges have been travelling to meet them all, taste the food and drink they make and hear their stories.

In early May, in Bristol, at the annual Awards ceremony, we'll find out which of these finalists go on to become the winners.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

A rundown of who has made it through to the final stage of the BBC Food and Farming Awards

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Chefs Sam Evans and Shauna Guinn won the award eight years ago. Now they're back as judges. We sample Malaysian rendang cooked in a traditional clay pot at Joli in London; meet the cooks at Maasi's in Cardiff who've invented the 'naanwich' in their Pakistani cafe; and try curries from DabbaDrop in East London, which are delivered by bike.

Presenters: Sam Evans and Shauna Guinn

Producer: Rebecca Rooney

Street food, take-aways and small eateries, the finalists in BBC Food & Farming Awards.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

We're often told how eating less meat is crucial for a healthy lifestyle and a healthy planet. In response, supermarkets and food outlets have been adding more meat-free options, and whole plant-based product ranges, which are often highly processed. So what if there was another food that we could all do with eating a lot more of, that's relatively affordable, is healthy and can be good for soil health and the environment? For hundreds of years beans have had a reputation in the UK of being food for the poor, vegetarians, or as filler for stews and curries. Mainly sold pre-cooked in cans, the ranges have been growing in recent years, but by far the biggest seller are Baked Beans.

Someone who wants to change that is entrepreneur Amelia Christie-Miller, the founder of a new brand called Bold Bean Co. Sheila finds out why Amelia's beans that come in glass jars, taste so different from the ones she is used to eating from cans. The beans are imported from Spain, where they are a much bigger part of the culture. The owner of Spanish restaurant chain Bar44, Owen Morgan demonstrates how to make them the main event; Dietitian and nutritionist Dr Megan Rossi from Kings College London explains how the can also improve our gut health; and Dr Pete Iannetta from the James Hutton Institute, and writer and grower Susan Young (author of 'Growing Beans: A Diet for Healthy People and Planet') say we should all be considering growing more beans in order to reap the benefits for our soils and health.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Sheila Dillon asks if beans could be the answer to our and the planet's health problems.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme we meet the people who grow, select, process and trade beans, and hear of a culture that respects legumes, where home cooks know how to flavour them, often cook them from dry, and their many varieties are on display in markets and supermarkets.

Sheila accompanies Spanish food importer and expert, Monika Linton, as she visits her processed and dried bean suppliers in the Navarra and Salamanca regions of Spain. Monika first set up her company Brindisa, bringing food from Spain into the UK, 35 years ago. She says legumes are for the Spanish what pasta is for the Italians.

On the lentil fields of the Salamanca plains, we hear how farmers manage relatively small plots of land, and how the beans are used in rotation with other crops in order to both feed people, and nourish the soils.

However not all beans eaten in Spain are grown locally. In Madrid, Mario Castellanos from Legumbres Castellanos, his family business, explains why the country still relies heavily on imports from other nations.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

The humble bean is mighty in Spain. Sheila Dillon finds out why.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Pete Brown - beer blogger and author - believes that Britain should be truly proud of its remarkable brewing heritage and charts the ups and downs of beer in the UK from Burton-on-Trent's special water via Lloyd George's unsuccessful attempt at Prohibition through to the importance of the glass that we sip our beer from.

On October the 1st new taxes came into effect that lower the tax on beer with less than 2.8% alcohol by volume (abv), and raise it on brews with more than 7.5% abv.

With concerns across the UK about problem drinking, and debates about minimum unit pricing and glass sizes, Sheila Dillon asks if it is time to re-evaluate our relationship with beer, or can it be part of the solution?

Dan Saladino visits the second largest brewing company in the world - SABMiller - at their new research laboratory in Nottingham to see how their research into a new generation of low-alcohol beers is going.

The programme also features Mark Hunter, CEO of Molson Coors UK and Ireland (Britain's biggest brewer), Dr Vivienne Nathanson of the British Medical Association, Dr John Holmes of the University of Sheffield, and the BBC's Scotland Correspondent Colin Blane.

Producer: Rich Ward.

As tax on low-alcohol beer is cut, Sheila Dillon asks how problem drinking can be tackled.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Produced by Sarah Langan.

As bee populations fall, Sheila Dillon asks if salvation may be found in city streets.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

If precise scientific evidence is required, isn't the EU expecting the same clinical rigour for a food as for a drug? Sheila Dillon meets one beetroot juice producer in Suffolk who, following new scientific evidence for the health effects of his juice, hopes to make a health claim for the product. How difficult might that be? Consumer safety is the paramount concern but is this level of control costly and damaging for small food companies and patronising to the consumer? Sheila travels to Brussels and meets small food companies trying to come to terms with the changes in EU health claims.

In trying to protect the public, could the bureaucrats be throwing the metaphorical baby out with the bath water?

If beetroot juice is good for us, should the EU decide whether or not we are told?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The awards celebrate individuals, businesses and organisations across the UK who produce quality food and change lives.

In this episode Valentine Warner, Chair of the judges, discovers the food, music and animation which all played their part in the 2014 Awards ceremony

Bristol chef Barny Haughton prepares a celebratory meal for the finalists using their own products and recipes.

Valentine also discovers the challenges of representing food in music as David Ogden composes a piece of music for the Awards. And students from the University of the West of England work on representing food in animation.

The BBC is recording and transmitting food-related editions of some of the nation's favourite radio programmes throughout the Bristol Food Connections festival, which takes place from 1 to 11 May.

The story behind the Food and Farming Awards 2014.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Created by Kabosh Theatre Company and written by Seth Linder, the play wends its way through shops and restaurants, including Sawers delicatessen, the John Hewitt pub, Mourne Seafood, Nick's Warehouse and ends in the grand St George's market.

Produced by Rebecca Moore.

Sheila Dillon takes a culinary tour celebrating Belfast's culinary revolution.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila ends the series by exploring the creation of a new food culture - in Northern Ireland. It started with the revival of the St George's market in Belfast - now in full swing, and hundreds of young businesses are now thriving. Sheila tours the market with chef Paula McIntyre and meets people with a new take on traditional Irish food. She catches up with butter and cheese producers who were in the vanguard of this new movement, and asks how you carry on innovating - and what they've learned on the way. And she travels to the island of Rathlin off the north coast of Ireland, to meet a family who are making an international business out of growing kelp, and exporting it to Japan.

Producer: Elizabeth Burke.

Sheila Dillon explores the thriving new food culture of Northern Ireland.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Calcutta, in particular, and other areas of West Bengal, were immediately cut off from the vast hinterlands of the East which after 1947 became East Pakistan and subsequently, in 1947, Bangladesh. What effect did all this have on the food supply of both populations and how were people from different communities - castes and religions, - able to source the ingredients they were used to? And what does this mean for those communities today?

Reporter Simon Parkes, talks to Bengali writer Chitrita Banerji on why food matters so much to Bengalis.

Sheila Dillon is joined in the studio by Simon Parkes and his co-author on Calcutta Kitchen, chef Udit Sarkhel and Abdur Rouf, owner of two highly regarded Bangladeshi restaurants in Fife.

With Udit Sarkhel, Sheila Dillon visits Brick Lane, the heart of London's Bangladeshi community, to collect some ingredients for a meal Udit Sarkhel prepares in the studio.

Chef Udit Sarkhel prepares Bhapa maach paturi (Fish with mustard steamed in banana leaf), in the studio.

Sheila Dillon explores explores the food of Bengal.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila visited the Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamsted which runs cookery courses for those who've been bereaved. Some of those taking part had lost the will to cook - especially the prospect of making meals for one rather than two. Others found they'd lost the partner or parent who'd made all the meals and found themselves not only grieving but without the knowledge and skills to cook for themselves. They explained how a simple course has given them far more than just a collection of recipes.

The programme also looks at the legacy of recipes which can be a way to remember loved ones and connect with them after they have passed on. Over the years Bridget Blair has gathered together the recipes of relatives, friends and neighbours for posterity and while the book is covered in spatters and finger marks her children are keen to inherit the secrets of those recipes and the memories. Meanwhile Rob Tizzard is trying to replicate his late mother's bread pudding recipe from memory which somehow never seems to come out exactly the way she made it but brings him joy trying.

Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sheila Dillon explores how bereavement can change our relationship with food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Produced by Margaret Collins.

Sheila Dillon examines the changing fortunes of different berries.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Food writer and critic Charles Campion and restaurateur and writer Mark Hix were the judges for this category and talk Sheila through the finalists.

In this first year of the Best Drinks Producer category the judges were overwhelmed with nominations for innovative entrepreneurs making all manner of juice, perry, teas, and wines. But the three drinks chosen - a cask ale, a spirit and a traditional cider - have been made in these islands throughout our history.

Sipsmiths are one of a new generation of artisan distillers riding the coat-tails of pioneer distiller Julian Temperley who battled H M Customs for the right to distil. Simpsmith's were awarded the first London distillers licence in nearly 200 years, and now produce a London gin and a barley vodka from their west London residential neighbourhood distillery.

Mike Henney's Herefordshire ciders are the result of a hobby that got out of hand. From airing cupboard tinkering via farmers markets the brand is now sold throughout the country's main supermarkets, making good quality cider accessible to all. Henney's ciders all have protected name status, with apples sourced from within Herefordshire and the cider is made in a traditional way.

Wye Valley Brewery is a family business started by Peter Amor and now run by his son Vernon. It brings new meaning to local produce - beers are only sold within 50 miles of the brewery, the majority of hops are grown within 7 miles, and one beer, the Dorothy Goodbody Imperial Stout, even used Herefordshire malting barley.

Distiller, brewer, or cider maker - Sheila Dillon reveals the Best Drinks Producer.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This year, Sheila Dillon and chef Angela Hartnett visit a local nose-to-tail butchery, a community cooperative farm and an enterprise employing ex-offenders to make delicious pasties and pies.

H.M.Pasties was set up by Lee Wakeham to ‘bring out the good inside' by employing ex-offenders like himself to make and sell handmade Cornish-style pasties and baked goods to customers across Greater Manchester while adding real social benefit to the community.

Locally sourced meat, nose-to-tail eating and artisanal butchery are the terms that define Lizzy Douglas's The Black Pig, whose philosophy is to use only naturally-reared, free range meat to support the local economy and supply customers with fantastic quality Kentish produce.

Growing with Grace is a farm dedicated to supplying sustainably grown produce to local people and businesses. Growing in nearly two acres of glasshouses, they pride themselves on producing the best quality organic vegetables, salad, and fruits in the region using a community supported agriculture model.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Robbie Armstrong

Sheila Dillon and chef Angela Hartnett visit this year's Best Food Producer finalists.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Ardgay Game is a family run business which sources the highest quality wild venison from the Highland estates of Scotland. Their team of expert butchers turn this source of sustainable wild meat into a premium product which is exported all over the world.

The Edinburgh Butter Co produce cultured butter made with traditional methods to create deep, rich flavours. Nick and Hilary Sinclair started the business from scratch in 2018 out of the desire to make delicious butter made from locally sourced cream, and now their products are used in hospitality, catering and deli shops as well as by artisanal bakers.

Tablehurst Farm is a 500 acre community farm and social enterprise founded in the mid-1990s. They produce their own meat, poultry, vegetables, raw milk and arable crops to biodynamic and organic standards. At the core of their ethos is to involve the community at Tablehurst, inspiring others to farm and think about how food is produced.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

BBC Food and Farming Awards Food Producer finalists share their stories with Sheila Dillon

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Ardgay Game is a family run business which sources the highest quality wild venison from the Highland estates of Scotland. Their team of expert butchers turn this source of sustainable wild meat into a premium product which is exported all over the world.

The Edinburgh Butter Co produce cultured butter made with traditional methods to create deep, rich flavours. Nick and Hilary Sinclair started the business from scratch in 2018 out of the desire to make delicious butter made from locally sourced cream, and now their products are used in hospitality, catering and deli shops as well as by artisanal bakers.

Tablehurst Farm is a 500 acre community farm and social enterprise founded in the mid-1990s. They produce their own meat, poultry, vegetables, raw milk and arable crops to biodynamic and organic standards. At the core of their ethos is to involve the community at Tablehurst, inspiring others to farm and think about how food is produced.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

BBC Food and Farming Awards Food Producer finalists share their stories with Sheila Dillon

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme, Sheila and Yotam visit Felin y Glyn Farm in Pontnewydd to find how Illtud Llyr Dunsford and Liesel Taylor are pioneering a British charcuterie revolution; making delicious meat products and revitalising their local food scene.

Presented by Sheila Dillon & produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Yotam Ottolenghi and Sheila Dillon meet the BBC Food & Farming Awards' Best Food Producer.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Nearly 20 years ago Jed and Emma set about rearing their own meat to supply them and their friends and family as an experiment after becoming increasingly frustrated with the quality of the meat available from the supermarkets. This has now developed into a farm shop, Blue Tin Produce, selling their own free range pork & rare breed Dexter beef alongside produce from the surrounding Chiltern Hills including fresh English veg, their free range eggs, farmhouse baking, jams, jellies, chutneys and many other goods.

Falmouth Food Co-op started as a food hub selling groceries with the aim of making good food available to all and supporting local non-industrial farmers. This developed into a kitchen to celebrate their community and feed those who need help. They have recently started a new project - Love Land, a community field where they aiming to grow their own food sustainably and get local people to get more involved in the growing of their food.

Headed by chef and grower Joe Fennerty, Food Circle York runs a food market for local producers all specialising in organic, regenerative and sustainable food production, and facilitates direct links between producer and consumers. Joe's aim is to create a viable alternative to the current food system. In the nominations, people called Joe a catalyst and inspiration for change in York.

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Leyla Kazim visits 2021's Best Shop or Market finalists in the BBC Food and Farming Awards

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In it's heyday, the Sparkhill area of Birmingham was saturated with Balti restaurants, so much so that it became known as the 'Balti Triangle', a place which defined Birmingham's food scene and became one of the few parts of the UK where working class, immigrant, food was celebrated.

Since then, the Balti has grown in reputation as one of Britain's truly regional dishes, so much so that a bid was made, albeit unsuccessfully, to give it protected EU status.

Now, Yasmin heads back to Birmingham to explore what this uniquely British-Pakistani dish means to a new generation of people growing up in the so-called 'Balti Triangle'. What she finds is a community with strong bonds and deep pride, that continues to come together around a deep love of food.

Presented by Yasmin Khan

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Yasmin Khan charts the rise and fall of Birmingham's British-Pakistani Balti Triangle.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Last week the government published its long-awaited Food Strategy for England - a policy paper responding to Henry Dimbleby's National Food Strategy, a landmark national review into the food system. Reaction has been mixed, with campaigners disappointed that many of the review's bolder recommendations - like a tax on salt and sugar - haven't been taken up, and no mention of a Food Bill. So in today's programme Jaega Wise visits Birmingham to ask if cities could take up the mantle of improving what we eat, and talk to grassroots food groups about the change they want to see. Is it time for cities to step up and drive the food agenda, and far can they go in creating the radical change we need?

Presented by Jaega Wise and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Birmingham's grassroots food groups talk to Jaega Wise about the change they want to see.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Our most popular biscuits, including the digestive and the Bourbon became firm fixtures of British life in the 19th century. The snacks were produced in their millions in places like Reading and York and exported all over the world. Today, we spend more than 2.5 billion pounds eating our way through an ever increasing range of biscuits.

It's a world that's now having to adapt to a number of powerful trends. Firstly, as we're being encouraged to eat more healthy foods, millions of pounds are being invested by manufacturers with the aim of 'reformulating' some of the most valuable recipes in the food industry. Secondly, with the rise of global food brands, more and more of these iconic snacks are being bought up by a small number of companies.

What does all this mean for a British food institution? Simon Parkes takes a close look at the pleasures and the profits behind the biscuit.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Simon Parkes delves into the fast-changing world of a British favourite, the biscuit.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Bitter tastes are found all over the planet; wild leaves, fruits, vegetables and more. Bitterness is also charged with cultural and culinary meaning. It can be revered, sought after - but it is also a sign of toxicity, and is, it seems, increasingly being shunned.

Dan Saladino talks to Jennifer McLagan, author of the James Beard Award-winning book 'Bitter: A Taste of the World's Most Dangerous Flavour', who begun her epic journey into bitter following a conversation about grapefruits. Journalist and science writer Marta Zaraska has been tracking the de-bittering of our food, and reveals her findings, including the 'holy grail' of the assault on bitter. He also seeks out bitterness in the wild with forager and wild food specialist Miles Irving, and discovers the secrets of the bitter gourd (also known as bitter melon or karela) within a food culture that still deeply values bitterness, in the company of food writer and cookery teacher Monisha Bharadwaj.

As Dan delves into the world of bitter flavours, he shares a bitter brew with Professor Peter Barham - author of 'The Science of Cooking' - and visits the drinks laboratory run by cocktail experts Tony Conigliaro and Max Venning.

Tasting bitter leaves, crystals, digestifs and more along the way, Dan asks what we stand to lose if we lose the taste for bitter.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Dan Saladino on whether bitterness is disappearing from our food, and why it matters.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Each year the 'knights of the black pudding', a long established organisation of food lovers, hold the annual Foire au Boudin. Nearly six hundred butchers from around the world enter the competition to help celebrate the ancient dish.

As Charles discovers most of the world's great food cultures have some form of blood sausage and they vary in size, shape, texture and flavour.

Although we've been making this dish since the arrival of the Romans, many parts of Britain have fallen out of love with the black pudding. The simple recipe of blood, barley, fat, onions and spices is affordable, delicious and a complete meal, and there are signs of a chef led revival.

The competition, and the work on display of some extremely creative butchers provides many delicious reasons why this humble food really is worthy of a revival. Young chef and rising star James Winter based in Gloucestshire, also provides some tips on how to cook black pudding.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Charles Campion reveals the secrets of great black pudding at the 'world championships'.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme Tim meets butchers, cooks and chefs determined to put blood back on the dining table. From the Fruit Pig Co. Cambridgeshire butchers taking black pudding to its traditional routes; Otto Tepass退 an Austrian born restaurateur preserving and performing the theatrical French canard

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

And Borough's influence stretches beyond London: it served as a model for other local authorities for what a market could be, and how it could regenerate communities and areas. Even supermarkets imitated its ranges as urban wealth reached rural pockets.

But the market's success has latterly been overshadowed by criticisms that it has lost its way, catering now for tourists not local cooks, and introducing rising tariffs on traders that some say threaten their businesses.

Sheila Dillon charts the rise of the market with some of its founders, and asks the Chair of Trustees for the Borough Market, Peter Wilkinson, has this nationally important market lost its way?

Producer Rebecca Moore.

Sheila Dillon charts the success of London's Borough Market and asks, 'Where now?'.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Robert Opie takes Sheila round the Museum of Brands to see Bovril's strong advertizing campaigns. Pete Simson drinks beef tea with the crowds at a Bristol Rovers game. And Sheila samples a Bovril cocktail.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

Lesley Steinitz explains the pioneering story of Bovril - a very beefy love affair.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Reporter Mark Holdstock visits the launch of Fodder, the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's new shop and cafe outside Harrogate and talks to Deputy Chief Executive Heather Parry and to Jenny Clarkson of Just Jenny's Ice-cream.

Sheila Dillon visits Barford Farmhouse, near Wimborne in Dorset, and talks to Wendy Pope about their farmhouse ice cream. She asks why they launched it and how difficult and costly it was to develop a logo and to market it.

Sheila Dillon also talks to Julian Hunt of the Food and Drink Federation.

And Sheila is joined in the studio by Jonathan Gabay of Brand Forensics and Anthony Davison of Big Barn, a leading local food website.

Sheila Dillon investigates the farmers who have turned themselves into 'brands' to survive

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But for the last five years, a small community run bakery on the Scottish borders has been quietly gaining momentum, aiming to change the way Scotland thinks about food, and more specifically, about bread.

In this programme, Sheila Dillon visits the family behind Breadshare, now based in Portobello in Edinburgh. In the city's first community run bakery, husband and wife team Debra Riddell and Geoff Crowe, along with their son and a host of bakers and volunteers, sell bread, made with simple ingredients, and teach people how to make it. Could involving local people be the key to reconnecting Scottish people with Scottish food?

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Sheila Dillon visits the community bakery teaching Edinburgh to bake.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The majority of Britain's bread is highly processed, packed with additives and often made with cost, rather than quality, in mind. But countless bakers, amateur and professional, are fighting back.

Sheila finds out about some of the new ventures that are making artisan bread more widely available, and at a competitive price. Reporter Gerard Baker visits the Handmade Bakery in West Yorkshire, a community-supported bakery with dozens of local subscribers.

Sheila also hears about St Mary's Bakery in Frensham in Surrey, where Richard Dean started his venture by offering his bread to the neighbours. Sunday Telegraph food columnist Bee Wilson explains what happened to bakers in the Middle Ages when their bread was not up to scratch. In the studio, food writer Rose Prince launches her idea for extending breadmaking skills to the young as well as encouraging more people to enjoy 'real' bread.

Sheila Dillon celebrates 'real' bread and those who make it.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and writer, Tim Spector shows Sheila how she can track her blood glucose levels using a sensor to see how her body responds to different kinds of bread, while at the UK Grain Lab event in Nottingham, Sheila meets bakers and campaigners to find out why they believe it matters what kind of bread we eat. In Hendon in North London, a bakery has started producing sourdough bread on a big scale, showing that scaling up production can be done. The bread is being sliced and bagged and sold in supermarkets, with the aim of increasing accessibility to those who cannot easily get to a local bakery.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Sheila Dillon asks why we are being told to care more about the kind of bread we eat.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Joined by food writer and breakfast historian Seb Emina, Tim finds out how the great British breakfast became the envy of the world. With its origins dating back to aristocratic Edwardian country houses, the cooked breakfast spread through the chop houses of working class London and beyond.

But with the huge amount of breakfast choices now available and our increasingly busy lives, eating breakfast has become an increasingly diverse and fragmented food experience.

For some breakfast is an exercise in 'grab-and-go' and indulging in more of a 'desk-fast' than a meal, but there are some other interesting trends underway; sales of the big name cereal brands have been falling, porridge sales have been making something of a comeback. For an insight into this trend, Tim meets Nick Barnard of Rude Health, one of the more recent players on the breakfast scene competing for our morning appetite.

With the help of food writer Anna Berrill, Tim finds out how, for some, the traditional breakfast is becoming more of a whole social occasion. Writer and comedian Chris Neill explains his own personal problem with breakfast and we learn how the so called 'third wave' coffee scene is a growing influence on our mornings.

Producer: George Casey.

Tim Hayward offers reflections on the past, present and future of the British breakfast.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

They have generated a fair amount of controversy and infuriated some in the beer world. But no one can deny the huge impact they have made on the way we drink in this country.

In this programme, brewer Jaega Wise investigates the phenomenon of BrewDog, how from humble beginnings they have helped craft beer become a British staple through brash and controversial marketing and taking huge risks in business and beer.

Founders James Watt and Martin Dickie, who have just published a book BrewDog: Craft Beer for the Geeks, talk about their 13 years running one of the most exiting but controversial drink brands in the UK.

She also talks to some if the investors in the 'equity of punks' scheme (EFPs) about why the company has become an important part of their lives, to the beer writer Pete Brown about his new book Craft: an Argument.

Presented by Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol by Sam Grist

Jaega Wise explores world of craft beer giants, BrewDog

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The podcast of this programme is a special extended edition featuring Angela Hartnett.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Photo: Artur Melez Tixiliski.

Dan Saladino outlines the big food issues the UK faces because of the vote for Brexit.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Jaega Wise speaks to small, medium and large business owners to find out about the ongoing impact, she hears how cocoa beans and cardboard boxes are being stockpiled in a railway arch, how growers in the Lea Valley are fighting for staff, and how a single test for water quality could shut down exports for weeks.

The programme also hears from Professor of Economics at Bristol University Richard Davies, who explains how he has calculated the additional cost Brexit has added to all our food bills, and why he does not think the added costs are likely to come down. Plus we hear how Northern Irish producers are still being affected by the Protocol.

Despite all this, the Food and Drink Federation says trade is almost back to where it was before Brexit, but there are still many challenges that are impacting confidence in the industry.

Presented by Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Jaega Wise finds out how Brexit is working out for food producers, three years on.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

From its history as a bustling port city bringing in sugar, chocolate and coffee and exotic fare to today's vast range of restaurants, cafes and start ups with a 'come one come all' atmosphere, residents and visitors are spoilt for choice. It's even been nicknamed 'bread city' for its range of quality bakeries which still can't meet the high demand. Food Critic Mark Taylor says its approach to collaboration, community and doing things its own way mirrors its music scene.

But beyond pleasure, taste and innovation, Bristol has researched carefully how its people eat and where its 1.5 million meals a day come from and set out a 'Good Food Plan'. Sheila meets the young people who've designed an interactive fridge to find out what people need from their city to eat better and joins the 91 Ways project (named after the 91 languages, including Bristolian, which are spoken in the city) to see how shared food leads to shared stories and understanding.

The forthcoming 'Bristol Food Connections' festival aims to capture the essence of inclusiveness and collaboration to reach across class and generations, Sheila and Genevieve ask how they plan to do this and mirror the 'come one, come all' its food venues claim.

Presented by Sheila Dillon with Genevieve Taylor

Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sheila Dillon travels to Bristol to hear how food has shaped the city's past and present.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

All of this came into sharp focus with the horsemeat scandal. A 100pc horsemeat lasagne came to symbolise the problems and anxieties of allowing others to cook our meals for us. As a result some frozen ready meals were consigned to the history books, never to be seen in a frozen cabinet again, and manufacturers reported a big drop in sales.

That's not the full picture however. In 2014 we're seeing the continued rise and rise of the premium chilled ready meal, the 'posh' answer to the Italian, Indian and Asian frozen options. What does this trend tell us about our ongoing, and sometimes guilt-filled, romance with the ready meal? Who's buying all of these ready meals anyway?

Sheila Dillon visits high-end ready meals manufacturer Charlie Bigham whose business is growing in double digit figures. Sheila also hears from a sociologist (Miriam Glucksmann) about our relationship with the ready meal. Meanwhile Arabella Weir puts the ready meal in the context of more of us having to feed our families on a tight budget.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

The ready meal after horsemeat, why it was good news for chilled but a problem for frozen.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon discusses this year's winners in the Best Market category of the Food Awards

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The Food Standards Agency is reviewing who makes sure our food is safe and how that work is carried out.

Currently the UK's 434 local authorities employ 2800 people to police our food. With with austerity measures underway there's now less money to spend on those services and budgets for Environmental Health, Trading Standards and public analysis are coming under pressure.

It's resulted in food sampling rates and the number of inspections on businesses coming down. Professor Erik Millstone, an expert on the UK's food safety system, believes this could result in an increase in risk from food borne illness.

Already rates of Campylobacter, a bacterial form of food poisoning, are on the rise and so any future safety regime will have that as one of its main priorities.

Sheila Dillon interviews Tim Smith, Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency, about the cuts, the FSA's review and if economic pressures could lead to an increase in risk to our health.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Later, Yasmin's love affair with saffron inspired her to travel across Iran, documenting the country's rich culinary heritage in her book 'The Saffron Tales'. On her journey she learnt that the saffron crocus was cultivated in Iran by the 10th century BC and today has multiple uses in perfuming a variety of Iranian dishes. But she also made another discovery, that saffron has a unique and mysterious British history, that brings this magical spice, much closer to home.

In this programme, writer Pat Willard, chef Charlie Hodson, botanist Dr Sally Francis and community grower Ally McKinlay help to unfold an almost forgotten British saffron story, one that captivates and entrances everyone that comes into contact with it.

Presented by Yasmin Khan

Produced by Clare Salisbury.

Yasmin Khan discovers the unexpected British story of her favourite spice, saffron.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With the fall in the value of the pound against the Euro, imports have become more expensive. For years, all over Britain, there have been small businesses making authentic Italian produce. Will our economic woes create a situation in which these firms can now thrive? And how good can British versions of authentic Italian food be?

Home made Italian food. Sheila Dillon meets British producers making Italian ingredients.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon travels to the British Cheese Award to search for the perfect blue cheese for the mass market's palate. Food historian Ivan Day explains why Stilton was the most expensive cheese in Victorian Britain. And cheese maker John Longman shows Sheila how to turn a cheese blue.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Emma Weatherill.

Sheila Dillon finds out why new British blue cheeses are pushing their way into the market

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Harry Parker.

Food writer Tim Hayward goes in search of British charcuterie.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Chloe Doutre-Rousel- a former chocolate buyer for Fortnum and Mason and author of the book The Chocolate Connoisseur explains who around the world makes chocolate.

Dan Saladino visits a chocolate factory in Banbury, Oxfordshire, owned by Barry Callebaut, the world's largest chocolate producer. It makes one out of four of the chocolates eaten around the world.

The programme visits an award winning Italian chocolate producer, Amedei, based in the town of Pontedera near Pisa and hears from chocolate maker Cecelia Tissieri.

Sheila visits chocolatier William Curley who describes how he turns Amedei chocolate into truffles and pralines in his kitchens in Acton. Sheila then meets another chocolatier Bill McCarrick who explains how he makes his own chocolate couverture with something called a conching machine.

Finally, Chloe Doutre-Rousel gives some tips on how to search out the perfect chocolate.

Sheila Dillon meets the young British chocolatiers who are revolutionising the industry.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In addition to the food businesses, there are educational tours and a laboratory that can analyse the nutrient value of different soils and diagnose plant problems. The Plant Centre, which can identify different varieties for Brogdale, boasts over 2,000 different varieties of apples, including 60 different varieties of cooking apples. It remains of global as well as national significance.

Sheila meets Joan Morgan of the Friends of Brogdale, who campaigned to save Brogdale, and talks to Tony Hillier of Hillreed Land and landscape architect Tom le Dell. She drops in on food businesses including the Tiddly Pomme, selling ciders, wines and fruit juices, and events caterers, Scott Anderson.

Sheila Dillon explores Brogdale in Kent, home of the National Fruit Collection.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon visits the school and speaks to pupils, teachers, governors and local businesses to find out what impact and relevance a rural education has in today's world.

Sheila Dillon visits Brymore School of Rural Technology, a unique state boarding school.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Jaega speaks to a comedian about his complicated history with the drink, enlists help from a criminologist to understand Buckfast's rebirth, and finds out what the fortified wine tastes like as a pizza and cocktail ingredient with a sceptical chef.

A former police chief inspector explores the legacies of problem drinking, and she hears from the chief executive of an alcohol awareness charity about the dangers of scapegoating a single brand.

She visits a drinks lab experimenting with Buckfast in north London, tracks its evolution, and asks if terms like class appropriation and gentrification apply to this much-maligned bottle of tonic wine.

Presented by Jaega Wise.

Produced by Robbie Armstrong.

Jaega Wise finds out how a tonic wine with a troubled past became middle class.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon looks at a new attempt to revive its reputation as a quality food. This new 'burger scene' where immense care is taken with sourcing the meat and using the right cuts, reflects not only a shift in burger eating, but also in attitudes to meat eating itself.

The highly respected food and farming writers Simon Fairlie and Colin Tudge both share the views on eating meat in the 21st century.

Producer: Dan Saladino

Photography: Paul-Winch Furness.

Sheila Dillon looks at the hamburger and it how changed the world's attitudes to meat.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Genevieve goes to Cambodia in search of the ingredients that make up its distinct flavours and in the UK she talks to Y Sok who runs two Cambodia restaurants in Marple and Altrincham, she meets Simon and Kamya Allen from the Khmer Kitchen in Somerset and she hears the story of Longteine de Monteiro, a chef who fled the Khmer Rouge regime and set up Cambodian restaurants in France and the US.

Genevieve Taylor tells the story of the forgotten Cambodian food being rediscovered today.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Tim has got wind of a man who is throwing all of his energy into changing forever how people see (and taste) camping food. Setting off on an arduous voyage to meet Josh Sutton - aka The Guyrope Gourmet - our intrepid presenter learns about tribal caches, a pioneering outdoorsman with a love of Italian cuisine, as well as a whole new way to experience 'local food'.

Tim Hayward is joined by Matthew De Abaitua, author of 'The Art of Camping'.

Producer: Rich Ward.

How camping food can be much more than tinned food and bangers. Tim Hayward finds out.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With over 60 per cent of the British population now overweight or obese everyone agrees that change is needed in how we eat and what we eat. One part of the government's strategy involve so called responsibility deals, agreements with the food industry based around a series of pledges.

A growing number of food manufacturers and retailers have signed up, pledging to reduce calories, remove salt and harmful trans-fats from food. But will it deliver a big enough change in the nation's diet?

Sheila Dillon finds out how the Danish government has recently opted to place a tax on nutrients like saturated fat and sugar, meanwhile in New York City, mayor Michael Bloomberg has placed a ban on ingredients like trans-fats and is now placing restrictions on the size of soft drink portions.

So, to tax, ban or adopt voluntary agreements on food? Sheila hears how the three different ideas are being developed.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Sheila Dillon and Henrietta Green ask if food is the key to reviving UK high streets.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Groups of scientists, chefs and artists are now finding pioneering ways to rethink the global food system. At the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew a programme of events called Food Forever involves exhibitions and installations exploring some of the biggest and most complex questions over the future of our food (including this fantasy world of food abundance by Australian artist Tanya Schultz (Pip & Pop), ranging from biodiversity loss and climate change to under utilised crops and enticing flavours.

Dr James Borrell, a research fellow at Kew, explains why a giant plant in south-western Ethiopia, a valuable source of food, called enset (aka 'false banana') is one of the stories we should all know. Designers, Mar퀀a Fuentenebro and Mario Mimoso (Sharp and Sour) describe the 'Museum of Endangered Food', also on display at Kew, which includes enset.

Meanwhile at The Serpentine Gallery,, artists Cooking Sections, is not only creating installations but influencing menus at restaurants such as Benugo's The Magazine.

Photo: When Flowers Dream, an installation by Pip & Pop, (photographer Roger Wooldridge).

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme Sheila Dillon travels to Wales to find out what this has to bare on the city's food scene. She hears how modern redevelopment is pulling in big restaurant chains, whilst small scale food businesses come up with imaginative ideas to stay in the game. She discovers a part of the city which still reflects the mass immigration into Cardiff docks of the 19th century. Food businesses which are evolving as today's migrants take the helm. She tries a truly home-grown brew, made with crowd grown hops by Cardiffians, and she gets a taste of the city's most revered pastry encased creation. This is a city where food means more than it might first appear.

Sheila Dillon finds out how waves of migration have shaped Cardiff's vibrant food scene.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme, relatives share their anxieties about the catering on offer to elderly parents, about the quality of food, and how well trained care staff are at getting meals from plates to mouths. Sheila Dillon hears how some care homes are tied into buying food from certain catering companies, and discovers the average care home now spends £4 a day on food per person.

In Hertfordshire, Sheila meets an organisation called Hertfordshire Independent Living Service which is being funded by the NHS to improve nutrition and hydration in care homes - it offers training and accredits those that are doing particularly well. While in the Surrey Hills, Birtley House care home has been growing vegetables to be used in the kitchen for several years, its chef explains how it helps keep the menus interesting and the residents healthy.

GBBO judge Prue Leith, who recently carried out a review for the Government into hospital food, says money must be spent on providing better training for care home staff. A chefs course specifically for those working in social care has been set up, but so far only one college is offering it.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Reporting from Carolyn Atkinson

Sheila Dillon explores the challenges around cooking up good quality food in care homes.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Charles had first worked in advertising, then became a chef in his own hotel-restaurant and eventually turned to food writing. He made numerous appearances on The Food Programme and was a longstanding judge in the BBC Food and Farming Awards. As Jay Rayner explains in this edition, 'the food world will be all the poorer for him not being in it.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Photo credit: Dominick Tyler.

Why was the late Charles Campion so driven to tell food stories? Dan Saladino finds out.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Ethno-botanist James Wong argues that rhubarb is the only uniquely British indigenous vegetable. Agricultural expert Dr Oliver Moore discovers the work that a seed bank in Ireland is doing to increase variety in our potatoes. And food writer Andrew Webb unearths new uses for onions.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Emma Weatherill.

Sheila Dillon discovers surprising stories behind humble British vegetables.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Citing flavour as a 'soothsayer', and a passionate advocate of the role of the chef in bringing about change in the wider world beyond the walls of the restaurant, he is currently in the UK with a project called 'WastED London' - an unusual temporary restaurant taking aim at the problem of food 'waste'.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Photo: Richard Boll.

Dan Saladino meets influential US chef Dan Barber, in the UK on a food 'waste' mission.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan hears from a range of chefs who open up about the way their chosen profession has affected their lives, including Mark Hix, Rene Redzepi, Matty Matheson, Paul Cunningham, Shaun Hill and Philip, who works through an agency cooking in the kitchens of pubs, chains and restaurants on our high streets.

Giving an over view is Kat Kinsman, a journalist who came out about her own experiences with depression when she was working for CNN in the United States. After meeting a succession of chefs who spoke to her in confidence about their own mental health problems she set up a website 'Chefs With Issues'. She's now head from thousands of chefs around the world who have spoken out about the impact the restaurant world and kitchen life has had on their mental health.

Mark Hix talks about his friend, the late chef Jeremy Strode who took his own life after decades of cooking in Sydney. Jeremy had invested much of his time raising awareness of mental health issues and had supported a suicide prevention charity, RUOK. Mark opens up about the impact Jeremy's death has had on him, as well as the wider pressures facing people in the hospitality industry.

Chef Paul Cunningham, describes how he woke up one Sunday afternoon and realising he couldn't move his left arm. A stress related blood clot was the cause and he ended up spending five weeks in hospital recovering. He describes the addictive quality of kitchen work, and also the stresses and strains it can bring.

Penny Moore, Chief Executive of Hospitality Action, the benevolent organisation set up in 1837 to provide help for people working, or have previously worked in the hospitality industry, explains that the hospitality workforce of more than 3 million, has higher rates of alcohol and drug abuse. The main issues they also deal with is bullying and harassment in the workplace. Penny believes a culture shift is underway in the industry with chefs, including Sat Bains, reducing working hours and opening times to improve the work-life balance of staff.

Philip, a 63 year old agency chef describes his working life in the kitchens of pubs and restaurant chains, saying a just-in-time work culture is making the profession a tougher one to survive in.

Shaun Hill, the celebrated chef at the Walnut Tree Inn in Abergavenny provides a reminder of why so many people love to work in kitchens and why he's loved spending his working life in restaurants.

Dan Saladino investigates pressures on chefs and the darker side of the restaurant kitchen

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The programme also features a trip to the coriander beds of a grower, Charlie Bransden, to hear why the roots, as well as the seed of this herb, are crucial to Indian cuisine, and food historian Tom Jaine decribes the unusual culinary route of coriander from west to east.

Cyrus Todiwala gets to work with spices, herbs and his very own Indian meat pickle.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Cauliflower has fallen from culinary favour, eclipsed by its superfood cousin broccoli. Bland, white and often smoothered in cheese sauce, the cauliflower is no longer a fashionable ingredient, and sales are falling. But are we missing out?

Yotam grew up in Jewish west Jerusalem, while executive chef and partner in the business Sami Tamimi grew up in the Arab east Jerusalem. Both grew up eating cauliflowers, and in this programe are trying to afford the cauliflower its rightful place alongside the other members of the brassica family, cabbage and brocoli.

Phillip Effingham is chairman of the British Brassicas Association and Director of Farming and Agronomic Development at Marshall Bros, growers of cauliflowers in Boston, Lincolnshire. Cauliflowers are well suited to the rich soils of the Wash, the centre of cauliflower production today. The biggest problem for cauliflower growers is that its peak season, during the warm summer months, coincides with a general drop in sales as shoppers turn to salad. Low prices used to encourage sales often mean it is not worth growers spending the money to harvest them, and excellent quality cauliflowers are left to rot in the field.

But cauliflower is a perfect summer ingredient, and lends itself to many different styles of cooking, from traditional British to Middle Eastern and Indian. Yotam and Sami give the cauliflower the Ottolenghi treatment in two dishes: fritters, a dish from Sami's childhood, and chargrilled in a salad.

Yotam Ottolenghi brings some much-needed passion to the neglected cauliflower.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the 1950s, the Raspberry Express train brought Perthshire 'rasps' every day from Fife to Covent Garden in London, but since those days the growers have faced competition from eastern Europe and from Spanish varieties as well as the ever-present threat of root disease.

How have the growers adapted to changing markets? Jeremy finds optimism in the air, as demand for home-grown raspberries continues to grow.

Jeremy Lee explains why raspberries are his favourite fruit and meets growers in Scotland.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

He explains, with the help of chef David Thompson, food writer Roger Owen and herb grower Jekka McVicar, why lemongrass is such a prized ingredient in Asian cooking.

It is a herb with many uses; outside the kitchen it is regarded as an important medicinal herb and has even been used by the SAS as a source of moisture in the Malaysian jungle.

Raymond Blanc has been using lemongrass for decades to give dishes a light and fragrant flavour. In the programme he prepares two dishes: a fillet of brill on a bed of spinach and, for dessert, a summer berry soup infused with the flavours of lemongrass.

Raymond Blanc explains how travel in Asia led to a culinary love affair with lemongrass.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

So what then?

In this programme, Sheila Dillon is joined by two young campaigners on child food poverty Jani Clarke and Shane Robinson who've been hearing from young people across the UK with first-hand experiences of food poverty in their communities. They explain how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected home life and access to nutritious food. And why they are working with food campaigning charity The Food Foundation to demand more action from the UK government in their updated Right2Food charter. Sheila also asks actor and campaigner Dame Emma Thompson on why she's calling for the Government to listen to these young people.

Deputy Mayor of London for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement Debbie Weekes-Bernard explains how the pandemic has affected opportunities for families living in food poverty, and journalist Louise Tickle describes the potential long term impact on children's' access to education and opportunities should food poverty figures rise in the UK.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

Dame Emma Thompson and teenagers from across the UK call for action on child food poverty.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Nearly every major city in the world has one- a district where Chinese immigrants have settled to live, work and eat. This week in a collaboration with BBC Radio 4's 'The Food Programme', Dan Saladino takes you on a tour of Chinatowns around the world. From one of the oldest, in Manila, to one of the newest, in Johannesburg- Chinatowns create a global trail of economic and culinary influence. And the food that they serve reflects not only the tastes of home, but of the adopted countries.

In this programme we ask how these urban communities reflect not only the history of Chinese immigration, but the changing role of China as a global power. Including visits to Havana, to look at the legacy of communism in a Chinatown that rarely serves Chinese food, and Shanghai, where the fortune cookie - a westernized version of Chinese cuisine is finding a new market at home.

Featuring:

Fuchsia Dunlop

Jennifer 8. Lee

Peter Kwong

Chan Chow Wah

Gerry Choo-ah

James Wong

With reporting from:

Vivienne Nunis

Celia Hatton and Maria Byrne

Victoria Phenethi

Will Grant

Produced by Kent DePinto, Sarah Stolarz and Dan Saladino.

Photo: Gates of Chinatown, Credit: Thinkstock.

The James Beard Award-winning edition on the story of Chinatowns around the world.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

From one of the oldest, in Manila, to one of the newest, in Johannesburg, Chinatowns create a global trail of economic and culinary influence. And the food that they serve reflects not only the tastes of home, but of the adopted countries.

In this programme, made in collaboration with BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain, we ask how these urban communities reflect not only the history of Chinese immigration, but the changing role of China as a global power.

Including visits to Havana, to look at the legacy of communism in a Chinatown that rarely serves Chinese food, and Shanghai, where the fortune cookie - a westernized version of Chinese cuisine is finding a new market at home.

Producers: Kent DePinto & Sarah Stolarz.

The changing story of the world's Chinatowns. Dan Saladino looks at the biggest and best.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

There are 400 varieties of tea plant, 6 types of tea all processed in a different way, and seemingly infinite variations of terroir and tea-producing traditions that have gone into creating the unique and complex culture of tea in China.

To try to understand some of these complexities, Andrew Jefford joins pioneering tea importer Edward Eisler of Jing Tea, as he visited some of his suppliers in China.

They begin their journey at the very farm which produced some of the first black teas ever shipped to Britain - Bohea Farm, in the Floating Dragon Gorge of Wuyi Mountains.

Bohea is a black tea made from wild, organically grown tea bushes, and in the early days bohea was a term used to describe all black teas from China. As a black tea the leaves are withered, then allowed to oxidise before they are processed, or gently heated, with smoke from local pine logs.

This subtly smoked flavour was the precursor of the more aggressively smoky Lapsang Souchong tea, made using different base teas and using more smoke. Andrew talks to Bohea Farm President, Jiang Yuanxun about the quality difference between Lapsang Souchong and Bohea.

Andrew visits the port city of Fuzhou and meets jasmine tea producer Zhen Zhen. She talks about tea making and drinking in modern day Chinese culture.

Andrew goes to Hangzhou in China's biggest tea-producing province Zhejiang and talks to exporter Li Haitao where they visit a tea house in the water garden of China's national tea museum. They drink Long Jing or Dragon Well tea, one of the most famous green teas in China, and a far cry from the green tea readily available in the UK. Ed explains how this is made.

Andrew visits the city of Guangzhou (formerly Canton) and Fangsun Market where he finds out about puerh tea, a tea from Yunnan Province which usually goes through a distinctive ageing process.

The rarest puerh teas are up to 100 years old, and for a 350g cake of `red seal` puerh, produced in the 1950s, you would pay £8,000. Andrew talks to Miss Zhiang Jung of the Men Dao Puerh Tea Connoisseur's Club, which overlooks the Pearl River in Guangzhou, and samples the rare red seal puerh.

Andrew Jefford visits China to explore its centuries-old tea culture.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In Britain the chip found its perfect partner in fish 'n' chips. Quite when that happened is disputed, but according to the fish 'n' chip fraternity 1860 is the most likely date, and to celebrate they organised a workshop in London, to explore every aspect of the famous pairing from beer batters to mushy peas, and of course a comparison of 4 different potato varieties to find out which made the perfect chip.

But today half the chips consumed in this country don't come fresh from the fryer, but from the freezer cabinet. 30 years ago McCains introduced the oven chip to Britain and now, according to the company, 70% of households would have a packet of their chips in the freezer. Sheila Dillon visited their largest factory in Peterborough to follow those chips through the process from potato to freezer bag.

In Belgium the oven chip hasn't caught on. Instead friterie shops proliferate, and Belgians take their chips very seriously. How the potato arrived in Europe remains contentious, but the Belgians are confident that it was them, and not the French, who invented the 'French' fry. Ray Kershaw visited the Friet Museum in Bruges established to celebrate their national fry with director Eddie Van Belle.

Produced by Rebecca Moore.

What makes the perfect chip, and who decides? Sheila Dillon finds out.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

As a supermarket supplier Chris Haskins helped develop some of the best selling dishes in recent history, including the chilled ready meal. After leaving Northern Foods he has advised the government on a range of issues including the future of farming. He is also a supporter of Genetic Modification and ambivalent about organic food.

Simon Parkes visits Lord Haskins on his farm and finds out what have been the forces that have shaped him, talks to him about his own eating habits and also explores his thinking on issues ranging from food production through to supermarkets.

Simon Parkes profiles Chris Haskins, farmer, former executive and government adviser.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon is joined by cooks who know about cooking for Christmas. She pays food writer Nigel Slater a socially distanced festive visit to talk about one of his favourite seasons in the kitchen. Baker, writer and doctor Tamal Ray, who cooked his family Christmas dinner solo for the first time in 2019, shares his learnings and gives advice for last minute Christmas desserts. Brothers and co-founders of 'Original Flava' Craig and Shaun McAnuff share memories of Christmases past and their ideas for festive party drinks. While writer Kate Young, author of 'The Little Library Christmas' speaks to Sheila about making new culinary traditions and embracing the downtime the festive period can provide. And in a year where get-togethers might just look a little bit different, outdoor cook and BBQ expert Genevieve Taylor proves the cold isn't an excuse not to keep cooking al fresco and designs a full Christmas dinner for the fire.

With a few days to go before the big day, and whatever's on the menu this year, The Food Programme and friends guarantee a bit of Christmas cheer.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced by Clare Salisbury for BBC Audio Bristol.

Nigel Slater, Genevieve Taylor & Tamal Ray share food ideas for a Christmas like no other.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Jamie Oliver, Angela Hartnett and Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood are among the top chefs who create an imaginary banquet of Christmas delicacies. Food writers Tom Jaine and Kirsten Rodgers discuss these foods, and hear about past Christmas traditions from food historian Peter Brears as he cooks up dishes in Wordsworth's Cottage in Grasmere.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Emma Weatherill.

Sheila Dillon hears from leading chefs and writers on their necessary Christmas pleasures.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Chef Thomasina Miers and Sheila Dillon on doing more with less at Christmas.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A cider revival has been building for a number of years, many credit the 'over-ice' advertising campaigns of the last decade for raising mainstream interest. What's happened since that time has been fascinating to watch for producers and drinkers alike.

At the premium, craft end of the cider business more and more small scale producers have arrived on the scene. Wales alone, which all but lost its cider making culture, now has more than 40 new ciders being produced. Pete Brown, author of the recently published, World's Best Cider, has travelled across the globe to document the fact that this is a revival that's spread far beyond the United Kingdom.

As part of this world tour Sheila and Pete tell the story of the Tieton Cider Works, a new cider business in Washington State in North West America. The Tieton producers are experimenting with new techniques and flavours, including the use of hops and natural fruits. This might sound like a step too far for many traditionalists and in the programme Sheila and Pete give their verdict.

Meanwhile in high-street pubs, supermarkets and off-licences more big brands have moved into the cider market, including Carlsberg and Stella Artois, they along with more familiar names like Bulmers and Thatchers have launched a wide range of fruit ciders. It's this part of the market that is really booming, but is it really cider? Sheila looks at the often confusing world of the ingredients and liquids that are allowed to become part of a glass of cider.

Produced by Dan Saladino.

Drinks writer Pete Brown explains why bottles of cider should be on the UK's dinner tables

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Joining Sheila are Catherine Phipps, food writer and creator of a new book 'Citrus - Recipes that Celebrate the Sour and the Sweet' out this week, Helena Attlee author of 'The Land Where Lemons Grow' and Michael Barker, Editor of Fresh Produce Journal.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon steps into a vivid, flavour-filled and surprising world of citrus.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

When she arrived in Britain in the fifties, foods like hummus and pitta were nearly unheard of, and 'to talk about food was a taboo subject'. Things have changed. That these foods are now common-place and mainstream is in large part due to Claudia Roden's work.

Going on to write 'The Book of Jewish Food', 'The Food of Spain', 'Arabesque', 'Mediterranean Cookery' and others, and with a new edition of 'The Food of Italy' out next month twenty-five years after its first appearance, Sheila Dillon meets Claudia Roden. Sheila discovers a colourful and turbulent life in which food has meant so much, a life which has shaped a unique and powerful voice in food writing.

Claudia was born in 1936 into a family of Sephardic Jewish merchants, into a cosmopolitan Cairo that has, in the wake of the Suez Crisis, long since disappeared. This is the story of a family in exile and the power of food to sustain individuals and entire cultures.

With the help of Simon Schama, who is a long time admirer since coming across that first book as a young history teacher, Sheila Dillon charts a remarkable life in food.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Rich Ward.

Claudia Roden talks about her life, cooking and Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She meets Jeremy Torz, director of Union Coffee Roasters, one of the first of a now growing number of small businesses sourcing and roasting speciality coffee beans.

She hears from coffee writer Daniel Young who explains why London has become one of the most influential cities in the world when it comes to a making an espresso. Sheila also asks why, despite the success of the high street chains and more awareness of roast and ground coffee, most of us still turn to a cup of instant when we make a cup at home?

Producer: Dan Saladino.

With coffee sales increasing Sheila Dillon asks what is actually in our daily cup?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Behind every cup of coffee is a story - or rather many stories. A whole chain, from people to processes, all of which make a difference to the taste and experience.

Featured in the programme are Stephen Leighton - roaster and founder of Hasbean, James Hoffman - author of 'The World Atlas of Coffee: From Beans to Brewing', Barista Claire Wallace - Winner of the 2015 Scottish Aeropress Championships, Professor Robert W Thurston - coffee shop owner and Senior Editor of 'Coffee - A Comprehensive Guide', Alejandro Martinez - Coffee Grower in El Salvador and Sarada Krishnan - Director of Horticulture at the Denver Botanic Gardens and coffee scientist..... and Joe of Brew in Bristol who makes Dan's espressos when he takes a break from The Food Programme office.

The podcast of this programme features extra material, including coffee businessman Kenfe Bellay on the Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony and a new coffee story from the Ark of Taste.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Dan Saladino, longtime espresso-drinker, journeys into coffee's past, present and future.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Elizabeth burke.

Sheila Dillon celebrates the power of food to comfort us in hard times.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But for a long time, they have been in decline for a number of reasons, tough competition from chains, our changing tastes and work patterns. From the early 2000s people have been calling curtains for the cafe, but, with inflation, the cost of energy and a crisis in hospitality staffing, things are looking as bad as ever.

In three meals in three different locations across the country Leyla Kazim celebrates the greasy spoon.

She start with breakfast with Guardian columnist, author and fry up expert Felicity Cloake in Bournville Cafe, Birmingham. In her book 'Red Sauce Brown Sauce' Felicity explores why the fry up is so important to the British psyche by traveling the country.

For lunch, she chats to her dad who owned caffs when she was growing up in Kaz's Kitchen in Woowhich. They talk about how owning a cafe has changed over time.

She's in Liverpool for dinner meeting Isaac Rangaswami who runs the caffs_not_cafes instagram page in Chinese caff San's Cafe. Isaac celebrates classic cafes and inexpensive restaurants, mostly in London.

There is also thoughts on the possible decline of tradespeople eating in cafes from Nick Knowles and some familiar voices tell us their all time favourite places to get a fry up:

Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Angela Hui, William Sitwell, Paula Mcintyre and Henry Jeffreys

Presenter: Leyla Kazim

Producer: Sam Grist

Leyla Kazim explores the magic of the greasy spoon.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Emma Weatherill.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila also hears from publisher Sarah Lavelle about this year's sales. And cookery writer Diana Henry talks about her addiction to cookbooks.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

Sheila Dillon presents a review of the most exciting cookbooks of 2014.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila is joined in the studio by Bee Wilson, historian and food writer who's about to publish First Bite: How We Learn to Eat, journalist and food writer Alex Renton, and Features Editor at trade magazine The Bookseller, Tom Tivnan.

Tim Hayward meets chef Magnus Nilsson - who has just completed a nearly 800-page work called The Nordic Cook Book, the result of an almost Herculean effort to tell the food stories of a vast region.

Sharing some of their standout books of the year are Xanthe Clay, Joanna Blythman, Gillian Carter and Diana Henry.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon and guests reflect on a year of cookery books and food writing.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Joining Sheila in the studio is cook, gardener and writer Jojo Tulloh, journalist and food writer Alex Renton, and the Features Editor at the trade magazine The Bookseller, Tom Tivnan. There's also tales of cider, science and rogueishness with drinks writer Henry Jeffreys. Also offering up her 2016 choices - is food loving BBC 6 Music DJ, Cerys Matthews.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon and guests reflect on the year's food books, including works by new writers.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Joining Sheila are the food writer Bee Wilson, and the Features Editor at the book trade magazine The Bookseller, Tom Tivnan. Expect tales of literature, simplicity, deliciousness... and a deep dive into the idea of 'comfort'.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon and special guests look at the food, cookery and drink books of 2017.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

There are also nominations from Mitch Tonks, Olia Hercules, Russell Norman, Bee Wilson and Paula McIntyre.

Producer: Toby Field

Sheila Dillon, Chetna Makan, Tom Tivnan and Kate Young discuss the cookbooks of 2018.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

And this year, that's been more important than ever!

The Food Programme's presenting team - Sheila Dillon, Dan Saladino, Leyla Kazim and Jaega Wise - gather for their annual book summit, sharing their favourite titles of 2020 and hopefully giving some festive gift inspiration along the way...

Plus tales from Iceland's 'Jolabokaflod' Christmas book tradition with Christopher Norris, this year's food and drink book sales chart with The Bookseller's Tom Tivnan, and a first book launch for former BBC Food and Farming Award winners, The Seafood Shack...

Produced by Lucy Taylor in Bristol.

Featured books include:

- Spoon-fed by Tim Spector

- Nose Dive by Harold McGee

- Root Stem Leaf Flower by Gill Meller

- Borough Market: Edible Histories by Mark Riddaway

- The Rangoon Sisters: Authentic Burmese Home Cooking by Amy Chung and Emily Chung

- Community Comfort: Recipes from the Diaspora compiled by Riaz Phillips

- Free the Tipple by Jennifer Croll

- Wine from another Galaxy: Noble Rot by Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew

- How To Drink Without Drinking by Fiona Beckett

- Red Sands by Caroline Eden

- Oats in the North, Wheat from the South by Regula Ysewijn

- Eat Like The Animals: What Nature Teaches Us About Healthy Eating by David Raubenheimer and Stephen Simpson

Sheila Dillon, Dan Saladino, Jaega Wise and Leyla Kazim discuss their books of the year

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this episode, Sheila, Dan, Jaega and Leyla get together at 'Books for Cooks' in London's Notting Hill to share their favourite titles; the ones that have made them think, that have inspired them to get creative, and have simply filled them with joy.

We also catch up with The Bookseller's Tom Tivnan to hear how publications and sales have been this year, food writer Signe Johansen shares her knowledge and experiences of ghost-writing in the cookbook world, and Eric Treuille, who first opened 'Books for Cooks' in 1983 shares with the team a recipe from his book of 2021.

Produced by Natalie Donovan in Bristol.

Our annual round up of the year's best food and drink books.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Gary Lineker hosts Leyla Kazim for lunch and reveals his new-found love of cooking.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Amar is one cook speaking to Sheila Dillon about his culinary inspiration and his rejuvenated enthusiasm for cooking. Sheila also speaks to double world champion, Paralympic Gold medal winning tandem cyclist, lifetime home cook and healthy food blogger Lora Fachie MBE about what role cooking has played in her life and career. And blind writer Simon Mahoney explains why he was inspired to write his first cookbook when he taught himself to cook after his wife, 'his eyes' passed away.

Sheila hears food stories and kitchen inspiration for aspiring cooks, whether sighted or blind.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Sheila Dillon meets the blind and partially sighted cooks inspiring others.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Food Stylist Genevieve Taylor is used to creating wonderful images of food for cookery books and adverts but in her first period drama she faced a new set of challenges - researching the typical foods available at the time and how they were served, how to recreate them, which 'cheats' to use all before transporting the food to set intact, dressing the scene and preventing the crew from stealing the goodies.

She invites us into her kitchen and to the secret set locations for an insight into the detailed effort made - but it's not easy. From sourcing obscure fruits, to whipping up dishes under a gazebo, balancing tiered cakes on wobbly dishes to turning out jellies in front of a whole crew - can she impress Ross Poldark, the Directors and the audience?

Presented by Genevieve Taylor and Sheila Dillon

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Food stylist Genevieve Taylor reveals how she created elaborate feasts for Poldark.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Harry Parker.

Sheila Dillon looks at the future of cooking and food preparation in the school curriculum

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Also in the programme, food historian, Polly Russell, discusses how food has been used to mark coronations from the 1500s to today, and chef Ken Hom talks us through the inspiration for his coronation lamb dish.

Presented by Jaega Wise and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Jaega Wise joins a community lunch, and explores the history of coronation eating.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Judging is currently underway for the Awards, which will be held for the first time this year in Wales.

Given the financial situation the UK is in, with food inflation at its highest rate since 2008, perhaps it's no surprise that many of this years finalists are involved with getting food to people who are finding it harder to afford what they need.

From pay what you feel shops, to allotments providing food banks with fresh veg, and cooking for the community, in the face of increasing need, and straight after dealing with the Covid 19 pandemic, our finalists keep stepping forward to support those around them.

Organisations and individuals featured include: EMS Ltd in Hull, Big Bocs Bwyd in Barry, Mrs Mair Bowen from Kilgetty (Pembrokeshire), Mr Alun Roberts (Caernarfon).

Presented by Leyla Kazim

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Leyla Kazim shares inspiring stories of community giving during the cost of living crisis.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

With food price inflation at 12% Dan Saladino finds out what lies in store for the winter.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Earlier this year, a UN special rapporteur found poverty in the UK to be 'systematic' and 'tragic'. The Work and Pensions Committee published a separate report suggesting that while poverty rates are much higher in households where no-one works, almost one in 10 households with children where all adults work full-time are in poverty. In the school holidays, food budgets are stretched even further.

Now a charity from India, who regularly feed 1.76 million school children, says it can help. In this programme, Romy visits a holiday club in Croydon in South London where Akshaya Patra are working with local groups and trialling a new way of providing school meals. Could the organisation's success in India help solve a UK holiday hunger crisis?

Presented by Sheila Dillon and Romy Gill.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Charity Akshaya Patra feed 1.76 million school children a day. Now it's coming to the UK.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Tom Bonnett

Photograph: Space10

Sheila Dillon investigates why one day we could all be eating pond scum

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With around fifty per cent of the UK's food supplies coming from overseas and our dependence on a complex and interconnected food system Dan investigates where the pressures are being exerted and how the government and retailers are responding. Concerns are growing for food banks, charities dependent on surplus food and the most vulnerable in society.

Dan also hears from people who have had to feed themselves during the lockdowns in China and Italy. He also speaks to Professor Andrew Cunningham, an expert in zoonotic diseases, about the origins of coronavirus within the food supply chain.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino tracks the origins and impact of coronavirus within the food supply chain.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The global food system has been exposed to levels of disruption not seen since World War II. According to Andre Laperriere, of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) Covid-19 has led to levels of food waste in developed economies increasing from around 30 per cent to 40 per cent of everything that's produced, distributed and consumed. Many farmers in Europe and north America have been unable to harvest their crops, supplies of food inside restaurants have been left uneaten and dairy farmers have had to dispose of millions of litres of milk.

However, Covid-19 is also leading many people to rethink supply chains, reinvent national food systems and innovate. Dan hears about some of these ideas now being put into practice. He finds out how 'Disco Soups', online events that are taking place around the world combining cooking, music and dance is saving tonnes of food going to waste (and providing fun and social interaction).

Meanwhile, specialist cheesemakers around the UK are exploring new ways of selling their cheese after restaurants, pubs and cafes were closed for the lockdown. One solution is a forthcoming British Cheese Weekender. This free online event will see cheese makers and experts present tastings and tutorials. The nation is being encouraged to buy cheese from small scale producers and eat along. This way it's hoped hundreds of cheesemakers at risk of going out of business can be saved.

Dan also speaks to Tristram Stuart, the food campaigner and author of Waste: Uncovering The Global Food Scandal, about his efforts over two decades to stop good food being wasted and hears how some of the ideas and networks created during that time could provide answers to how we can create a more sustainable food system in the post Covid-19 world.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

For more information on the British Cheese Weekender go to the Academy of Cheese website: https://academyofcheese.org/british-cheese-weekender/

and for information on setting up your own Disco Soup find out more from the Slow Food Youth Network: https://www.slowfood.com/what-we-do/international-events/world-disco-soup-day/ and look for the Step-by-Step guide.

Dan Saladino on how the crisis has resulted in vast amounts of food being lost and saved.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer Elizabeth Burke

Presenter Sheila Dillon.

Sheila Dillon explores our national passion for crisps.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila talks to Julia Wright about her book assessing the Cuban experiment, its success as a model of organic food production and what lessons can be learned by the UK. She also speaks to Professor Jules Pretty about the work being undertaken in the UK to address the issues of declining oil production and sustainability.

Cuba's years of experimentation with self sufficiency, organics and sustainable farming.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Authors have always used food and drink in their narratives to help develop plots, bring characters to life and give a sense of place but Dan chooses three novels with in which food and drink plays a very specific role.

In Jack Kerouac's On The Road, the 'beat life' of the 1940's and 1950's turns out to be one of feast or famine. The book, a disguised autobiographical work based on his travel journals across America, contains some of the most delicious and rich descriptions of food, as well as mournful accounts of hunger and longing.

Colin MacInnes, the author of the novel Absolute Beginners, set in late 1950's London, uses brief food and drink references to reveal the lifestyle and mind-set of a teenage counterculture and early modernist movement. DJ Ed Piller helps explains the surprising significance of a smoke salmon sandwich.

And then there's A Confederacy of Dunces. A comic novel whose main character Ignatius has a legendary appetite for the junk food of New Orleans.

Confederacy of Dunces to Absolute Beginners, Dan Saladino looks at food in cult fiction.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon visits Marks and Spencer to find out the lengths the giant retailer went to, in preparing its cupcakes for the market and asks if it joined the craze a bit too late in the day. Small bakeries explain what makes the perfect cupcake for them and in the studio, Comedienne Amy Lame and global food trends specialilst, Charles Banks, explore the importance of trends and what might be next.

Produced by Margaret Collins.

Cupcakes are a trendsetter's dream, but what might be next?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme Sheila Dillon meets pioneers of British Asian cooking. Chef Romy Gill MBE, one of the first Indian women to own and run her restaurant 'Romy's Kitchen' near Bristol. Winner of BBC One's Masterchef Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, whose multi-faceted career takes in cheffing, food writing, raising children and working as a doctor. Asma Khan, soon to be the first British restauranteur on the Emmy nominated Netflix series 'Chef's Table'. Takeaway chef Salina Ahmed, finalist in the British Takeaway awards for her cooking at 'Sizzlers' in Winchester. And Rakesh Ravindran Nair, Group Development and Training Chef at the Cinnamon Club in London.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

Sheila Dillon asks whey there aren't more women chefs in our South Asian restaurants.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Elsewhere, in Costa Rica, we hear a disturbing investigation into the lives of pineapple workers who accuse the big exporters of exploitation and union breaking to provide bargain fruit. And on the brighter side of pineapple growing we meet the woman who is working tirelessly to reintroduce farming of the exotic fruit to her island in the Bahamas.

Producer: Deiniol Buxton.

Supermarket fruit wars - Sheila Dillon finds out if they cause pain for the producers.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Behind the scenes at the world's biggest cycling events, the race is on in the kitchen.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

After years spent cooking in India, first at the prestigious Taj Mahal hotel and then in Goa, Cyrus Todiwala moved to London with his wife Pervin and created one of the most influential south Asian restaurants in the UK, Caf退 Spice Namaste.

With an emphasis on authentic regional classics including lamb dhaansaak and Goan prawn curry, for twenty five years Caf退 Spice helped reshape Britain's understanding of Indian food. Cyrus and Pervin tell the story of how it all happened, why they were forced to close the original restaurant in 2020 and how it's being reborn and reinvented in another part of east London.

An important driving force in Cyrus's life (and his cooking) is his faith (Zoroastrianism) and his identity (as a member of India's Parsee community). He explains how they have both shaped his outlook on life and his work as a chef.

Produced and presented for BBC Audio in Bristol by Dan Saladino.

From Mumbai childhood to pioneering Indian chef in London: Mr Todiwala's Life Through Food

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Fast forward to today, and the popularity of rum is still rising. But amid the flavours, brands and a vast range of rum-based drinks, there is very little information about how it's made and where it comes from.

In this episode, Jaega Wise visits two British rum producers making it in very different ways. One, Goldstone Rum, is the latest addition to a new group of distillers making rum from scratch in the UK. The other, the BBC Food and Farming Award-winning Isle of Wight Distillery, is part of a long tradition of blending and spicing rum made in the Caribbean.

But while rum has a sociable, sunny image thanks to its Caribbean heritage, not many people want to talk about its darker history and how it was once used as currency to buy enslaved Africans, who in turn worked on the sugar plantations that were the source of rum itself.

Who better to hear about the history and culture of rum than global rum ambassador Ian Burrell, who meets Jaega at RumFest to explain more about its origins, the rum scene in the UK and mix a cocktail or two.

Throughout this journey of rum, Dr Christy Pichichero, professor of history and expert in Black studies at George Mason University, explains why understanding the true story of rum is an important part of our shared history, and what it means to rum makers and drinkers today.

Presented by Jaega Wise.

Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.

From its origins on slave plantations to new ways of making it from scratch in the UK.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Many of us think no further about rum than how to mix it within a drink. But it has a unique story within our history through its links with slavery and the navy.

Delia Smith invites Sheila to join her to watch Norwich City's first home game under their new manager. At Carrow Road football club, where Delia and her husband Michael Wynn-Jones are majority shareholders, Sheila meets Delia's Canary Catering team which every match day, serve 1250 sit down meals. She joins fans by the bar at half time and Delia in the Director's dining room.

In Norwich city centre, Sheila meets chef and food blogger Zena Leech-Calton and in the Waveney valley, farmer and cheesemaker Jonny Crickmore. They describe the quiet food revolution which has happened in Norfolk and Suffolk. And Suffolk fisherman and restaurateur Bill Pinney and Essex turkey farmer Derek Kelly dwell on earlier encounters with Delia.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Photo by Robert Wilson.

Delia Smith has had a profound influence on East Anglian food. Sheila Dillon investigates.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In recent months there have been more sightings of the endangered fish in British waters but does that mean we can eat them?

The Bluefin is the rarest, most valuable and at risk of the seven tuna species found around the world. Found in three main stocks around the world, in the Pacific, Southern and Atlantic Oceans, some populations of the fish have declined by more than 97 per cent.

The vast majority of these large, fast and magnificent predators end up being auctioned in Japan where they are prized by sushi chefs. Dan looks at the past, present and possible future of our relationship with the Bluefin Tuna, hearing how its numbers fell into decline in the latter half of the twentieth century and why there are hopes for its recovery in years to come.

He travels to Tokyo to witness the tuna auctions at which some single fish have fetched prices as high as £2.5 million and finds out what led to its appeal in Asia. Chef Mitch Tonks describes his own experience of Bluefin, both as a fish he's watched hunting along the UK's southern coast and as a food he's eaten in Japanese sushi bars.

Professor or Marine Conservation Callum Roberts explains how we should react to the increased sightings in the Atlantic, and a police investigator describes how criminal networks are also targeting the Bluefin trade.

For the fascinating tale of how Bluefin tuna came to be so important in Japanese food culture Dan talks to Trevor Corson, author of The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Dan Saladino travels from Brixham to Tokyo in search of the endangered bluefin tuna.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

However many of the foods we think of as quintessential ‘destination' foods are elevated in the 20th century with the rise of easier travel and more and more tourism. On the other hand, it's easier than ever to access to ‘global' food in the towns and cities we live in. Sheila Dillon explores what travelling to eat looking for authentic experiences means in an increasingly globalised world.

We start the programme hearing the story of Nashville Hot Chicken from journalist Zach Stafford. In recent history, Hot Chicken went from an obscure speciality of a specific community in North Nashville, Tennessee to one if it's most iconic symbols. Zach tells the story of how Hot Chicken became part of the ‘Disnification' of Nashville as it has become a popular tourist destination. But like so much of American culture the story is racialised with new white owned businesses making money from a food created by a black community.

Sheila then travels to Brussels to become a food tourist herself. Guided by Elisabeth Debourse, Editor-in-Chief at Le Fooding she explores whether the search for the elusive ‘authentic' local food is helpful in trying to get a good meal. She visits Rue des Bouchers and restaurant Les Brigittines.

Someone who's thought a lot about food and place is food writer Anya von Bremzen. It's something she explores in her latest book is National Dish. She talks about how many iconic foods linked to place are much more modern than we might think.

The Food Programme is based in Bristol and although the city has a distinct culture, it doesn't have an iconic ‘destination food.' Sheila talks to is an actor, born and bred Bristolian and the new presenter of ‘A Proper Bristol Breakfast,' the Radio Bristol morning show about Bristol's eclectic food identity.

Produced by Sam Grist for BBC Audio in Bristol

Sheila Dillon explores what it means to travel to eat in a globalised world.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon explores what travelling to look for authentic food experiences means in an increasingly globalised world.

In this first part of the interview Diana talks about her beginnings in Antrim and how a revelatory French exchange and a move to London opened her eyes to new styles of cooking and fascinating ingredients.

While at University she was mocked for her love of cooking - in the 80s politics was the passion of the day - but the new 'fashionability' of food is not necessarily a good thing, according to Diana.

She's selected a number of excerpts of writing about food - which she feels capture a feeling or describe a moment with beauty and explains why they stand out from others. Her choices include poetry, novels, online articles and restaurant reviews.

The podcast including both parts of this interview are available from the Monday (Part 2) edition of the programme page.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock

Readers: Rebecca Ripley and Sam Woolf.

Diana Henry talks to Sheila about starting out in food writing and the authors she loves.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In Part 1 of the interview she shared about growing up in Antrim, how a revelatory French exchange fuelled her excitement about cooking and starting out in TV. She shared works by Naguib Mahfouz and Seamus Heaney.

In this second part, she shares more of her chosen excerpts on food - including memoirs, online journalism and restaurant reviews - and explains what each of the authors bring that inspires and excites her.

The podcast including both parts of this interview are available from this programme page.

Readers: Rebecca Ripley and Sam Woolf

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Diana Henry continues to share her favourite readings from food writers who inspire her.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

American food writer Paula Wolfert has written award winning books on the food of the Mediterranean. In 2012, she was diagnosed with a form of dementia and after careful research she transformed her daily diet. As Paula prepares to release what will be her final book, Sheila speaks to her about what food means now. Sheila also meets James Ashwell, a young entrepreneur whose online business venture was inspired by caring for his mother who loved to cook.

Sheila hears from Professor Margaret Rayman, who heads the nutritional medicine course at the University of Surrey. Her book 'Healthy Eating to Reduce the Risk of Dementia' draws on hundreds of academic papers into nutrition and the brain. And in an area which still requires so much research, Sheila speaks to an American academic embarking on what could be the 'gold standard' study into how what we eat affects the development of dementia.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury

Photo credit: Alison van Diggelen.

Dementia turns lives upside down, but where does food fit? Sheila Dillon investigates.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

9 months on from our last edition on food and dementia, Sheila Dillon hears from people living with dementia to see how food figures in their lives. She catches up with dementia entrepreneur James Ashwell, founder of Unforgettable.org and hears how he has made gadgets to make eating and drinking easier, available on the high street. Sheila also hears again from award winning food writer Paula Wolfert and her biographer and friend Emily Kaiser Thelin, and their work together on a book telling Paula's life story. From documenting Morocco and its cuisine in the 1970s, to the changes Paula has made to her diet to try to ameliorate her disease.

Sheila speaks to Professor of nutritional medicine, Margaret Rayman and nutritional epidemiologist Dr Martha Clare Morris, on the latest research into the connections between what we eat and whether or not we develop dementia.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury

This programme is an update of the edition 'Diet & Dementia' from October 2016 which recently won 'Radio Programme of the Year' at the Fortnum & Mason food and drink awards.

Photo credit: William Bayer.

An update on cook Paula Wolfert and entrepreneur James Ashwell's food and dementia stories

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the first few months of this year, the charity Diabetes UK received over 300 calls from newly diagnosed diabetics asking what they can and can't eat. It seems there's plenty of confusion about what foods need to be eaten to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and a misconception that a diabetes diagnosis means never eating sugar again.

This week, Felicity Evans is discussing some of the issues surrounding diet and diabetes. Her guests in the studio are; G.P, author and broadcaster, Dr Hilary Jones, dietician, Azmina Govindji, Simon O'Neill from Diabetes UK and Saturday Live's J.P Devlin, a Type 1 diabetic for more than 30 years.

They will offer practical tips on some of the best food choices, debunk a few myths and look at how it can change someone's life. Plus what does the latest research say about the type of diet diabetics should be eating.

Presented by Felicity Evans and produced in Bristol by Julia Hayball.

Felicity Evans discusses the role of diet in diabetes.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A man dies every hour from prostate cancer in the UK, but it is a slow growing cancer. This programme explores the findings that show a link between diet and this form of cancer.

Food campaigner Geoff Tansey, diagnosed with prostate cancer a year ago, has kept an audio diary relating his experience of the disease, the removal of his prostate, and his quest to discover the effects of diet.

Nutritional scientist Professor Margaret Rayman joins Sheila Dillon to discuss her findings, which show that the health of the prostate can be helped by eating a diet rich in certain foods and avoiding the harmful effects of others

Professor Rayman is joined in the studio by Professor Colin Cooper, of the Department of Molecular Biology at the Institute of Cancer Research.

Sheila Dillon on the latest findings suggesting a link between diet and prostate cancer.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

As well as resulting in one of the most diverse menus ever assembled it was an event that explained why cous-cous can spark conversation, how a special Bulgarian dish can help tell your fortune and why a hippy commune in 1970's Exeter was ahead of its time in how we think about food.

This unique event was the result of a project run by the Watershed arts centre in Bristol. The thirteen Europeans were taking part in a workshop to learn more about digital technology, food however, was the subject they would use to make this happen.

In one day, participants from Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Turkey, France and the UK would come up with a dish that would help them tell their life stories. In Bristol they'd shop, cook, share their food and their stories. The progamme captured this special food event and a restaurant and menu that would exist for one night only.

Hear the wonders of Bulgarian Banitsa, the pleasures of a Turkish Karn?yar?k and the delights of a two hour meal over Algerian cous-cous.

Producers: Dan Saladino and Hannah Briggs.

Inside one kitchen, 13 strangers from all over Europe share food and stories.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Anthony set up a blog last year to vent his fury at what he describes as bad science in his quest to reveal the truth behind so-called 'healthy eating'. He believes we're bombarded by false messages and claims about food.

In his quest to find out if Anthony's claims are justified, we meet Helen West, a registered dietician, and asks how damaging 'fad-diets' are. What happens if you cut out carbohydrates, dairy and gluten from your diet and we meet Eve Simmons. Eve became seriously ill with anorexia and blames the array of glossy websites featuring perfectly sculpted bodies, in part, for her illness.

We'll meet Dr Judy Swift who has been studying the link between social media and Orthorexia: eating disorders brought on by obsessing about eating certain foods.

But is Anthony's anger justified? James Duigan is the man behind 'Bodyism'. He's developed a plan of eating healthily whilst exercising regularly, but encourages detox plans. But what exactly is wrong with wanting to exercise and make yourself feel better?

We'll discover if Anthony has every right to be angry, or whether he should simply calm down.

Grace Dent discovers what has made Anthony Warner into the Angry Chef.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Tim Hayward and produced by Emma Weatherill in Bristol.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But are we missing something obvious? Could we bring down the cost to the taxpayer, reduce pressure on the health system, with simple advice on what we should eat and drink when we go to see our GP?

A growing group of medical professionals think so. Meet the doctors demanding better training on food and nutrition for students at medical school; Dr Rangan Chatterjee (BBC One's Doctor In The House), Dr Michael Mosley, (BBC Two's Trust Me I'm a Doctor) and Dr Rupy Aujla (The Doctor's Kitchen) and many more, all believe that if tomorrow's doctors were taught more about nutrition and diet, it could have a transformative effect on the health of the UK.

In this programme Professor Sumantra Ray, doctor and founding chair of NNEdPro Global Centre for Nutrition and Health describes a decade of work which could soon see widespread training for trainee doctors. And Sheila Dillon meets the students taking the conversation about food and health into their own hands.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury

Photo credit Neil Macaninch (above).

Meet the medical students and doctors who want more training on diet and nutrition.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the past year, loving dog owners in the UK spent 379 million pounds on posh nosh for their pooches.

What's more, more and more of us are seeking out humanised doggie dining experiences as well...

Accompanied by her faithful canine co-host Gertie - a five-year-old rescue dog who is totally Zen until the postman calls - Sheila Dillon asks whether this is this new dog food focus is in our pet's best interest - or whether we're simply imposing our own food values on our canine companions?

Sheila visits Butternut Box - a food box delivery service creating nutritionally balanced meals delivered to the door, for dogs; hears from Glossop butcher John Mettrick who's launched a side-line making raw pet food; learns what goes into a high-end brunch for pampered pooches, at M Restaurant in London; and meets Agnes, a vegan dog-owner who's dog has also been vegan for nearly a decade.

Produced by Lucy Taylor.

Posh nosh for pooches is becoming big business - but is it in our dogs' best interests?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She meets Charlotte Cook, an experienced brewer who says the most important thing now is to believe the stories, as some are being silenced by UK libel laws. Professor Chris Land from Anglia Ruskin University explains how certain workplaces can create unhealthy cultures, while bartender Nichola Bottomley says she was inspired to speak out after years of harassment working in pubs and bars.

In the US, Victoria James, who was named the country's youngest sommelier at 21, tells Jaega about her book Wine Girl, and how it went on to inspire other women working in wine to come together to speak out, eventually leading to a number of resignations. Becky Paskin, journalist and co-founder of Our Whisky, talks about the repercussions she faced after calling out sexism in the whisky industry. While Brad Cummings, co-founder of craft beer company, Tiny Rebel tells Jaega what is changing at his business, after it was called out by former employees online.

UKHospitality, which represents businesses in the industry says it's been working hard to tackle these issues and continues to work with members to promote a zero tolerance approach to harassment in the workplace by either fellow employees or customers.

Presented by Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Photo Credit: Laura Hadland of www.thirstmedia.co.uk

Jaega Wise speaks to those hoping to change how women are treated in the drinks world

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

As the duck shooting season gets underway, and consumption climbs steadily towards Christmas, Sheila Dillon investigates the culinary value and welfare conditions of wild and farmed duck.

Sheila Dillon investigates duck - both wild and farmed - for taste, cost, and welfare.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Angela Muir, MW, and director of Cellarworld, has spent much of the last 17 years working with wine producers to help them adapt to the rigours of the UK market. She joins reporter and sometime wine merchant Hamish Marett-Crosby on a whistle-stop tour of Eastern Europe at the International London Wine Fair. They met producers, including Eva from Hilltop in Hungary and Dmitri from Firebird in Moldova, both available in the UK (see below).

Andrew Jefford visited Bulgaria in the company of Ivan Zahariev, of Stork's Nest Estates, who also runs the UK importing company Winez, to find out how the wine industry is faring today, and how some producers are managing to escape the low price ghetto most wines are consigned to. He visits Alex Kanev from the Enira winery in the Bessa Valley of Bulgaria, and Emil Zaychev of Terra Tangra in Harmanli near the Greek border.

In a studio tasting Andrew and Angela sample a selection of budget supermarket wines, and a few more interesting offerings.

Andrew Jefford explores the increasingly popular Eastern European wine industry.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

60 years after the end of rationing Sheila and Clare find that there is still a lot to learn from that period. They meet women in their 80s and 90s to hear the cooking techniques that they learnt during rationing.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Emma Weatherill in Bristol.

How to revolutionize your cooking, 1940s style. With Sheila Dillon.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon visits Dr Walter Yellowlees, in Aberfeldy, at the eastern end of Loch Tay in Perthshire. Author of A Doctor in the Wilderness, he was for decades a GP who tried his best to practise preventive medicine with his patients. Now over 90 years old, he leads an active full life and still tends his organic garden.

Sheila is joined in the studio by Professor Margaret Rayman of the Department of Nutrition at the University of Surrey who has just returned from the Nutrition Society's meeting in Ulster and reports on the latest research regarding certain age-related conditions.

Reporter Kathleen Griffen talks to Dr Chris Parker at the Institute of Cancer Research/Royal Marsden Hospital on a thesis he is currently exploring, that prostate cancer may be amenable to dietary or food supplement therapy.

Sheila Dillon asks if we eat better, will we age better?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Jaega Wise meets artist, curator and gastronomy enthusiast Cedar Lewisohn to see his collection of artist's cookbooks, and hears how influential they have been.

At Tate Modern, the idea of wanting to eat like an artist has been taken a step further with the restaurant offering menus inspired by exhibitions. Head chef, Jon Atashroo tells us some of the stories that have gone into the dishes.

The concept of creating food inspired by the stories of artists lives and works has been picked up by museums worldwide. During lockdown, while many people have been getting more adventurous in their kitchens, galleries have been using recipes inspired by artists to bring a slice of their culture into people's homes. Jaega has a go at making a Mango-Pineapple Mezcal Margarita inspired by the work of Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo from the 'Cooking with LACMA' series. Hear how she gets on in full at the end of this podcast.

And the artists using their medium to influence change in our food systems. Turner Prize nominees 'Cooking Sections', tell Jaega how their exhibit at the Tate Britain has influenced the institution to stop serving farmed salmon.

Presented by Jaega Wise.

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan.

Mango-Pineapple Mezcal Margarita:

Makes one cocktail.

Ingredients:

50g Taj퀀n (seasoning)

1 lime wedge

2 tablespoons fresh mango (a chunk)

2 tablespoons fresh pineapple

3 Mint leaves

1 to 2 sugar cubes *

30ml Lime Juice (or juice of 1 lime)

15ml Orange Liqueur

45ml Mezcal

Jaega Wise discovers how art makes us eat; from cookbooks to curated menus and campaigns.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this week's food programme Sheila Dillon investigates the power of public eating in political campaigning. We talk to Trump's former communications Director Anthony 'The Mooch' Scaramucci about the president's love of fast food and why he communicates so well through what he eats. Ed Miliband's former advisor Ayesha Hazarika tells us why photos of him eating a bacon sandwich had measurable effect on the 2015 General Election. We also talk to James Beard winning photo journalist Gary He about his time with some of the Democratic Candidates taking photos of every single thing they ate.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Sam Grist for BBC Audio in Bristol

Sheila Dillon investigates the tricky world of eating on the campaign trail.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

At Cafe 21 Sheila meets chef Terry Laybourne to talk about the festival's ethos and its impact on the North East.

With the festival's director, Simon Preston, she attends an 'artisan house party' for a DIY evening of molecular gastronomy presided over by Noel Jackson from the Life Science Centre. Sukey Firth visits a sausage-making party where Steve Pearce from Stewart & Co shows guests how to make the best bangers.

The children of Bede Primary School have been making food and decorations for a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Ray Foster, headteacher and mad hatter explains the benefits for pupils and parents.

Sheila talks to cake bakers Nick Hall and Iona Owen who have been preparing for a huge celebration of food and architecture, in which hundreds of the cities' iconic buildings and structures are being made, out of cake. Clare Armstrong, head pastry chef at Cafe 21 created an online social networking group, Cakebook, to encourage participants to exchange advice and baking tips. Sheila chats to Jane Walsh who recreated the Great North Museum, in cake.

Mark Holdstock reports from the Cakebook flash mob picnic, where the cakes were displayed. The Emerson Chambers cake from Nick and Iona was joint winner with the Trinity aka 'Get Carter' Car Park.

Sheila Dillon visits EAT! an innovative community food festival in Newcastle and Gateshead

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The various treatments can take away both appetite, and the ability to eat and enjoy food - which has a knock-on effect on the patient's health, social life and wider wellbeing...

Sheila Dillon knows this better than most: eight years ago, she was diagnosed with a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma, and has experienced firsthand what it's like to lose the ability to enjoy a good meal, because of illness.

This is an issue that hasn't always been given due attention, by medics or patients - but a shift is underway: there's growing recognition that people with cancer not only need nutritious food, but also that the pleasure of eating can actually aid their wellbeing and recovery.

Under self-isolation in the coronavirus outbreak because of her 'immuno-compromised' status from being on maintenance chemo, Sheila delves into the stories of people recovering from or living with cancer, who have been forced to readdress their relationship with what and how they eat; as well as the researchers and cooks pioneering new, food-based solutions.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

How cancer can impact our relationship with food - and why it's so important to rebuild it

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5C this century, emissions of carbon dioxide would have to be cut by 45% by 2030. Coming under greater focus were sources of CO? and Greenhouse Gas Emissions linked to our food; cows and sheep. For some the science was enough to justify ever greater calls to reduce meat and dairy consumption and rein in the global livestock population. To others, the focus on meat has become too simplistic and driven by ideology. So, who's right and what should the future of meat look (and taste) like?

In the first of two programmes Dan asks a number of experts to explain their different points of view. Author (and vegetarian) Jonathan Safran Foer argues that saving the world starts at breakfast and we should all be avoiding meat until the last meal of the day. That way he believes we can begin to bring our consumption of meat under control. Morten Toft Bech, the founder of The Meatless Farm which makes plant based beef alternatives, explains why he set out to help replace animals in the food system.

Professor Frederic Leroy of Brussels University in Belgium has been monitoring the meat debate of recent years. He's concerned about the tendency to lump together vastly different production systems, good and bad, to create an anti-meat narrative. Dairy and meat farmer Simon Fairlie describes a possible solution, an approach he calls 'default meat'. In part two, the following week, it's over to the programme's listeners and their questions on the future of meat.

Presented and produced by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino finds out why tensions are running so high over meat vs plant based diets.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Featuring questions on methane, scientific trials of more carbon friendly beef, the impact of rice in climate change, the nutritional benefits of grass-fed meats and the value of traditional diets.

Among the contributors are Dr Michelle Cains, a Climate scientist at the Oxford Martin School, Minette Batters, President of the National Farmers Union, Professor of Epidemiological Genetics at Kings College London, Patrick Holden, The Sustainable Food Trust, Tara Garnett of the Food Climate Research Network and environmental campaigner George Monbiot.

Dan Saladino, Sheila Dillon and a range of experts answer your questions on meat eating.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

When Dan Saladino went to meet (and run with) Nicole she explained she had tried lots of different diets, from one based on meat, to a vegetarian diet and onto veganism. She was keen to hear the experience of other runners and athletes and how they eat to run.

Dan hears from Kevin Currell, Head of Performance Nutrition at the English Institute of Sport, to find out about the dietary advice given to Britain's elite athletes. Adharanand Finn, author of 'Running with the Kenyans', shares his insights into running, racing and eating in Iten, the town where many of the world's most successful distance runners live and train. Kenyan runners eat a lot of ugali, a carbohydrate rich porridge made of maize flour and water.

Elsewhere however, others are arguing that a low-carb, high-fat diet will help runners reach peak performance. Author of Born to Run and Natural Born Heroes, Christopher McDougall, profiles diets based on this principle, that fuelled long runs by resistance fighters during the Second World War and early Iron Man events in the 1980's. It's a controversial approach and many believe it's just the latest food fad to be picked up by people in the running world.

The programme also features Scott Jurek who eats a carbohydrate rich, vegan diet. It's enabled him to dominate runs like Badwater, a 135 mile race through America's Death Valley.

Will these athletes and running writers give listener Nicole Marais the information she needs to break her own record in this year's London Marathon? Listen, find out and perhaps go on a run afterwards.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Researcher: Camellia Sinclair.

How important is diet to running performance? Dan Saladino looks at, and tries, new ideas.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

For more information on the test results:

Mike Keen's Arctic exploration: https://www.mikekeen.co/#Greenland-Expedition

Wild Biome Project: https://monicawilde.com/the-wildbiome-project/

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino finds out what happened to people who embarked on a wild food adventure.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan Saladino finds out what happened to people who embarked on a wild food adventure, including an Arctic explorer and a group of British foragers. Are there lessons for us all?

So what would it take for environmental labelling to become widespread? Jaega Wise talks to non-profit organisation Foundation Earth about their plans to establish an eco-impact label that could be used across Europe. We look at how a more harmonised approach could encourage more companies to get on board, increase public trust, and trigger change across food supply chains as companies look for more eco-friendly ways of producing, manufacturing, transporting and packaging food.

Presented by Jaega Wise and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

How could environmental-impact labels help lower the carbon footprint of food production?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Chefs, food writers and former colleagues including Raymond Blanc and Simon Hopkinson discuss the influence of the man who spent six decades campaigning to improve the standards of meals in service stations and railway stations, restaurants and cafes.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila also visits one of the biggest emergency food hubs in the world, The United Nations' World Food Programme base in Brindisi in Southern Italy. From one warehouse, food for hundreds of thousands of people can be stored and dispatched within a few hours of a crisis call coming in.

In Rome teams of nutritionists are looking into the very latest foods that can be sent around the world for populations affected by drought, conflict and earthquakes.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In his latest book English Pastoral: An Inheritance James Rebanks provides an insiders account of the seismic changes to farming from the 1960s to the present day. Farming became brilliantly productive, he argues , but ecologically destructive. He explains how Cumbria's landscape was transformed by more intensive agriculture, and what we can do now to bring life back to the soil, to natural habitats and still the produce the food we need.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino talks to shepherd James Rebanks about the future of food and farming.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Wine production is well known as a risky investment, not least because it is so dependent on the weather. Many UK growers were hit very hard by the terrible summer of 2012. One of our most well known brands, Nyetimber, completely abandoned their harvest for that year. Establishing a vineyard also requires a big capital investment; one adage used to be that if you wanted to make a moderate amount of money the way to do it would be to have a large amount of money and then plant a vineyard. This may be part of the reason why the wine produced in England and Wales accounts for less than 1% of that consumed here.

Despite all of this, the acreage of vineyards in England has doubled in the last 7 years and there are some producers aiming to produce an unheard of million bottles a year. Perhaps more importantly, mentioning English or Welsh wine at a dinner table is no longer likely to attract sniggers of derision. In fact our wine production is now synonymous with quality. As UK wine producers big and small are growing in confidence, Sheila Dillon asks how they can assure their future in a risk laden business, where they are still one of the smallest players on the global market.

Producer: Sarah Langan.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Cultivation of this mysterious and tiny grain has been concentrated in Ethiopia for thousands of years. But now that's changing as the health-conscious Western world realise the nutritional secrets this crop might bestow.

In this edition of the Food Programme, Sheila Dillon meets UK entrepreneurs bringing foods, normally seen as Ethiopian to new diners, and speaks to experts to hear how the rise in popularity of teff is affecting the farmers back home.

Sheila Dillon tells the story of teff, an ancient grain for modern times.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the first three months of lockdown, we spent an additional £24 million on tea and coffee according to research firm Kantar. And despite tea trends diverging from the traditional cuppa over the years, the UK and Ireland remain two of the top tea drinking nations per capita, in the world.

In this programme Jaega Wise looks at the connections we've built over tea, and why it plays such an important role in our lives. From the intricately performed traditional Japanese tea ceremony, courtesy of Camellia Flower Teahouse in Kyoto. To the significance, and potentially health giving ritual, of a brew between friends as uncovered by Newcastle University's Dr Edward Okello. And she focusses on a tea ritual of a very different kind - the art of tea tasting with Twinings Master blender Rishi Deb.

Presented by Jaega Wise.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Jaega Wise explores the ceremony and ritual of drinking tea.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Reporter Dilly Barlow travels to Tanzania with a select band of ‘local heroes' from Sainsbury's, employees who'd raised large amounts of money for local charities, and were being rewarded with a trip to meet the small coffee farmers on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. They belong to the KNCU, The Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union, which joined the Fairtrade scheme in 1993.

Patrick Shirima is KNCU's Chief Procurement Officer, who oversees everything from the picking of the coffee cherries, through to supervising the end payments to the farmers.

Sheila Dillon is joined in the studio by Ian Bretman, deputy director of the Fairtrade Foundation, Jeremy Torz, one of the founders of the UK's Union Hand Roasted Coffee Company and Professor John Sender, fellow in development studies at Cambridge University.

Do Tanzania farmers on Mount Kilimanjaro get a good deal from fair trade?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme, food writer Yasmin Khan celebrates the social, cultural and culinary rituals of Ramadan, the most holy month in the Islamic calendar. She speaks to comedian Tez Ilyas about celebrations with family and friends and a very memorable 'Happy Eid cake'. And in Bristol, Yasmin joins thousands of people coming together for a 'Grand Iftar', a vast street party of Muslims and non-Muslims, who have come together to share a meal with their neighbours once the sun goes down.

Presented by Yasmin Khan

Produced by Clare Salisbury

Yasmin Khan and comedian Tez Ilyas talk food and fasting in Ramadan 2019

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Leyla Kazim hears from a socially distanced Sukkot meal in North London hosted by Rabbi Daniel Epstein and his wife Ilana - founder of the Jewish food and heritage organisation Ta'am - along with their son Jacob, and their guest: long-term friend and comedian Rachel Creeger, whose anecdotes about her family's passion for traditional dishes have played a key role in her stage act.

Leyla also receives a festival food diary from Rabbi Dovid Lewis and his family in Manchester; chats to singer-songwriter Jessie Ware and her mum Lennie about how they brought Jewish food culture to the table in their Table Manners podcast and new cookbook; and gets some insight into how traditional fare is getting healthier with food writer Judi Rose.

Through stories of food, family and feasting, Leyla discovers how Jewish communities in the UK are adapting festivities to the current climate, and the modern world.

Produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Leyla Kazim explores the integral role of food in Judaism's autumn festivals.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

There have long been debates about whether falafel belongs or is authentic to any one nation or culture. Spoiler alert: this programme does not try to answer that question! What Leyla sets out to discover is just how different falafel can be depending on the cultural background of the person cooking it. For example, culturally-definitive recipes for the falafel itself, and specific salads, sauces and breads.

In this programme, we explore how falafel is tied up in a political story of food propaganda, and how it's been used to create division between different nationalities. But also how the food has followed people to different countries at times of conflict, and still provides a constant reminder of good times and home.

We meet market stall traders in Shepherd's Bush who show the diverse make up of different falafel recipes. We meet the Syrian chef who lost a chain of successful restaurants selling falafel during the conflict in Syria. And a London chef who doesn't understand why his patrons keep ordering it.

Presented by Leyla Kazim

Produced by Robbie Wojciechowski

Leyla Kazim tracks the story of falafel and how it's become a part of global food culture.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon asks why some scenes can be so powerful they remain with us for decades. She meets those who changed their careers due to the power of the stories they read, she travels to a secret restaurant fantasy land and meets the schoolchildren for whom taste is being brought alive through descriptions of food and flavour.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sheila Dillon devours the delightful children's books that made us excited about food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

After hearing what the organisers in Bath wanted to achieve Sheila visits a farmers' market in New Yorks' Union Square which inspired producers in the UK to take up the idea. The market manager Davy Hughes explains how people on benefits are given help to shop at the market.

We also hear how the first UK farmers' market was intended to be in Knowsley in Liverpool in 1996 - as part of a government plan to get fresh and local food into deprived areas.

Gareth Jones from the national organisation FARMA which certifies farmers' markets explains why few markets have been set up in less affluent parts of the UK. He also explains why all markets should follow the same set of rules.

Henrietta Green visits one of the FARMA certified markets in Wimbledon and talks to Mark Handley, Director of London Farmers' Markets about their policy on producers. She also joins Sheila in the studio to explain why she thinks farmers' markets haven't fulfilled their potential.

The Food Programme's Dan Saladino travels to Bath to find out how it has developed in the last ten years.

Sheila Dillon investigates the British love affair with farmers' markets.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

John Waite looks at the challenges and opportunities facing the farmers living cheek by jowl with their urban neighbours, and at some of the attempts being made to bring the two closer together.

We hear from Wayside Farm in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, which last year took part in Open Farm Sunday to help explain farming to their neighbours and reduce the casual damage and trespass caused by uninformed picnickers and dog walkers to their land. Caroline Drummond from LEAF, Linking Environment and Farming, which organises Open Farm Sunday explains why they run it.

John also visits Shabden Park Farm in Chipstead, Surrey, where Mark and Kirstie Banham have set up an on-farm butchery to sell direct to their town dwelling, commuting neighbours.

Sir Don Curry talks about the importance of reconnection, the main theme of 1991's Curry Report into the Future of Farming and Food.

The problems and opportunities faced by farmers who work on the fringes of towns.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The protests spread to more than 200 cities and inspired workers in other parts of the world to stand up for better pay. The campaign received the backing of President Barack Obama and cities including Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles have now increased the minimum wage.

Sheila hears from one fast food work in New York's Bronx, Flavia Cabrell. She holds down two jobs including one at a McDonalds' restaurant and low pay led her to take action and join the protests. She explains why she's motivated by wanting to change the future for her children.

Meanwhile low pay was one of the main targets in Chancellor George Osborne's summer budget. Changes to tax credits and the introduction of a 'national living wage' was the outcome. But some workers say the changes will still mean they live a precarious financial existence with zero hours contracts still a dominant model in the food industry and the living wage only applicable to over 25's.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon finds out how a fast food worker strike in the US is influencing the UK.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Their stories cover a variety of foods, places and people, from the Glasgow curry cart, to the man so obsessed with the local jam he discovered that he finds himself making jam sandwiches at 10 o' clock at night 'grinning like a five year old.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Simon Parkes reports on the latest stories coming in for the Food and Farming Awards.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Food writer Carla Capalbo, author of Tasting Georgia: A food and wine journey in the Caucasus guides Dan through a supra, a traditional feast.

Georgia, a country the same size as Scotland, south of Russia and north of Turkey, has one of the oldest, richest and, to many of us, unknown food and drink cultures in the world. On the silk and spice routes, for centuries, it was a battleground between Persian, Turkish and Russian empires. In the 20th century, Georgia, birthplace of Stalin, became part of the Soviet Union until its independent in 1991.

Throughout generations of conflict and hardship Georgia's food culture has endured. It can claim to be the birthplace of viticulture and wine making and when it comes to dining experiences, it has one of the most sophisticated and emotional dining experiences in the world. Dan experiences a supra, a traditional Georgian feast, in which an array of dishes are woven around a series of polyphonic (many voice) songs, amber wines and heartfelt toasts given by a tomada (toast master).

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino travels to a country now considered to be an undiscovered food gem, Georgia.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon visits the Thames Festival Feast, a modern urban harvest festival, bringing food back into the heart of the city and recreating a sense of community. Grape treading, sacred mayonnaise making and mobile food gardens make a vivid modern feast. Central to it a table spanning Southwark Bridge, its tablecloth printed with collections of Londoners' food stories.

The traditional feast has been disappearing from rural areas, but the Welcombe community in Devon some years ago introduced a Christmas Salamongundi to bring the community together to celebrate. Poet and author John Moat explains how it came about.

Sir Roy Strong, author of Feast outlines the social, political and religious subtext of historical feasting and, with Rev Richard Coles, comments on the dining TV reality show, Come Dine With Me.

What function do feasts serve today? Sheila Dillon explores the role of social eating.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Now the model is expanding. This Monday, 15th December, a new community shop is opening in Lambeth, South London. The aim is for dozens of these stores to be across the country.

This week's Food Poverty Inquiry 'Feeding Britain' recommended more of these social supermarkets. But some people do not believe that the problem of food waste should solve the problem of food poverty.

Presented by Dan Saladino and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

The story of one shop which is changing the way we think about food waste and food poverty

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Nourishing Norfolk, is a project linking a large number of smaller shops, or food hubs around the county. The shops use the 'social supermarket' model, providing free fruit and vegetables and cut price food and many other essentials including cleaning and hygiene products, and smokeless coal.

During the team's tour, they hear how being linked has given the hubs more buying power, and they have been able to team up with more local businesses who are able to help - by offering warehouse space, larger scale donations and even logistics.

The hub volunteers then have more time to do what they are good at; offering support, guidance and community to those who need it.

Since the shops are all independently run, they are also able to try out and develop ways that can help with the specific problems faced by people in poverty in their area, which has included the setting up of a mobile food hub.

Delia wrote how she had been blown away by the work that is happening there - where people are not only being provided with affordable food, but also help and assistance at all levels.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan

Delia Smith sends the team to Norfolk to see what's being done to fix food poverty there.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A message from Delia Smith takes the team to Norfolk to see how a network of social supermarkets is helping people out of food poverty.

Sheila Dillon meets Ols on tour in Gloucestershire on an August morning as the circus pulls into town. She hears stories from the travelling restaurant kitchen, as well as food stories from the dozens of caravans and wagons where the circus cast spend their summer months. And she hears how food has always been a pivotal part of circus life.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Photo: David Loftus.

Sheila Dillon meets a chef who ran away with the circus.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the first part of this edition, we discover the incredible history of dining in Parliament and meet the people who feed Westminster's 14 thousand pass holders.

8 thousand food transactions can be made here on any working day, and we recorded on one of the busiest - Prime Minister's Questions, one of the first under the new Government.

Presented by Sheila Dillon & produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

The incredible history of dining in Parliament. An insider's view of Westminster's food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The Food Programme team go behind the scenes of one of the most historic food operations in the world.

In the second part of this edition, we hear how dining in Parliament is under new pressures.

Presented by Sheila Dillon & produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Lunch to lights out in the mother of Parliaments, an insider's view of Westminster's food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Chris Ledgard

Gerard Baker finds out how Falkland Islanders meet the challenge of eating a varied diet.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Siobhan Maguire

Sheila Dillon talks to John Timpson about the future of our high streets.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Featuring Professor Michael A Crawford (Imperial), Professor Felice Jacka, Professor Felice Jacka of the Food & Mood Centre, Deakin University, Australia and Professor Ted Dinan, psychiatrist at University College Cork. Also, from the Radio 4 archive, Dr Bernard Gesch, Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford (featured in The Food Programme 2005), Dr Simon Dyall, nutritional neuro-scientist at the University of Roehampton (Just One Thing) and Allesandra Borsini, Senior Research Fellow at Kings College (All In The Mind).

Produced by Dan Saladino

What the latest science is telling us about food, mental health and boosting brain power.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon discovers why fermentation is the catalyst for a delicious revolution.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

So what has driven this change, and can it continue to thrive while the cost of everything involved in producing it has risen so much? What has the evolution of better festival food meant for sustainability? And what do you do if you don't want to spend a fortune on food at a festival, but still want to eat well? Comedian George Egg has some answers.

Presented by Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan

What does it take to feed a music festival?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon meets David Stothers, Catering Operations Manager at Celtic FC who explains how they have changed the menu in the supporters' restaurant and how they plan to extend the scheme.

Sheila talks to Pam Rodway, cheesemaker and moving force behind the Soil Association's Food for Life campaign who has been called in to help Celtic FC with their new campaign for healthier eating.

Sheila visits Celtic's No 7 restaurant, where Sunday lunch was being prepared and talks to Celtic's head chef, Alec Munro.

Sheila also meets Frances Gallagher, who's an Adviser to Glasgow City Council, responsible for nutrition and a member of the Scottish Executive's Food and Health Council. Frances Gallagher explains the plans to roll out the scheme to enable local mums to learn to cook in Celtic's restaurant.

Sheila is joined in the studio by Prue Leith, chair of the School Food Trust, the independent body set up to help the government to improve school meals.

Sheila Dillon visits a football club in Scotland that's scored with its new eating plan.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon is joined by Bee Wilson and special guests to discuss the book's surprising findings, and how to make positive changes where positive change is needed.

Sheila and Bee are joined by Rosie Boycott, who advises the Mayor of London on food and is Chair of the London Food Board, as well as father and son Geoff and Anthony Whitington who star in the just-released film Fixing Dad, which documents Geoff's struggles with type 2 diabetes and his two sons' efforts to help him.

Dan Saladino tells the story of Professor Pekka Puska, who as a young public health doctor in the 1970s spearheaded the North Karelia Project in Finland, which in the context of a population with the highest rates of death from heart disease in the world, aimed to improve the way that a whole region ate.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon, author Bee Wilson and guests discuss how food habits can be changed.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

At Upton Chippy near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, not much has changed since the first fry there in 1948. The fish comes fresh from Grimsby market, the potatoes from a local farmer. The batter recipe is the same (and yes, it's a secret) and it's all cooked in beef dripping on a coal-fired range, one of the last in the UK. Not many fish and chip shops have kept the faith like owner Sally Shaw and her loyal customers, one of whom admits that even when he owned his own fish and chip shop, he always had Friday off so he could come here.

Sheila visits Rhoti Chai, an Indian street-food restaurant in London, for an Indian-style pop-up fish & chips event organised by food blogger Daniel Young. Amritsari fish and masala fries as well as curried mayo and chai-spiced pickled eggs are on the menu.

James Ritchie of Simpsons in Cheltenham explains why there's nowhere to hide with a chip and Mitch Tonks of the multi-award-winning Rockfish Seafood & Chips in Devon explains why you have to know the fish game to become a winner.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.

Sheila Dillon explores a renaissance in the great British fish and chip shop.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

Sheila Dillon on the huge rise in farmed fish and the people trying to make it sustainable

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

There's one important question he needs to resolve, when it comes to diet, are his family helping or hindering his eating habits?

In his search for better health in 2023, Dan is joined by Dr Michael Mosley, inventor of the 5:2 diet, keto coach Panagiotis Kottas and the Whitingtons, the family behind the television documentary 'Fixing Dad' in which two sons stepped in to save their father from a steep decline after a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino needs to get in shape, but why do his attempts to change keep failing?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme, Sheila Dillon explores the remarkable stories of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK, forging new lives and careers through food.

She hears from Josie Naughton, co-founder and CEO of refugee aid organisation Choose Love; Chernise Neo and her team at Proof Bakery in Coventry, an artisan bakery that trains and employs refugee women; Jess Thompson, the founder of Migrateful - a social enterprise where asylum seekers and refugees teach cooking classes, passing on dishes from their homelands - and one of their teaching team, Ahmed Sinno; and catches up with Chef Imad Alarnab, ahead of the opening of his London restaurant.

Rebuilding your life in a different country, learning a new language, integrating into a new community: none of this is easy. But cooking and sharing food can offer some rare common ground, bringing people together no matter where they're from.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor

Sheila Dillon meets asylum seekers and refugees building new lives in the UK through food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

It's argued that it is their decisions, not those of governments which will determine if we can solve the biggest challenges we're facing, from climate change to obesity.

These funds, including our savings and pensions, are invested in the global food system. This money makes it possible for fast-food chains to expand, for supermarkets to grow and farming businesses to survive. How that money is allocated, and which food businesses are now seen as carrying too much risk, is an increasingly important factor in deciding how we will farm and eat in the future.

Dan Saladino meets Jeremy Coller, a Chief Investment Officer who controls billions of dollars of assets about the power of investors. In 2016, Coller has set up the FAIRR Initiative (Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return), a source of data and analysis of business performance in the meat industry. Coller, a vegetarian, argues that future global risks such as pandemics and climate change are being increased by factory farming.

Instead of waiting for governments to act, he believes networks of investors, and their decisions on meat based businesses (from processors to burger chains), entirely based on risk, will transform the food system.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino meets investors using trillions of dollars to shape the global food system.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila meets with food scientist and entertainer Stefan Gates, for some entertaining and surprising E Number experiments in his lab-kitchen...

She also hears more about the background to food additives from Stacey Lockyer at the British Nutrition Foundation; and explores some of the impacts, questions and controversies around these added extras, with gut microbiome expert Professor Tim Spector, and science policy professor Erik Millstone.

Following this introduction to the world of additives, The Food Programme invites listeners to get in touch and share their questions and thoughts on these ingredients, ahead of a panel discussion on the role of additives in our everyday lives, taking place in front of a live audience next week.

Presented by Sheila Dillon; produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Exploring the world of additives, from fruity sherbert to ultra-processed-food flavourings

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She's joined by a panel of food aficionados as well as an audience of industry professionals and interested listeners, at the BBC's New Broadcasting House in London - to discuss a range of points raised by listeners and audience members.

The panellists are:

- Dr Helen Crawley, a dietitian and public health nutritionist, who currently manages and coordinates the First Steps Nutrition Trust: an organisation focusing on the need for expert, independent information and support for good childhood nutrition;

- Ralph Early, a food scientist, a Trustee of the Food Ethics Council and a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. He was formerly Professor of Food Industry at Harper Adams University and has also worked in the food industry itself, primarily in the dairy sector.

- Helen West, a dietitian 'on a mission to cut through the untruths and nonsense in the world of nutrition'; she's also co-founder of The Rooted Project: a community that says it aims to make evidence-based nutritional information accessible to all.

- And Sanjay Kumar: a chef hailing from Calcutta, who trained in Oxford under Raymond Blanc and has worked in kitchens around the world - but now runs a cookery school, teaching people of all generations to cook and eat better, on a budget.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Lucy Taylor.

Sheila Dillon and an expert panel discuss the role of food additives in our everyday lives

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon finds out what contemporary artists are making of this staple of the repetoire, visiting two exhibitions: A Net of Eels, created by artist Jake Tilson and photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki, and Pot Luck: Food and Art, co-curated on the principles of a pot luck dinner by Cynthia Morrison-Bell, including works by Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst, Mona Hatoum and Gayle Chong Kwan.

Sheila is joined by art historian and critic Frank Whitford and Jake Tilson who give their views.

What is the relationship between food and art today?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon explores new ways of thinking about food at the Food and Drink Expo 2010.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

For the past four months the team of judges including chef Angela Hartnett, drinks writers Pete Brown and Victoria Moore as well as Valentine have all been sifting through nominations and selecting the potential winners of awards.

Who they've chosen and why is all in this special edition of The Food Programme, as well as information about how you can be in this year's audience for the ceremony held in November.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Food writer Valentine Warner reveals this year's line-up of best food and drinks producers

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A new wave of opinion-forming films have been released. In the United States, Food, Inc, an investigation into poultry and pork production, has caused controversy, and in the UK a film about fish stocks, The End of the Line, has made fishing practices the subject of newspaper headlines.

As well as these campaigning films, an increasing number of cities are playing host to festivals dedicated to films which feature food, from Ratatouille to Babette's Feast.

Sheila speaks to film-makers and festival organisers to hear why the two worlds of food and cinema are increasingly bound together.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Professor Felice Jacka is the leading expert in the link between mental health and nutrition and is the president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research. She discusses the wealth of research which demonstrates the link between diet and the growth of the hippocampus.

Many people found that cooking helped boost their mood in lockdown - evident from the shortages of baking ingredients on our shelves. Writer and comedian Katy Brand tells Sheila that she finds cooking gives her a sense of control and helps alleviate stress.

Kimberley Wilson is unusual among chartered psychologists because she also holds a masters degree in nutrition. When her clients come to her with depression and anxiety one of the first things she does is talk to them about what they eat. She thinks that although we have readily accepted the idea that we need to eat good food to look after other organs in our body, we are reluctant to see the connection to our brain's health.

So if food is proved to be central to improving our mental health, how come GPs are unlikely to talk to you about it? Sheila talks to Dr Rupy Aujla, from the Doctor's Kitchen, about why good nutrition is too often overlooked in the medical profession.

And Romy Gill discusses mental health struggles with fellow chefs Ellis Barrie and Anna Haugh. Chefs spend all day cooking for other people but all too often fail to feed themselves good food. In lockdown chefs have had a moment to reflect on the pressure of a professional kitchen and the impact this has on their mental health.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Emma Weatherill

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Sarah Langan.

Stefan Gates talks to teachers, kids and cooks about food and the curriculum.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Jaega and Dan tell this story with the help of James Walvin, a writer and academic who has spent fifty years researching the role of slavery in making the modern world. Walvin argues that we still haven't acknowledged this fact, and to move forward we will need to come to terms with this history. The most tangible part of lives is in what we eat and drink; tea, coffee, chocolate, all were ingredients made possible with slavery and all were bitter products made palatable with the sugar of slavery.

Dan also speaks to Michael Twitty, author of the Cooking Gene, and as an African-American cook, someone who has recreated the lives of enslaved people working in kitchens on plantations.

Produced by Dan Saladino.

Photo by Johnathan M. Lewis

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The Sicilian 'Cosa Nostra' emerged around the citrus groves of Palermo in the 19th century as control of farming and food production fell into the hands of estate managers and middle men.

From that time the influence of the mafia over food production and distribution on the island has been extensive.

In recent decades the work of investigators like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino did much to lessen the power of the mafia but its involvement in the food business continues to this day.

Now, a new generation of entrepreneurs and anti-mafia campaigners are using food to send a message around the world that Sicily is breaking away from that past.

Producer Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon looks at the role of food businesses in combating the Sicilian mafia.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila travels to Sicily where she hears how the island's powerful food culture is seen as evidence by some of disappointment with the creation of a nation state. She meets food historian Mary Taylor Simeti who explains how menus in the 19th century show how Sicilians rejected the temptations of food from the mainland and further afield.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon is joined in the studio by Tom Jaine, former cook, editor of The Good Food Guide, baker and now publisher of Prospect Books; Jeanette Orrey, the dinner lady who inspired Jamie Oliver and also author of The Dinner Lady, and an advisor to the Soil Association, and Roland Bonney, co-founder and Director of the Food Animal Initiative (FAI), the objective of which is to develop sustainable farm systems that provide discernible benefits to animal welfare, the environment and human health.

Sheila Dillon and studio guests review the best of this year's books on food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon takes a look at the history of food critics from Fanny Cradock's Daily Telegraph restaurant reviews of the 1950's through to bloggers swapping notes about fine dining or burgers today. If so much information is becoming available from this new generation of food enthusiasts, do we still need the professional restaurant critics?

Producer: Dan Saladino

Sheila hears views from former New York Times restaurant critic William Grimes, food writer Tim Hayward and chef Richard Corrigan.

Sheila Dillon asks if the future belongs to food bloggers or restaurant critics?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the run up to their annual Flavour of Shetland festival, Sheila Dillon samples local quality produce including seaweed lamb, black potatoes and mussels and she finds out about an experimental project in which mutton is air-dried to suit Faroese tastes.

Sheila Dillon explores the food culture of the Shetland Islands.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

We visit the recent Huddersfield Food & Drink Festival to talk to shoppers and stallholders about what it brings to them, and the impact it has on the town.

The character of food festivals is determined by many things - who runs it, local stallholders, and crucially its location. The Alde valley in Suffolk is unusual in having no out of town superstores - and hence a thriving local food economy - a distinction the redoubtable campaigner Caroline Cranbrook has fought long and hard to preserve.

This year sees the second Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival, an event staged over 9 days, and across the whole area. But does an area already blessed with a lot of local food really need a food festival?

Sheila Dillon asked Caroline Cranbrook, also one of the founders of the festival, what they hoped to achieve by planning the festival this way. She also visited Jason Gathorne-Hardy, farmer, painter and man behind the Alde Valley Food Adventures, about his involvement in this, and the Bario Food and Cultural Festival in the Kelabit Highlands.

Finally Sheila Dillon visits the Abergavenny Food Festival to chair a debate `Food Festivals: Improving British Food Culture or Extravaganzas for Affluent Foodies ?` Panelists Dr Martin Caraher - Reader, Centre for Food Policy, City University, Jessica Mitchell - Director Food Commission, Tony Griffiths - Head of Food and Marketing Development, Welsh Assembly Government and Festival Director and founder as well as ice-cream maker, Martin Orbach.

Sheila Dillon explores the world of food festivals and asks what purpose they serve.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Reporter Euan Mcilwraith talks to Donald and Gaye Gotts who produce, grow and cook most of their own food.

Sheila Dillon visits Greenhive, an Anchor Trust home in Peckham, where she talks to chef manager Grace Addow, about the catering course called Cater Craft, run by Anchor, the UK's largest not-for-profit group running residential and nursing homes.

Sheila is joined in the studio by Dr Helen Crawley, Scientific Director of the Caroline Walker Trust and Sue Hawkins, Chair of the National Association of Care Catering (NACC).

Sheila also hears from Marinos Elia, Professor of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism at the University of Southampton'smedical school.

Sheila talks to dementia specialist Ros Barrett, of Anchor, who has devised an eating programme for dementia patients called Dining with Dignity.

Senior citizens and nutritionists discuss the best diet for our later years.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila talks to Trading Standards Officer, Lee Ormondy who embarked on a painstaking paper trail in order to discover the true origins of beef labelled as British.

Sheila meets Dr Mark Woolfe, head of Authenticity, at the Food Standards Agency at London's Borough Market and hears from traders about the traceability of the food they sell.

Reporter Dan Isaacs talks to R. S. Seshadri, a director of the rice company Tilda in New Delhi, about how they use DNA techniques to ensure the purity of their basmati supply.

Michael Eade, Environmental Health Officer at Richmond Council in London talks about research he carried out into the extent of organic mis-selling by butchers, greengrocers and at farmers markets.

Paul Brerton from DEFRA's Central Science Laboratory in York and Stuart Ackroyd, a York city catering butcher, talk about methods of checking the origins of meat by analysing its water content.

And Sheila is joined in the studio by Dr. Martin Caraher of City University's Centre for Food Policy.

Sheila Dillion investigates the problem of food fraud.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

To the culinary historian, this is the equivalent of uncovering Tutankahmun's tomb. Ivan gives Sheila Dillon a tour of the 'bowels' of the house where 51 rooms were devoted to food and food preparation - and in the old wine cellar he prepares a nineteenth century recipe for ice cream, using some of the ancient equipment that covers four centuries of ducal living.

The programme comes from Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the 1950s he set up a shop which offered a rare sight: row after row of British cheeses. By promoting and selling farmhouse cheeses he saved many from extinction.

Later in the 1980s he became a prolific writer publishing The Great British Cheese Book in 1982. For the first time home-produced cheeses were documented and explained. He inspired a new generation of farmers, producers and retailers to bring a food culture back from the brink.

Chef Richard Corrigan, writer Juliet Harbutt and cheese expert Randolph Hodgson all explain why Patrick Rance's legacy is still alive today.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

In a series on people who've changed the way we eat, The Food Programme profiles Pat Rance

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In 2014 experienced Antarctic chef Gerard Baker joined the base for the cold Antarctic winter to cook for the team. In the first of a special Food Programme series documenting food in extreme environments, Gerard shares his diary with Sheila Dillon. She hears what it takes to be an Antarctic chef. From the daily baking bread, to planning for months of mealtimes with no contact, or supplies, from the outside world. When crisis strikes on base, we hear the real importance of a good meal.

Next week, Sheila Dillon is in an underwater kitchen on board a submarine.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

What does it take to be a chef in the frozen South, the wildest place on Earth?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This episode follows on from eating in the Antarctic. Next is food in space.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sheila Dillon explores how food is planned and cooked for up to three months under the sea

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Coronavirus and lockdown has reset our minds to local and opened our eyes to how widespread hunger is in Britain. In this episode, Sheila brings together the Chief Executive of the UK's largest and longest-running food redistribution charity, Fareshare; the owner of a Rhondda convenience store who during the year has started a new online-delivery business; a London cheesemonger who has seen producers alter and adapt for a changed market; and she meets a pastry chef who has given up the restaurant business to deliver cakes and treats from her home.

So what have we learned during this past year about our food supply chains, and how are we doing things differently? And how much of what has changed will last forever?

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

A year on, Sheila Dillon catches up with those who have been keeping the nation fed.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Renowned opera critic and gourmet traveller, Fred Plotkin holds an event at the Royal Opera House on food in opera. We get to listen in to stories of a sugar addicted Mozart, Pavarotti's post performance meals and find out who gave their name to Pasta Norma.

The interval is spent at Glyndebourne opera speaking with chorus members and prop makers about the travails of eating on stage.

Presented by Sheila Dillon with help from Opera on 3's Christopher Cook. Produced by Emma Weatherill in Bristol.

Sheila Dillon hears how music and food have influenced each other over the past 400 years.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Renowned opera critic and gourmet traveller, Fred Plotkin holds an event at the Royal Opera House on food in opera. We get to listen in to stories of a sugar addicted Mozart, Pavarotti's post performance meals and find out who gave their name to Pasta Norma.

The interval is spent at Glyndebourne opera speaking with chorus members and prop makers about the travails of eating on stage.

Presented by Sheila Dillon with help from Opera on 3's Christopher Cook. Produced by Emma Weatherill in Bristol.

Sheila Dillon hears how music and food have influenced each other over the past 400 years.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

He describes his early life in the terraced council house, 20 Forthlin Road, now owned by the National Trust and where the McCartney kitchen, circa 1955, has been restored. Paul McCartney recalls meals of pork chops, liver and tongue , the latter proving to be one of the biggest food challenges of his childhood.

He recounts stories on the road with The Beatles and seeing huge steaks drooping over the plate on their American tour, and then the 1960 trip to India and facing a strict vegetarian diet. Several years later, after spending time on his farm, and influenced by his wife Linda, he stopped eating meat.

So how, from a personal decision based on compassion for animals, did he decide to shift to a more political and campaigning stance on food and farming? Sheila Dillon finds out how he took a fame based on the stage, into arenas like the European Parliament and The White House.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon with an exclusive food interview with former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Following the River Nith downhill, as the animals will be doing later in the year, Sheila Dillon also meets Jim Henderson who has overseen the transformation of this stretch of the river. Formerly polluted and with low fish stocks it is now clean and stocks are thriving. Jim also plays a key part in the ongoing battle with poachers.

Ben's brother's farm is home to a rare herd of pedigree indigenous Ayrshire cattle. They're well known for their incredible cream and milk - but the raw (unpasteurised) milk is not allowed to be sold under Scottish law.

Robbie Cowan, Tom Brown and Ronnie Clark practice the ancient Norse fishing technique known as Haaf Netting, a practice in harmony with fish stocks. They believe the survival of this method to be essential to preserving local heritage, yet it's not possible to make a living from it now as fish numbers are down.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon seeks out fish and cattle along the River Nith.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Now in its fourth year, the event was founded by the celebrated chef of the restaurant Noma, Rene Redzepi. In his own words, it's curated by a group of 'chefs, waiters, a former banker and an anthropologist'.

To some it's a festival of ideas, to others it's like listening to a 'food mix tape', over two days an audience of 600 chefs, writers and food obsessives hear a series of presentations about cooking, restaurants, food history and activism.

Dan Saladino takes the Food Programme inside the circus tent where the symposium is hear a selection of the diverse stories being told. There's Ron Finley, a gardener from Los Angeles who was prosecuted for growing food in a patch of land in front of his him. He took on the authorities and changed the law. His story has inspired people all over the world.

It's also an important arena for the world's great chefs to tell stories of kitchens and cooking and to pass on their wisdom. Food writer Joe Warwick profiles three chefs who too part in MAD 4, Pierre Koffman, Olivier Roellinger and the enigmatic Fulvio Pierangeli.

It's an often eccentric mix of stories, and so as well as guerrilla gardening there's a guide to making tapioca in the Amazonian rainforest through to a first hand account of cooking in the USSR. Some stories will surprise, others will inform, but they all inspire.

Music in this is edition is provided by Efterklang and Tatu Ronkko. They're not only one of the most respected bands in Denmark, they've also composed music for a restaurant in collaboration with chefs.

From 'guerrilla gardener' Ron Finley to Soviet cooking, Dan Saladino reports from MAD 4.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

MAD (the word for food in Danish) was founded by the celebrated chef of the restaurant Noma, Rene Redzepi. In his own words, it's curated by a group of 'chefs, waiters, a former banker and an anthropologist'. To some it's a festival of ideas, to others it's like listening to a 'food mix tape', over two days an audience of 600 chefs, writers and food obsessives hear a series of presentations about cooking, restaurants, food history and activism.

But that was just the start. Ron Finley, a gardener from Los Angeles was prosecuted for growing food in a patch of land in front of his house. He took on the authorities and changed the law. His story has inspired people all over the world. Now his story has been made into an award-winning feature film, showing how other gardeners in South Central LA - gang-members Spicey and Kenya, 9 year old Quimonie and a man just released from a 30 year prison term are changing their lives simply by growing food. Meanwhile FruitaFeia, a Portuguese project to save ugly fruit from going to waste, has 2000 people on their waiting list and is looking to expand while GustoMovida, the Brazilian project training disadvantaged young people is preparing for the Olympics.

Presented by Dan Saladino

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Dan Saladino hears how inspiring food projects from the Mad Symposium have spread globally

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the studio, Kathryn Hughes, biographer of The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, and journalist, novelist and critic John Lanchester discuss the genre and dissect some of the new and not-so-new publications.

What attracts established food writers to this literary style? How difficult is it to get right? Do the recipes get in the way of a good story, or is it the other way round? What works and what doesn't?

Simon Parkes explores the popularity of the food memoir.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon steps inside London's new British Museum of Food (BMoF) created by 'jellymongers' Bompas and Parr to see what their creative minds had in store. Meanwhile in New York, the Museum of Food and Drink (MoFAD) also aims to attract tourists and food enthusiasts...but how will they tell their story?

Celebrating food and making an exhibition of it is not new. Many smaller venues aim to show off the delights of dishes - from the kimchi museum in Korea to those celebrating Spam, potatoes, nougat or butter. How keen or obsessed would you need to be to visit? Sheila invtes you to take a tour and see if they whet your appetite for more rather than leave you fed-up.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

With two new food museums in London and New York, Sheila Dillon asks how to exhibit food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

However, many of the stories told about their origins are either spurious or exaggerated. Other foods, associated with national events, have a curious background with interesting changes in their nature and usage. For example, simnel cake, which we associate with Easter, was actually linked to Mothering Sunday.

Sheila Dillon delves into the past and explodes a few myths along the way, with plenty of surprises in store.

Sheila Dillon delves into food myths and misconceptions about some traditional dishes.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

To fully understand the experience of living on a small income and feeling the limitations of older age, food writer Andrew Webb volunteered to spend a week living as his 80 year old self.

Kitted out in a suit that replicates some of the physical challenges of someone twice his age Andrew shopped, cooked, ate and dined for a week as a pensioner.

His right knee was stiff, he was felt unbalanced by weights placed on his ankle and his eyesight was restricted by a pair of glasses replicating a loss of vision. He was also given a pair of gloves that reduce skin sensitivity and created the effects of arthritis in his hands. Ear plugs made him partially deaf. Dressed like this he heads off on a mission to the shops, and on to cook a meal.

With an ageing population, an increase in food prices and cuts to local council services, The Food Programme investigates what our food future might look, feel and taste like.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Held in Galway, the west of Ireland each year chef JP McMahon invites fellow cooks, chefs and restaurateurs to take to a stage and for 15 minutes share a food story of experience. Over two days more than 40 different stories from countries as diverse as Japan, Italy, Bolivia and Australia are told.

Dan selects a handful of the stories that made an impact on him during his time at Food On The Edge.

The first story is of how a Syrian kitchen came to be set up in Amsterdam. Tens of thousand of Syrians arrived in the city during the peak of the recent refugee crisis. Among them was a photographer, fashion designer, fitness machine repair man and a lawyer. Together they ran a kitchen in the Salvation Army centre where they were being housed, aiming to feed their fellow refugees with food from home. After spotting an appeal for help on Facebook, Dutch chef Jurriaan Momberg visited the kitchen to see if he could help teach them to cook. What he discovered were some of the greatest culinary talents he'd encountered in his career. It led to the creation of a pop-up restaurant which caused a sensation in Amsterdam. But all good things comes to an end and in the programme Jurriaan explains why one day he walked into an empty kitchen.

Another story comes from Oakland California. It was there in 1966 that the radical political movement The Black Panthers were created in response to police violence against black communities. By 1969 what had first looked like a militia, promoting armed resistance, the organisation had also created a series of social programmes. The most successful of which was a breakfast programme set up to feed black children who were often going to school undernourished and hungry. Chef Saqib Keval of the People's Kitchen Collective, a group of cooks, historians and researchers who tell stories through food, explains why he's brought the free breakfasts back to California.

Meanwhile Chef Matt Orlando of the Copenhagen restaurant Amass reveals some of the kitchen experiments he's been undertaking to convert so called 'waste food' and by-products into delicious meals. He explains the ingenious way flavours and nutrients inside used coffee grounds can be released to make a meal.

Irish chef Domini Kemp took to the stage to express her frustration of how, based on her own experience of cancer treatment, the medical profession neglect the power of food in conversations about prevention, recovery and long term health.

Finally, New York chef Elise Kornack tells the story of how a mental breakdown led her to become convinced that her own powerful emotions were being transferred through her cooking and onto her customers. Like a scene from the book and film, Like Water For Chocolate, she believed every mouthful of food she was serving would result in diners sensing what was unfolding in her troubled mind.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Additional recording in Oakland, California by Meradith Hoddinott.

Dan Saladino is at Food On The Edge, a gathering of people with great food stories to tell

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But what's it like to work, live - and eat - on the road?

Reporter Andrew Webb spends a day at the Orwell Crossing truck stop near the port of Felixstowe, with its 24-hour restaurant. Truck driver Dougie Rankine shares an audio diary of his perspective from high up in his cab, searching for the right meal at all times of day and night. Veteran driver John Eden recalls stopping off for nocturnal breakfasts in a notorious truck stop after negotiating 'suicide alley'.

In this edition of The Food Programme, Sheila Dillon reveals a food story on very big wheels.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon goes trucking and finds out what it's like to work, live and eat on the road

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this edition of The Food Programme, Simon Parkes looks at food banks and asks if this is the only way.

The Trussell Trust is a charity that oversees a nationwide network of food banks in the UK. Simon journeys to Salisbury to the Trust's headquarters where he sees how food boxes are packed, meets those who use the food bank and volunteer there- and talks to Executive Chairman of the Trust Chris Mould about the organisation and its relationship with Government.

In New York City, Rich Ward visits the Union Square Greenmarket and talks to Jan Poppendieck, author of the groundbreaking book Sweet Charity which asked difficult questions about the role of the charitable sector in US domestic food aid in the nineties.

Martin Caraher, Professor of Food and Health Policy at London's City University, discusses what the UK can learn from North America, what the role of the State is, and shares his thoughts on why in a country in which there is enough food to feed everybody, there is this rise in demand for charitable food aid?

Produced by Rich Ward.

Simon Parkes reveals a Britain in which hunger and hard food choices are all too real.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With an ongoing backdrop of war and violence, and more people arriving into Europe from Syria and elsewhere, Sheila Dillon wants to hear how people fleeing the crisis are living, eating and using food to tell the stories of the journeys they have made. In summer 2017, she travelled to Greece to speak to people living the migrant crisis every day.

In Greece, Sheila spends a day with a man who since arriving in the country has volunteered all his time to coordinating a vast network of volunteers distributing food to thousands of migrants and refugees in Northern Greece. She travels to refugee camps, meeting people distributing and receiving the food donations which supplement any support payments.

In a remote, coastal refugee camp, she meets a teenager with his mind firmly set on travelling to the UK to reunite his family with his father. Sheila hears how the family cook and eat every day, how they found food during their journey to Greece, and asks whether the family ever make it to the UK.

And in London, Sheila meets a chef from Damascus who has found a way back to cooking the food he was once famous for in his own city. She hears how he is spreading the message and raising money for people who have stayed in war-torn Syria.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

* UNHCR figure last updated 7th May 2018.

Sheila Dillon shares food with people who have fled the war in Syria.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Syria has an ancient food culture and was once a bread basket for the Middle East but conflict has damaged agriculture and food supplies to many areas. The World Food Programme explain how they manage to transport food through territory occupied by so-called 'Islamic State' and also how they feed the thousands in refugee camps in bordering countries like Jordan.

Dan hears from one refugee who paid traffickers to get him to Europe after he was threatened by IS and the Assad regime. He explains how he survived and ate when on an extended and dangerous journey. Now in the UK he shows Dan what he buys to cook and eat. Ingredients for Syrian dishes can be hard to come by or out of budget so he shows how he's adjusting to make it work.

From daily bread to the loss of an ancient food culture, hear how the the conflict and displacement of Syrians means for the long-term rebuilding of infrastucture and tradition in the place they call home.

Music used in programme: Qoum Ya Nadim by Zein Al Jundi

Presented by Dan Saladino

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

From losing daily bread to an ancient food culture - what conflict has meant for Syrians.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

He hears from the World Food Programme about new efforts they've been making to reach over 4 million people with food aid, many of whom live in besieged and isolated areas, with staff risking their lives to do so. Bakeries have reportedly been targeted in bombing raids and traders have been profiteering by controlling the availability of food, creating a wartime economy. Yet despite the attacks and broken ceasefires, efforts are already being made to create new food businesses for when peace returns. Work to train up beekeepers and tomato growers is already taking place to sustain a post-conflict Syria.

Here in the UK, Dan meets some of those whom the Government pledged to resettle from camps outside Syria. In Mansfield, Nottinghamshire he shares lunch with two families for whom Eid is a very different and emotional experience. We also hear from American-Syrian journalist Dalia Mortada who has charted the Syrian diaspora to see how this age-old food culture is being shared and celebrated around the world.

Presented by Dan Saladino

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Dan Saladino updates how Syrians are managing to eat amidst ongoing conflict.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme, recorded while the situation in Gaza is still changing on a daily basis, Sheila Dillon seeks to find out how people are feeding themselves and their families, how resilient the population is given the uncertainties they face, and what long abandoned food ways can they fall back on as supplies run low.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan

Sheila Dillon looks at the war in Gaza through the lens of food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Chido Govera grew up in rural Zimbabwe, and was orphaned aged seven. She suffered abuse and struggled to find enough food for herself and her younger brother. But she found a way out of her situation - through the power of mushrooms - becoming an acknowledged specialist in growing edible fungi using food and agri-waste.

Chido is now teaching hundreds of orphans and other vulnerable people in Zimbabwe and beyond how to break the cycle of poverty and abuse, and delicious mushrooms are at the heart of it all.

Isabel Soares, an engineer from Portugal, set up Fruta Feia (or ugly fruit) to deliver perfectly good fruit and veg that were being discarded by the big retailers, to a willing community. Its community co-operative model is now wildly successful in Lisbon.

John Greany Sørensen is a scientist by day, chef by night, who in his lab at the University of Copenhagen stumbled accidentally on a way of creating something truly extraordinary from rejected vegetables - veg crystals.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Dan Saladino hears how three individuals are reimagining the potential of food waste.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

We hear from Elizabeth David's literary Executor Jill Norman about the shift in her work from recipe-driven writing in her early career to the later, more academic books and debate who has taken on her legacy of more scholarly food writing today.

Producer: Elaine Lester.

Sheila Dillon discusses the legacy of Elizabeth David and reviews food writing in 2010.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Things are changing however and dishes from the past are now helping to drive a restaurant

boom.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino tells a story of food, survival and fishing from the remote Faroe Islands.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Tom Jaine, former restaurateur and editor of The Good Food Guide, came of age when the Bond books were written. He remembers sneaking a copy of Casino Royale from his parents' book group and being transported by it's exoticism. The food was completely beyond the imagination for a post-war generation who were newly out of rationing.

We meet Edward Biddulph, archaeologist by day, Bond enthusiast by night who has written Licence to Cook, in which he recreates the meals in the Bond books. Edward teaches Sheila how to make Bond's most iconic dish - scrambled eggs.

Biographer Andrew Lycett explains how the appetites of Ian Fleming made it into James Bond's own tastes. And food journalist Clare Finney connect with the desire to be transported on a culinary adventure when the world around you is rather drab.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Emma Weatherill

The James Bond novels drip with delectable food writing.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

So synonymous is she with cooking that her first name was included in the Collins English Dictionary in 2001. For four decades, her TV cookery programmes were primetime viewing, and when they ceased in 2013, she moved her cooking lessons online. She has sold more than 21 million copies of her recipe books. Her seasonal recipes were so popular that supermarkets would run out of ingredients when she cooked with them. - Notably cranberries in 1995. So influential were her books and broadcasts that Queen Elizabeth II made Delia Smith a Companion of Honour.

At Christmas, Sheila Dillon invites Delia, now 81, into her kitchen to reflect on her long career in food and cooking, but also to talk also about other passions. Her lifelong interest in spirituality and philosophy as reflected in her 2022 book, 'You Matter', politics, and football, and her dedicated work to make Norwich City Football Club a food destination.

Jamie Oliver and Angela Hartnett tell Sheila about the legacy Delia has left on their own careers in food. Cooking teacher Angela Holding bakes Delia's sticky toffee pudding and talks about the legacy Delia's books have had on aspiring cooks everywhere.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced by Clare Salisbury for BBC Audio West & Wales.

Delia Smith, the woman who taught the UK to cook speaks to Sheila Dillon.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With the support of Comic Relief and funds raised through Red Nose Day work is underway to tap into the potential of this neglected food source.

From Shea butter to Maringa, Sheila tastes her way through this story with Tony Hill of the charity Tree Aid, and Malcolm Riley, 'the African Chef', whose cooking career started in Zambia. On the menu, prawns stir-fried in an ingredient from the baobab tree, and as Malcolm explains, it's 'modern African cuisine'.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon explores Africa's forest foods, emergency larder and source of flavour.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon joins a family of keen cooks to prepare a feast of forgotten Christmas meals

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Fred has presented and co-hosted many programmes, including Million Pound Menu, Remarkable Places to Eat, Michel Roux's Service and Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip. In a world full of celebrity chefs, Fred has become Britain's only famous matre d', and his role on television is helping to raise the profile of Front of House jobs.

In this programme, Fred takes us back to his upbringing and training which installed his passion for hospitality. He discusses why he thinks Front of House roles are perceived differently in the UK compared to France, and tells Jaega more about the art of hospitality which is essential to the success of any restaurant business. Jaega also speaks to Fred's friend and former boss, chef Michel Roux Jr, and we hear about Fred's quest to demystify wine.

Presented by Jaega Wise and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Jaega Wise meets French ma\u00eetre d' Fred Sirieix to hear about his passion for hospitality.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Sheila Dillon investigates the rise in demand for 'free from' foods.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Food historian Adrian Miller looks at the presence of fried chicken on the plantation fields in the Deep South and explains how the racial connotations of fried chicken and black people materialised in America.

We hear from Dr Kehinde Andrews who details the importance of having shared collective experiences of food and culture within communities. Dr Andrews explains how this experience strengthens the connection amongst people when faced in situations of being ‘othered'.

Melissa pairs up Maureen Tyne at her Caribbean food establishment in Brixton, South London. Maureen shows Melissa how she makes her special recipe for fried chicken and shares her love for the meal.

Presenters: Jaega Wise and Melissa Thompson

Produced by Candace Wilson

Jaega Wise and Melissa Thompson look at the racial connotations of fried chicken.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Simon Parkes explores today's frozen food market, and asks if our own frozen sector could follow their lead?

Natalie Berg, Global Research Director of Planet Retail looks at current trends in the market which has seen a strong recovery during the recession. Brian Young, Director General of the British Frozen Food Federation, outlines the potential for the market, and constraints, most notably the success of chilled food ranges. Ian Keyes talks about the challenges of launching their value added, local 'Yorkshire Peas' range. And Christine Tacon, Managing Director of Co-operative Farms, outlines the work done by the Fruit and Vegetable Taskforce which means that from 6th April plain frozen fruit and veg will be included in the Healthy Start voucher scheme.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Frozen food has been a recession success, but can it muscle in on the premium market?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Ruth Alexander speaks to the 29-year-old about her big plans for the underwater crop, and her hope that it could bring lasting economic and environmental change to India's coastal communities.

Gabriella's passion and her project's potential saw her chosen by a panel of international judges as the winner of The Food Chain Global Youth Champion Award 2021.

Produced by Simon Tulett originally for The Food Chain on the BBC World Service

Meet Gabriella, who is trying to transform livelihoods and protect the planet with seaweed

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Dilly Barlow.

Sheila Dillon hears from food lovers about their favourite kitchen gadgets.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The United Kingdom is importing five times the amount of garlic than twenty-five years ago. Some British growers are smelling an opportunity for home-grown bulbs, but how much have we stopped to think about the way we use this enigmatic 'allium'?

Sheila Dillon explores a bulb which arouses strong feelings - and aromas - garlic.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In 2016, another first. The first UK based team are travelling to Rotterdam to take on the champions. Among them is 25 year old sous chef Gavin Chun. Gavin and his team are going for gold.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury.

How will British chef Gavin Chun and his team fare at the Olympics of Chinese Food?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

From computer programmers creating networks for people trading food locally through to community supported market gardens, Sheila Dillon finds out how a new generation is coming up with radical models for growing, buying and selling food.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

A profile of the people coming up with radical ideas for food in the UK.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Unlike transgenic technologies (in which DNA is moved from one species to another), genome editing can be used to create changes to the DNA of plants and animals within a species. Helping to explain how the technology works is a plant biologist working at Cold Spring Harbour in the United States, Zach Lippman. He's using CRISPR to create new types of tomato plants, some of which are higher yielding, more compact and better suited to urban agriculture. Meanwhile, Dr Mike McGrew, a molecular biologist based at the Roslin Institute in Scotland describes how genome editing might help result in future breeds of chickens that are completely resistant to avian influenza, a serious problem for all forms of poultry production.

The public consultation has been prompted by the UK government's desire to change the legal status of genome editing. At present, because of a decision by the European Court of Justice back in 2018, the technology is as strictly regulated as all other forms of genetic modification. Brexit makes it possible to diverge from the EU's position.

Lawrence Woodward of the campaign group Beyond GM has concerns over the process. For such a powerful technology, one that could potentially transform the future of food and farming, he argues we need a much bigger public debate. Farmer Guy Watson of Riverford Organic and Philip Lymbery of Compassion in World Farming both fear the technology will result in more intensive, industrial forms of production. Gideon Henderson, DEFRA's Chief Scientific Adviser gives his response.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino looks at the future role of genome editing technology on food and farming.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

They also explore some of the symbolism of 'exotic' food stuffs like dates and pomegranates that have become so much part and parcel of the Christmas feast. All of the recipes are featured on The Food Programme website.

Producer: Sarah Langan.

Diana Henry provides a guide to an Eastern Christmas with Bee Wilson and Sally Butcher.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

For decades vodka was the spirit of choice, not just for James Bond, but also for bartenders and mixologists (a recent term for the people who develop new drink recipes and cocktails). But more recently people have been reaching out for more interesting and complex flavours to replace the neutral taste of vodka. Gin was perfect.

From as far back as the 12th century apothecaries had used juniper and its coniferous flavours in spirits to heal and revive. By the 17th century the Dutch had given us Geneva or Holland Gin, a rough, whisky like spirit with juniper at its base. As distilling techniques developed in the 19th century it became the refined gin we know today with juniper flavours being delicately mixed with botanicals like coriander, cinnamon, ginger and Orris.

It's the challenge of blending and experimenting with these flavours that has attracted a new generation of gin distillers. Dan Saladino explains the history that has made this 21st century gin craze possible and finds out what is now drawing people to what was once Britain's most notorious drink.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Leyla speaks to Selina Hales, founder of charity Refuweegee, which distributes welcome packs and emergency food parcels, runs community meals and organises events for people starting a new life in Glasgow.

Teresa Piacentini of the Glasgow Refugee, Asylum & Migration Network outlines how the dispersal system works, the changing landscape in Glasgow, and how food is used to establish community, identity and belonging for those seeking refuge or making a new home in Scotland.

Ibrahim Kamara and Arij Alnajjar take Leyla out for lunch, where they discuss their experience in the asylum system, and how crucial food has been in helping them reclaim their identity and share their culture and cuisine with friends in a foreign country.

Producer Robbie Armstrong visits the Garnethill Multicultural Centre to meet development worker Vivien Opiolka. He attends their community meal, and hears from service users about the importance of shared meals for those in the asylum system. Robbie shows Leyla around his neighbourhood of Govanhill, Scotland's most multicultural area, and talks about its diverse array of cuisines, restaurants and affordable supermarkets.

We hear from councillor Roza Salih, herself a Kurdish refugee and member of the legendary activist group the Glasgow Girls. She visits Kurdish kebab takeaway Shawarma King to toast owner Majed Badrekhan on his takeaway being crowned ‘best kebab in Scotland' two years in a row.

Closer to home, Leyla visits the Cyprus House restaurant in the Turkish Cypriot Cultural Association in Green Lanes, North London, where she reflects on her Cypriot heritage, her dad's escape from war-torn Cyprus, and why food is a central part of her identity.

Presented by Leyla Kazim.

Produced by Robbie Armstrong.

Leyla Kazim explores the central role food plays for forcibly displaced people in Glasgow.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon is joined in the studio by food writer Nada Saleh, author of Seductive Flavours of the Levant and Fresh Moroccan and Alan Mowlem, goat expert, and former research scientist at the National Institute for Research in Dairying.

Reporter Dilly Barlow meets Lyn Beaney from Holly Park Organics, a smallholding near Rye who have reared 30 goats to produce unpasteurised yoghurt, milk and cheese.

We talk to Sharon and Chris Peacock who run a 23 acre farm outside Cockerham in Lancashire rearing British Boer meat goats, specifically for the table.

Sheila Dillon visits Chris and Sharon Peacock at their farm in Cockerham, Lancashire.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Reports say a resistance to heavy sugar and artificial sweeteners has seen soda sales drop off in the USA. 'Craft sodas' are making a play for some of the market by offering alternative flavours and drinks flavoured with cane sugar rather than corn syrup. Tristan Donovan heads on a mission to scour the soda fountains of the US and find some of the wackiest drinks available. How about a lactart or phosphate?

But in the UK too those with brewing skills are applying their knowledge to create soft drinks low on sugar and strong on flavour. Dan looks into the future of fizzy pop to see what the future might hold for those who still sparkle at the thought of a refreshing glass of pop.

Presented by Dan Saladino

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Dan Saladino explores how our changing taste in soft drinks is shaking up the big brands.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

Sheila Dillon meets grannies and grandchildren whose family dishes stand the test of time.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Greeks have now lived through seven years of austerity after the most catastrophic European financial crisis in modern times. Unemployment is above 23%, higher than anywhere in the EU. Amongst the under 25's the figure is more than 46%. Life is tough in Greece.

But food and farming tell a more uplifting story. Employment in food production and farming is up. Many young people left their former lives in the cities and moved back to the countryside to start farms and food start-ups.

Now, Sheila Dillon takes a trip from Greece's second city Thessaloniki in the north, to the capital, Athens to meet food producers and farmers in Greece. She asks how they are surviving, and whether food and farming might help Greece in it's recovery. She asks senior advisor in the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food, Professor Charalambos Kasimis, what the Government are doing to help Greece's newest farmers. And finds that part of the story involves a failed UK crowd-funding campaign to pay off the Greek national debt.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced by Clare Salisbury.

Sheila Dillon is on a trip through crisis hit Greece to meet people making a life in food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This type of fermented milk product, often strained to remove whey, is a relative newcomer in the UK - but is on the rise. In fact, Greek and Greek-style yogurt is the fastest growing sector of the UK yogurt market. It has also been at the centre of a High Court battle, an American health craze and a multi-billion dollar yogurt war.

In this edition of the Food Programme, Sheila Dillon discovers the secrets of making this thick, creamy... and delicious cultured food. It was originally made in this country by immigrants such as the founders of Tim's Dairy, now run by four brothers whose Greek Cypriot uncle started making yogurt in a small London workshop in 1949, and now make around five to ten thousand litres of Greek-style yogurt a day.

Collete and David Strachan are dairy farmers, but after losing cows (even though none were infected) during BSE and with the price of milk spiralling ever downward, the future of their Suffolk farm was in question. Ten years ago they started to experiment with yogurt-making, and along the way, as Sheila discovers, they have been joined by two of their children James and Katherine- and it's their plain Greek-style yogurt made at Marybelle Dairy that has just won the Supreme Champion award.

So what is 'Greek' yogurt? With the help of BBC producer Aylin Bozyap-Hannen who learnt how to make yogurt from her Turkish mother, Sheila reveals a traditional, regional food that has been on an incredible, controversial, and tasty journey.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon finds out why humble Greek yogurt triggered a worldwide food craze.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila finds out how grouse shoots and moors fit into the food and farming landscape in the company of `Countryman` Johnny Scott (who co-presented the TV series Clarissa and the Countryman) and also the moor owner, Simon Bostock, as well as Len Walker, a now retired game-keeper and ex-miner.

Armed with a brace of grouse, fresh from the shoot, Sheila visits brothers Jeff and Chris Galvin at their Baker Street restaurant `Galvins` and watches while Chris prepares the grouse, and Jeff then cooks it.

Sheila Dillon investigates grouse and pheasant with the help of writer Johnny Scott.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Emma Weatherill in Bristol.

Sheila Dillon visits a salad business that employs ex-addicts.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Food writer and gardener Lynda Brown sings the praises of the doughnut, chef and meat lover Fergus Henderson extolls the virtues of dripping and Dilly Barlow rekindles a childhood passion for toffee and fudge-making, and visits the Burnt Sugar factory in Nottingham.

Sheila Dillon celebrates guilty culinary pleasures, including doughnuts and dripping.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan Saladino finds out how one dish, gumbo, can reveal centuries of American history.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Sheila Dillon joins chef Julie Lin in Glasgow as she hosts friends for Burns Night 2024.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the dark nights of January, celebrating the work of poet Robert Burns by feasting, toasting and speaking poetry is a much-loved tradition in Scotland and around the world.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Sheila Dillon joins chef Julie Lin in Glasgow as she hosts friends for Burns Night 2024.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Reporter Sara Parker visits an abattoir in the West Midlands where cattle and sheep are slaughtered according to halal principles and meets managing director Naved Syed, who is calling for better regulation of the halal market.

Sheila hears from Dr Mara Miele, a sociologist at Cardiff University and the co-ordinator of Dialrel, which is a four-year project set up to research religious slaughter across Europe. Large variations exist across the EU in terms of how animals are slaughtered. Some Muslims believe meat from an animal that has been stunned before slaughter complies with halal principles; others strongly disagree. Dialrel is attempting to share best practice and improve animal welfare across the board.

Dialrel is also researching the production of kosher meat. Sheila speaks to Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Professor in Judaism at the University of Wales, about the tension between the religious principles that underpin kosher and halal meat and moral questions over animal welfare.

Sheila Dillon looks at the growing demand for halal meat in Britain.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But halloumi is more than just an export. On a divided island (there has been a border maintained by the UN since 1964), halloumi (Greek) or hellim (Turkish) is produced by both sides, and has been for millennia. In this programme Leyla travels to Cyprus to meet the people producing hellim and halloumi, to hear about its present and gauge it's future. She'll watch it being made at scale in factories and in kitchens. She'll meet dairy farmers and question the officials behind the new PDO status. And most importantly, she'll taste a lot of halloumi.

Presented by Leyla Kazim

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

Leyla Kazim speaks to Cypriots about the future of one of the UK's favourite food imports.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She meets a representative of the scallop dredgers and explores the management structure relating to the area. And, as the Government consultation process nears its end, she hears views on what the Government should be considering for the Marine Bill and the future for Britain's fisheries.

Sheila talks to fisherman David Sales, of the Southern Sea Fisheries Committee, and joins Darren Brown, a licensed scalloper who dives for scallops on the sea bed off Start Bay in Devon.

Sheila hears the point of view of the scallop dredgers by talking to Jim Portus, Chairman of the South-west Fish Producers Organisation and Secretary of the Inshore Scallopers Association.

Sheila visits Chris Venmore, crab fisherman and chairman of the Devon Sea Fisheries Committee.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She talks to Dr Sally Adams Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Birmingham about what a hangover does to our bodies and minds. Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall is a writer who for his book Hungover: A History of the Morning After and One Man's Quest for a Cure subjected himself to serious self-experiment in search of a cure. Jaega talks to him about his decade of drinking and investigation into the history of the hangover. She also meets Prof David Nutt for a drink. Previously the Government's chief drug advisor, he is now trying to create a replacement to alcohol that will create a pleasant effect without issues the next day.

There are also suggestions for hangover cures from:

Sam Evans, Wynne Evans, Noddy Holder, Ash Sarkar, Fred Sirieix, Michel Roux Jr., Russell Kane, Maisie Adam, Ania Magliano, Marlon Davis, Adam Flemming

Jaega Wise investigates the science, history and culture around the hangover.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the west, it's traditionally been considered either a base for other flavours, or something to be knocked back as quickly as possible. But the recent craft spirits boom has seen more distillers experimenting with vodka, showcasing the subtle flavours of base ingredients or trying out quirky botanical additions; and now, a growing vodka fan club is eager to prove it has more to offer than some might thin

Sheila visits Highland Fine Cheeses and talks to Rory Stone about his Mey Selections cheese called ‘Highland Blue'. She also visits Fearn Farm and chats to James Scott about their sheep and lamb which goes into Mey Selections.

Danny Miller, Chairman of North Highland Products Ltd tells Sheila how the venture came about, and Sheila also travels to the harbour at Scrabster to meet William Calder of Scrabster Seafoods and to see an online fish auction involving the Faroe Islands. Whilst in Scrabster, she meets Angela McKay of Kyle of Tongue Oysters.

Sheila is joined in the studio by Judith Batchelor, Director for Sainsbury's Brand.

Sheila Dillon reports from the North Highlands on a royally-inspired food venture.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon talks to world authority on sugar Professor Sidney Mintz about the history of sugar, and its place in Britain's mercantile and cultural history.

She is joined in the studio by Tom Lines, a consultant in trade and development commodity markets, to explain what changes the new regime is likely to bring.

Reporter Orin Gordon visits Barbados to find out how they plan to weather the storm - through a 50/50 split between special, edible sugars and cane grown for fuel, ethanol and power generation.

Jack Winkler, Professor in the Nutrition Policy Unit at London Metropolitan University outlines how trade impacts on public health concerns.

Sheila Dillon talks to Prof Sidney Mintz about the history of sugar.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Ever since the 6th century rule of St Benedict said that monastic orders should be self- sufficient, monks and nuns have taken to the land and to the kitchens to produce food and drink for sale. Tim introduces us to some specific examples of how that tradition is thriving today. Giorgio Locatelli and food historian Mary Taylor Simeti explain how an array of recipes for sublime biscuits and pastries made by Sicilian nuns have survived for centuries, due in no small way to a woman called Maria Grammatico who went to live in a convent where Nuns would live out their final days. She would collect their recipes and she went on to become one of the most famous makers of Sicilian pastries. Giorgio Locatelli lovingly recreates some of those sumptuous treats in his Locanda restaurant today. We visit the New Skete Nuns in New York who have featured in the New York Times and Vanity Fair with their famous cheesecakes. Tim talks to food historian Annie Gray who reminds him of the overall impact of the monastic orders on food production but who also cautions us not to get too carried away with the idea of continuity. We hear from the writer, Madeline Scherb, who went on her own pilgrimage around the world to cook and pray with some monks and nuns; recalling the chanting of the Hail Mary on a caramel production line. She explains how St Benedict himself was not able to persuade his own monks to abstain completely from alcohol, and so the tradition of producing liquors of all sorts is one of the longest surviving strands of monastic production. In the UK, that includes the famous Ampleforth abbey ciders and beers. And there's Buckfast tonic wine from Devon; a drink that has attracted controversy in some areas. Join Tim Hayward as he raises a glass to a tradition of monastic food production that appears to be alive and kicking.

Producer: Sarah Langan.

Tim Hayward looks at the tradition of monastic food production.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Reporter, Jean Snedegar visits Pennsylvania to meet commercial beekeeper Dave Hackenberg and speaks to scientists at Penn State University about their latest research.

Sheila Dillon is joined in the studio by Dr Richard Jones, director of The International Bee Research Association and by Dr Norman Carreck, bee scientist and keeper.

The plight of the honeybee is the focus in this edition.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She visits Shepherd Neame, a brewery in Faversham, Kent and talks to head brewer, David Holmes, She visits farm owner Tony Redsell, whose family has been growing hops for over 50 years, and meets hop driers Derek Elvey and Peter Shead.

Sheila also talks to Dr Peter Darby about The National Hop Collection at Queen Court Farm, near Faversham.

In the studio, she is joined in the studio by Roger Protz, beer writer and editor of The Good Beer Guide, and Martin Dickie, brewer and co-owner of Brewdog Brewery, Fraserburgh.

The renaissance in English hops: more varieties, more ales, more happy and hoppy customers

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In a special edition of The Food Programme, Sheila Dillon talks to former regulators and experts on food processing to find out how it could have happened and what kind of meat supply chain it has revealed.

The discovery comes as many people monitoring food safety have expressed concerns about cuts in budgets to the UK's food testing regime. Public analyst Duncan Campbell explains why he thinks the two scenarios are connected.

To shed light on the global trade in horse meat and protein products Sheila speaks to Latitude News journalist Jack Rodolico. He's traced the movement of race horses into the EU food supply chain.

New York Times reporter Michael Moss also explains why the UK might be following in the footsteps of a debate around cheap meat sparked off in the US by the so called 'pink slime' scandal.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon investigates the horsemeat burger scandal affecting food in Ireland and UK.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Ten months on there have been no prosecutions or fines and we're still waiting to be told how the unlabelled horsemeat entered the food chain, and who put it there.

Criminal investigations are underway across Europe, led in the UK by the City of London Police. Most public information on the scandal however has come from two sources, a report by Ireland's Department of Agriculture and secondly, the hours of evidence heard by MPs on the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.

The Food Programme explains what we know from these sources and also why an out of court settlement between two companies reveals much about one of the meat supply chains from the Netherlands into the UK.

The programme hears from the Guardian's Special Correspondent, Felicity Lawrence, whose updated book, Not On The Label, gives a detailed account of the scandal.

Reporters Ella McSweeney and Anna Holligan give the latest developments in Ireland and the Netherlands. The Grocer magazine's Julia Glotz, explains how our shopping habits have changed since the scandal and why this proving to be a problem for companies with no involvement in the contamination.

Where are the investigations heading and what chances of successful convictions? These are questions Sheila Dillon puts to Andrew Rhodes of the Food Standards Agency.

The programme is produced by Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon asks why no one has been prosecuted following on from the horsemeat scandal.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila meets catering teams at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, and the Royal Blackburn Teaching hospital, both part of a group of pioneering ‘exemplar' NHS Trusts that are doing things differently with hospital meals, to find out how they're building a model that others can follow.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Sheila Dillon meets pioneering catering teams improving food in the NHS.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In England, new regulations are being implemented which are hoped to transform the meals being served, reduce waste, and make sure staff have access to good food 24/7. 60% of hospitals are already said to be complying - will the rest be able to catch up?

But with many hospitals now functioning without real kitchens - can frozen or chilled meals that are simply re-heated in hospital be a part of that? Apetito, one of the biggest caterers, believes they can be, and invited Sheila Dillon to see how they prepare tasty and nutritious food in bulk.

While in Cambridge, Sheila meets those working on a brand new Children's Hospital and hears how they want good food to be central to the hospital's philosophy. It plans to give patients and their families access to more dining spaces to avoid children eating meals in bed (when possible), and it plans to have it's own kitchens cooking food from scratch.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Sheila Dillon visits a hospital food factory, and will new regulations improve food?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The editor of BBC Good Food magazine Gillian Carter believes that there is an emerging sector who are using it to make full, nutritious dinners using new recipes tailored to their microwave.

Microwaves were patented 60 years ago and hailed as the future of cookery. Helen Peavitt from the Science Museum in London explains how they went from hi tech war weapon to domestic every day item. Meanwhile self-proclaimed microwave hater food journalist Andrew Webb challenges himself to cook a full three course dinner entirely in the microwave.

Presenter Sheila Dillon. Producer Ruth Sanderson.

The UK's guilty secret? Sheila Dillon charts the 60-year shift from pot to ping.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme, Sheila Dillon meets those behind the campaign that saved British cheese makers, as well as those who benefited. She finds out why cheese is more than just a delicious treat, and asks 'what now' for the industry.

A BBC Audio production, presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Heather Simons.

When UK cheese makers were faced with ruin in lockdown, consumers stepped in to save them.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Today, chicken is the second biggest supply of meat protein in the world, and it's on the rise. More than four times as much chicken is now consumed in the USA than in the 1950s, and as new markets emerge in the Middle East and Asia, our hunger for chicken is only set to grow. To meet demand, the bird has become a valuable commodity, farmed and processed in a factory setting.

In this programme Dan Saladino tracks the chicken from its roots in the Asian jungle, to its place on our dinner plates today with help from Andrew Lawler, author of 'Why Did The Chicken Cross The World'. He discovers how a competition in the 1950s had a radical impact on the type of chicken we eat and hears how genetics, cooking and art might have a role to play in preserving some almost forgotten breeds and tastes.

Dan asks geneticist Professor Bill Muir where will we take the chicken next?

Presented by Dan Saladino

Produced by Clare Salisbury

NB. Correction. The Buckeye chicken was developed in the 1890s, not the 1820s as stated in the programme.

Dan Saladino tells the story of a bird at the centre of human civilisation, the chicken.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With all this food on screen, inevitably we're left wanting to eat it. Leyla discovers the people painstakingly recreating recipes like writers Olivia Potts and Kate Young with their TV dinners and the YouTube phenomenon Binging with Babish, who gets millions of views for revealing how to make dishes from TV and film's biggest hits - like the ram-don noodles from Oscar-winning film Parasite.

Featuring clips from:

Bend it Like Beckham, directed by Gurinder Chadha and written by Gurinder Chadha, Guljit Bindra and Paul Mayeda Berges with production companies Kintop Pictures, Bend It Films, Roc Media, Road Movies, Filmproduktion

What's Cooking? Directed by Gurinder Chadha and written by Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges for BeCause Entertainment Group

Phantom Thread, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson for Production companies Annapurna Pictures, Ghoulardi Film Company and Perfect World Pictures.

Binging with Babish: Ram-Don from Parasite - produced and presented by Andrew Rea

YouTube channel Maangchi video ‘Jjapaguri with steak (aka 'Ram-don' from the movie Parasite)

American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes, written by Alan Ball and produced by Jinks / Cohen Company

Presenter: Leyla Kazim

Producer: Tom Bonnett

Hear how food brings film to life and is inspiring cooks to make meals from the screen.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Plus @pleesecakes reveals the secrets to 147k followers in just 18 months;

@felicityspector on whether she's an influencer or not;

top chefs at Aquavit on why Instagram is a window onto the world;

and @wildfoodcafe on just keeping it real.

The photo above was taken by Matt Inwood who runs masterclasses on taking better photos on your phone.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But how well are these schemes understood? What does the general public really want to be assured about? How much impact can assurance labels have, in a world where we're eating more and more processed food? And what could such schemes contribute to a post-Brexit UK food system?

Sheila Dillon is joined by an expert panel to discuss some of the questions around food assurance labels: Dr Siobhan Mullan, a Senior Research Fellow in Farm Animal Science at the University of Bristol Veterinary School, who's currently helping to develop a new food standard, the Global Federation of Higher Animal Welfare Assurance; Erik Millstone, a Professor of Science Policy at the University of Sussex, whose work focuses on how we structure our food system; and Phil Brooke the Research and Education Manager at the animal welfare lobbying organisation Compassion in World Farming - which has an ongoing 'Honest Labelling' campaign.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Lucy Taylor

Sheila Dillon considers the role of food assurance schemes in the UK today.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

We all know the stereotypes about what university students eat - it's all burnt toast and ready-meals, late night take-aways and instant ramen, right? Well, perhaps not. When chef and food writer Lope Ariyo was at university, she adored cooking. Whether it was keeping herself fuelled for late-night study sessions, or rustling up a big warming dinner for her and her housemates, cooking and eating were a huge part of the university experience. Now, Lope is taking a look at what this year's freshers are eating, how they learn to cook, and dispelling the myth that they're all permanently teetering on the brink of food poisoning.

Presented by Lope Ariyo, and produced in Bristol by Emily Knight.

It's freshers' week, and The Food Programme wants to know what students are eating!

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

From there he went to Bolivia and set up a restaurant to rescue lost foods of the Andes and Amazon, and onto New York where he founded a cooking school in a neighbourhood with some of the worst levels of food related illness in America.

So what is he now doing in Newport, South Wales.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

(Photo: Stephan Gamillscheg)

Can you reinvent a food culture? Dan Saladino meets a man who did, Denmark's Claus Meyer.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This first programme of How We Eat explores the pleasures and pitfalls of eating alone. As one in three households in Britain is now a single-person household, increasing numbers of people ARE eating on their own. Do we eat differently when we eat unobserved? How do people of all ages, from students to widowers, adjust to suddenly having to cook for themselves?

Sheila Dillon investigates the booming business of ready-meals for one, and hears embarrassing confessions about secret snacks: such as people who shut themselves in the utility room to gorge on chocolate, pretending they're doing the laundry. She visits inspirational cookery writer Anna del Conte, who's in her 90s, to talk to her about the delicious meals she makes for herself now that she's a widow. She goes to a cookery class at a hospice. She talks to students who admit to living on alcohol and crisps. And she meets a man who cooks fresh meals to share with his dog.

Sheila Dillon explores the guilty pleasures of eating alone.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She visits the largest Sikh temple in Europe, where hundreds are fed every day for free, and hospitality to strangers is a sacred religious duty. She meets the woman who started the supper club movement in Britain when she began inviting people into her small flat for dinner. She talks to an unlikely couple - with a 60 year age gap - who formed a firm friendship thanks to the charity the Casserole Club. And she visits the Glasgow couple who met as strangers at a supper club for singles - and knew after that first dinner that they were destined to share the rest of their lives together. It was his table manners that did it.

Sheila Dillon finds out what happens when you eat with strangers.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon talks to people who eat according to very strict rules.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But in this programme Sheila meets two families who believe that there is nothing more important than eating together. The Parker family have two children of their own, but they have also fostered dozens of children, some with special needs. Crucial to the success of their extended family, they believe, is the fact that they sit together every night at six o'clock round the table to eat. Sheila Dillon joins them to find out why this structure is so important to the children they look after. She visits too the Brooks family, who sit down together every Friday night for the Jewish Friday night dinner. Emma Brooks married into Judaism and found it strange at first; she reflects on the demands but also the benefits of this ritual meal.

So what exactly can family meals do for us? Sheila talks to best-selling child psychologist Steve Biddulph whose books ('Raising Boys', 'Raising Girls') are in 4 million homes, and finds out why he thinks eating together is crucial if you want to solve conflict and raise happy children. He gives his top tips for successful family meals. But many people, Sheila included, remember dreadful family rows over the childhood dinner table. With historian Chris Kissane, the programme explores whether the family dinner, like the perfect family itself, has always been more of a myth than a reality.

Sheila Dillon explores the reality and the myth of eating as a family.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon presents the programme from one of the UK's best loved ice cream parlours and is joined by expert Robin Weir who has spent the last twelve years updating his book, 'Ice Cream, Sorbets and Gelati' - co-authored with wife, Caroline, - and widely recognised as the definitive guide to ice cream.

Shelia Dillon explores the seemingly recession-proof ice cream market.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Yasmin Khan is on a mission to prove you wrong. In this programme Yasmin (Ice cream fanatic) uncovers the UK's rich but lesser known ice cream culture, taking a trip down memory lane to visit people making ice cream in places where she's lived. She'll hear about our overlooked regional specialities like the ‘lemon top' of Redcar near Middlesbrough. And she'll hear how our sweet tooth is driving a new market for high street dessert parlours and struggling dairy farms.

She'll find how our love affair with ice cream all goes back to hundreds of years of immigration, from the Swiss Italians in the 19th century to young entrepreneurs today.

It's not an ice cream renaissance, because our love of ice cream has never disappeared. (And also there is nothing wrong with a 99 in the rain.)

Presented by Yasmin Khan

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

A visit to Redcar and Sheffield proves that UK ice cream culture is stronger than ever.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The country has been hit hard - after enjoying one of the highest standards of living in the world, 2008 saw its banking sector collapse and it became the first western country to apply to the International Monetary Fund for emergency financial aid since 1976.

Richard looks at how this turn of events is making a difference to the food being bought and eaten by Iceland's population. From rediscovering forgotten food traditions to the rise of the budget supermarket, he finds out how Icelanders are adjusting their diets to the new economic reality.

Richard Johnson finds out about the impact of the world economic crisis on food in Iceland

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon talks to social historian, Christina Hardyment, author of Slice of Life: the British Way of Eating since 1945 about the background of some of these brands.

She also visits Lea & Perrins factory in Worcester and talks to Tony Deaking, company archivist and to Quality manager, Jenny Cope.

Sheila talks to Sue Fudge at Fudges Bakery in Stalbridge in Dorset to view production of savoury biscuits and flapjacks that incorporate some of the branded products.

Food writer, cook and journalist Nigel Slater, along with chef and food writer, Paul Hartley joins Sheila in the studio to taste some of the biscuits and to sample some recipes prepared by Paul and drawn from Paul's recipe books that incorporate the branded products.

Sheila Dillon examines the enduring appeal and versatility of iconic brands.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

On this week's Food Programme Sheila Dillon will be hearing from growers, food processors, and the supermarkets about the impact they are seeing of the floods.

Ian Tolhurst an organic grower who delivers 400 fruit and veg boxes a week explains that he's expecting shortages of some varieties and prices will have to go.

Keith Cricks of Pinguin Foods one of the biggest vegetable processors in the UK explains how we are likely to see a shortage of peas because crops were so badly affected by the weather.

Sheila also hears from a farmer whose potatoes have been destroyed by blight and a rape seed grower who produces a cold pressed oil who has seen a lower yield this year.

Two years ago New Orleans and the surrounding Louisiana countryside were devastated by one of the most dramatic floods in US history, brought on by Hurricane Katrina. Sheila Dillon talks to Poppy Tooker, leader of the New Orleans Slow Food Convivium about how she helped rebuild the food system there.

Sheila Dillon looks at the impact of the recent floods on food supplies.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dil Peeling from Compassion in World Farming gives details on their latest report into conditions on rabbit farms on the continent. We hear from the Knowle West Media Centre about the culture of catching wild rabbits. And Sheila hears from Peter Rigby, a young farmer near Chippenham who is going to start a free range rabbit farm.

Dan Saladino also spends a morning cooking with chefs Barny Haughton and Oliver Pratt to find out how to cook it, and just how delicious the meat can be.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

Sheila Dillon explores rabbit meat. Is it delicious or unjustifiable?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Glasses still steamy from several simmering stockpots, Tim sets off on a journey into the world of stock. On his travels he'll share precious stock secrets, learn from the masters, tell tales of nineteenth-century Uruguay and peek behind the doors of stock-cube heaven.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Tim Hayward explores one of the most humble and complex of kitchen staples, stock.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Lockdowns and job losses have disrupted access to food in this country of 1.4 billion people. A further 400,000 covid cases are being reported on a daily basis and 300,000 deaths have been recorded so far. For much of the world the pandemic has primarily been seen as a health crisis, accompanied by significant economic pressures. In India however, the impact on the food system has been considerable.

Among the most vulnerable are the daily wage earners and labourers who go from pay check to pay check. When India went into a sudden lockdown in March 2020 many lost their income overnight and also their ability to purchase food. Meanwhile, millions of migrant workers left cities across India to travel back to their villages. This also resulted in people experiencing food shortages and hunger.

Chhavi Sachdev, a journalist and broadcaster based in Mumbai joins Dan to report on food stories from the pandemic, from people who survived lockdown in some of the city's most densely crowded slums to home cooks who took it upon themselves to feed people in need.

The London based Indian chef Asma Khan describes how she has been trying to send food supplies to a village close to her family's home. Although it's an agricultural area, food supplies have been running low and some people have been at risk of starvation.

Bhawani Singh Shekhawat of Akshaya Patra, an organisation that provides hot meals to millions of school children in India each day, explains how the pandemic initially disrupted their ability to provide food, but also led to them innovating and finding new ways of feeding even greater numbers of people.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino looks at Covid's impact on food in India and the efforts to feed communities.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

So does it matter? Aren't all vegetables healthy? Sheila Dillon looks at a project run by Bioversity International in Kenya to increase the availability and consumption of Africa's indigenous green leafy vegetables. She finds out what role many people believe they can play in solving some of the continent's most pressing problems, including malnutrition and crop failures due to global warming.

Indigenous vegetables are nutrient-dense compared to their replacements. They are particularly helpful in supplying vitamin A and iron - both of which are commonly lacking in the African diet, which has become increasingly westernised - and lacking in nutrients. Indigenous plants are also perfectly adapted to the local weather and landscape, able to withstand the droughts common to many parts of the continent, and likely to become more widespread with global warming.

Getting the plants to urban shoppers today requires involving commercial farmers, and they require more reliable and uniform seeds than have been traditionally gathered from the wild. Peter Hanson is leader of Vegetable Breeding at AVRDC World Vegetable Centre in Taiwan, responsible for overseeing the breeding of these new seeds.

Sheila is joined in discussion by Pablo Eyzaguirre, senior scientist at Bioversity International, which is carrying out work in Kenya and around the world promoting biodiversity of agriculture and diet, and Dr Einir M Young, head of sustainable development at the the Welsh Institute for Natural Resources at Bangor University, which is involved in the production of the recently-published African Indigenous Vegetables in Urban Agriculture.

What price the loss of indigenous vegetables in Africa? Sheila Dillon finds out.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Retail analysts, Edward Garner from TNS World Panel and Bryan Roberts from Planet Retail, explain some of the latest developments in how the major supermarkets are using the internet.

Food writer Rose Prince goes on a virtual tour of some of the websites she uses.

Roger White, founder of a scheme called Somerset Local Food Direct, explains how a farmers' market went online.

Reporter Sara Parker travels to Ashwell in Hertfordshire with Anthony Davison, founder of bigbarn.co.uk, to see how three high street food shops are linking up to sell their food through a website.

Sheila Dillon is joined in the studio by Kath Dalmeny, Policy Director of Sustain and food writer and cook, Rose Prince, to explore some of the environmental issues raised by the growth in internet food shopping.

Sheila Dillon explores food sold over the internet and gets some tips on online shopping.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the awards' 17th year, Giorgio Locatelli and Yotam Ottolenghi are part of a national appeal by chefs, cooks, food writers and food producers from across the country, calling on you to nominate the people who make food great where you live.

And in 2017, the BBC Food & Farming Awards are going global. For the first time, the judges will be honouring someone who has changed the way the world thinks about food and farming.

Let the search commence...

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury

NB. The BBC Food & Farming Awards will open for public nominations on Sunday 15th January for 2 weeks, closing on Sunday 29th January. Details can be found at bbc.co.uk/foodawards.

Giorgio Locatelli launches 2017's 'Oscars' of food and in 2017, the search goes global.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presenter: Jaega Wise

Producer: Tom Bonnett

Picture courtesy of Samer Moukarzel

Jaega Wise meets three people speaking out about inequality in the food world.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Today it doesn't happen like it used to. Homes are built without dining rooms, that's if you can afford your own place anyway. We're too frightened of the elaborate dishes cooked by TV chefs that we prefer to meet up with friends over Sunday roasts or bottomless brunch. Yes we might have people over for food, but it's shared out in the kitchen, or eaten on knees in-front of the TV. So are we in a post-dinner party era? Or should we invest in a decent table cloth and be proud about entertaining the people we love?

Leyla Kazim speaks to New Yorker and author of 'Nothing Fancy', Alison Roman who is not mourning the dinner party. Instead, Alison gives her ultimate guide to having friends over for food, complete with a 'washing up' dance party. British podcast host and writer Alexandra Dudley defends the glitz that only comes with a proper party and shares some simple hacks. And best-selling author Josceline Dimbleby describes how the way she cooks for friends has changed since she released her first cookbook in 1976.

Presented by Leyla Kazim.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Josceline Dimbleby, Alison Roman & Alexandra Dudley on how to have friends over for food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

There would have been a time when pasties were eaten all over the UK, but the PGI protected Cornish pasty has persevered in Cornwall. Today the Cornish Pasty Association estimate that on it's own, production of Cornish pasties is worth around 20 per cent of the value of the county's food and drink industry.

In this programme we hear what the pasty means to people in Cornwall, and all over the world; Because when Cornish miners emigrated away from the UK in the 19th century, they took their pasties with them.

At 2020's World Pasty Championships, we meet pasty makers from as far as the USA, Argentina, Jamaica, and closer, from Kent, Sheffield and Bristol. We hear from Bridget Galsworthy de Estavillo, who has helped to reconnect Mexican paste (pasty) makers with their Cornish heritage in the mountain communities of Hidalgo. And we ask what the Cornish pasty says about a new generation's sense of regional/national identity.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Dr Polly Russell and Sheila Dillon talk to pasty makers from around the world.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A technological revolution means it is now possible to monitor large groups of people as they eat food. With this accumulation of 'big data' and the use of Artificial Intelligence it's also becoming increasingly possible to personalise nutritional advice. Dan spends two weeks on the study, being tested and scanned as he eats specially formulated muffins, drinks and meals, all designed to test his response to fats and carbs. At the end of the tough eating regime, Tim Spector gives him some good and bad news about his relationship with different foods.

Dan also speaks to Professor Eric Topol, Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in California and the author of Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again. He believes this more individualised approach to nutrition will soon create the biggest shift we've seen in modern medicine. In the future our phones, watches and smart speakers will be providing increasingly detailed information about how and what we should eat.

To get even more of his own personalised nutrition advice Dan has his gut microbiome tested by a company called Atlas Biomed. The microbiome is the collection of trillions of bacteria inside all of us that we now know exerts a big influence on our health. The lead researcher at Atlas Biomed Dmitry Alexeev tells Dan what (or perhaps who) is inside his gut and what this might mean for his future health.

Presented and produced by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino takes part in a gruelling food study aimed at predicting his optimum diet.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Featuring chef and writer of 'Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat' Samin Nosrat, lexicographer and etymologist (and Dictionary Corner resident) Susie Dent, Senior Health Correspondent for online news site vox.com Julia Belluz, salt makers Alison and David Lea-Wilson, and the chef and author of 'Salt is Essential': Shaun Hill.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

The reading of 'Sugar and Salt' in the podcast and Monday's broadcast is by Vicky Coathup.

Sheila Dillon asks if there is a place for salt in our cooking and if all salts are equal.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

For those with Mauritian heritage, food - and the very act of coming together to eat with friends and family - is an almost sacred part of life; a tradition packed with love, laughter and lip-smacking dishes.

So why hasn't Mauritian food made more of an impact on the UK food scene, over the decades? And is that now starting to change?

Food and travel writer Leyla Kazim sets out on a journey to explore her own Mauritian heritage and the island's growing culinary influence within the UK, learning more about a cuisine that has diversity and family - particularly matriarchs - at its very heart.

Leyla meets with pioneering cooks Selina Periampillai and Shelina Permalloo, two women who learned classic recipes handed down over the generations, who are proving that the second generation of Mauritians in the UK are determined to earn their cuisine the recognition it deserves...

She also learns more about the diverse history of the Indian Ocean island and its multicultural influences - and hears the moving tale of Clancy Phillippe, a Mauritian living in Australia who was inspired by his wife to introduce traditional Mauritian fare to the world.

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Leyla Kazim looks at how Mauritian cuisine is finding its place on the UK food scene

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Jack's most recent campaign against the way inflation data is recorded and presented, resulted in the Office for National Statistics saying it would do more to represent the experiences of people living on different incomes in the UK. It also led the supermarket chain Asda to bring back and expand it's budget range of products. Jack is currently working on creating her own 'Vimes Boots' index to document the way food prices have changed over the past decade for people living on lowest incomes.

In this programme, Leyla finds out what motivates Jack to keep speaking out about inequalities, and how she deals with social media backlashes. She talks about her early food heroes, the pleasure she gets from cooking, and why she believes there needs to be more equality and inclusivity in the food world.

Presented by Leyla Kazim

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Leyla Kazim meets food writer and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Answering that question took Jake on a journey through hundreds of scientific papers and books by the world's experts, visiting fish markets and talking to fish buyers around the world. His quest culminated at the Seaweb Seafood Choices Summit earlier this year, the world's biggest annual seafood gathering, where industry, science, fishermen, NGOs, government, and the odd chef, were all brought together in Paris to discuss sustainable seafood and good practice.

Through the fish market of Rungis, the streets of Paris, and the conference halls, Jake asks the experts what they mean by 'sustainable fishing', and how cooks everywhere can find it, speaking to conference keynote speaker Professor Daniel Pauly, the community supported fishery from Maine, and UK restaurateur Caroline Bennett owner of sushi restaurant Moshi Moshi.

How do you buy sustainable fish? Artist Jake Tilson visits a seafood summit to find out.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But there is another way. In fact there are many. In this programme, 'queen of preserving' and author of 'Salt Sugar Smoke, how to preserve fruit, vegetables and fish' Diana Henry, meets the people thinking differently about jam.

She finds out how to use some of this year's gluts of fruit with Mary Longford, the woman behind Absolute Preserves in Somerset, discovers a beloved but forgotten fruit with gardener and food writer Mark Diacono; And speaks to Fraser Doherty, the man whose healthier jams have made him an international icon with an MBE to boot.

With advice from American preserves blogger for 'Food in Jars' Marisa McClellan, Diana hosts a canning (or jamming) party and explores culinary traditions of jam making from Scandinavia, Ukraine and beyond with food writers Olia Hercules and Camilla Plum. Recipes from around Europe which won't require shiny new kit.

Diana Henry wants you to rise up, and make jam.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Diana Henry hosts a jam-making 'canning party'.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In a two-part programme, Jamie, arguably the UK's most successful food entrepreneur, reveals where it all went wrong with ill-fated restaurant chain 'Jamie's Italian'; the restaurants were supposed to disrupt mid-market dining, but after more than a decade, the chain collapsed in May.

He takes Sheila back to his childhood home, above his dad's Essex pub restaurant where his life in professional kitchens began, clearing up fag ends and polishing urinal pipes. Cooking, the only thing he was `any good at` would propel him into the restaurant scene of 1990s London, and eventually onto our TV screens.

This is the first part of two programmes on Jamie Oliver's Life Through Food. Part two will be broadcast on Sunday 25th August 2019.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury

Jamie Oliver talks to Sheila Dillon on the 20th anniversary of 'The Naked Chef' Part I

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In a two-part programme, Jamie describes being propelled into the limelight as 'The Naked Chef'. The charismatic young line chef given an unexpected TV pilot. His decision not to aim for Michelin stars, but to open a training restaurant for young people who wouldn't have considered a career in catering.

From writing his best-selling books, mainly into a dictaphone due to his Dyslexia, to his relationship with the UK press, and his successes and failings working with a succession of UK governments to get the UK eating healthier.

Sheila also speaks to Instagram chef Joe Wicks, Netflix chef Samin Nosrat and members of Jamie's inner team on the influence of the highest grossing British food writer of all time.

This is the second part of two programmes on Jamie Oliver's Life Through Food. Part one was broadcast on Sunday 18th August 2019.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury

Jamie Oliver talks to Sheila Dillon on the 20th anniversary of 'The Naked Chef' Part II

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This is part one of a special two-part edition of The Food Programme, recorded in front of an audience at Bristol Food Connections festival on the 4th of May.

On stage with Sheila is Geraldene Holt, food writer, author of 'Diary of a French Herb Garden' and Chair of the Jane Grigson Trust, the award-winning chef Shaun Hill who has cooked his way through Jane's books and also cooked for her, as well James Beard-nominated author, Telegraph food columnist and cook Diana Henry.

From 'The Fruit Book' to 'Good Things' to 'Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery', to her long running articles for The Observer, Sheila Dillon and her guests explore a voice that, despite gradually becoming less familiar, really does still matter today.

Readings by Kerry Elkins.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

25 years after Jane Grigson's death, Sheila Dillon and special guests discuss her legacy.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Recorded in front of an audience in Bristol as part of the Bristol Food Connections food festival. Guests include chef Shaun Hill and food writers Diana Henry and Geraldine Holt.

Readings by Kerry Elkins.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Jane Grigson's work in the Observer and book English Food make up part two of this tribute

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A year ago, Japan was hit by the catastrophic Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. In the days that followed, reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima nuclear power station experienced full meltdown. The fears of catastrophic radioactivite contamination led to a 20 km-radius evacuation around the plant, while engineers risked their lives to stabilise the reactors.

It was the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, but that wasn't the end of the story. A longer-term food story started to emerge.

A testing regime was introduced to monitor radiation levels in the food supply chain. The World Health Organisation is also carrying out its own tests to ensure that absorption of caesium through food, over decades to come, doesn't become a major threat to public health.

But as Richard Johnson discovers, confusion and lack of information in the early weeks of the crisis has led to suspicion and mistrust among large sections of the Japanese population. For this reason, the disaster is likely to not just change Japan's relationship with its politicians, but also its food culture.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In 2001, the drinks world started to pay attention to Japanese whisky after one if its distillers scored top marks in an international whisky completion. In the years that followed, the awards and the global attention for Japanese whiskies continued to grow. Critics have described some Japanese whiskies as the 'work of genius' and, just last year, one whisky produced by a small, new-wave distillery in the north of the country was voted the world's 'Best Single Cask Whisky'.

With the help of whisky writer and author of the award-winning 'Way of Whisky: A Journey Round Japanese Whisky', Dave Broom, Dan asks: what lies behind the rise and rise of Japanese whisky and who are the people who helped make all this global recognition possible?

The story has its origins in the 1860s when a recently opened up Japan started to forge close trading links with Scotland, paving the way for whisky imports. Once the taste for the spirit developed, distillers and chemists within Japan started to work on ways of producing a home-grown version of the drink.

A breakthrough came in 1919 when a young student called Masataka Taketsuru travelled to Scotland, worked inside some renowned distilleries, married a Scottish woman and returned home with the secrets behind Scotch. Another pioneer, Shinjeero Torri, would put that know-how to good use and create the Suntory distilling empire and brands such as Yamasaki and Hakushu. Taketsuru would go on to found another respected and award winning whisky brand, Nikka.

After record whisky sales in Japan throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the industry fell into decline for the next quarter of a century, with drinkers switching to other spirits and beer.

A range of factors lie behind the recent whisky revival and boom, ranging from Japanese innovations in fermentation, distillation and barrel aging as well as the drink that brought whisky to the attention of a younger generation - the High Ball, a mix of whisky and soda.

As Dave Broom also explains, the resurgence has encouraged a new generation of distillers to enter the whisky world, including Chichibu, an operation run mostly by people in their twenties, now winning awards.

To explore the unique flavours on offer in Japanese whisky, Dan travels to the Highlander pub in Craigellachie, Scotland, where he meets landlord Tatsuya Minagawa and samples a 'next to impossible' to find bottle of whisky.

Recommended reading:

Dave Broom: The Way of Whisky - A Journey Through Japanese Whisky.

Dominic Roskrow: Whisky Japan - The Essential Guide To The World's Most Exotic Whisky

Brian Ashcraft: Japanese Whisky - The Ultimate Guide to The World's Most Desirable Spirit

Stefan Van Eycken: Whisky Rising

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino on how Japanese distillers managed to make some of the world's best whisky.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Simon Parkes celebrates our noble jelly-making past with historian Ivan Day, and looks to those raising it back onto its wobbling pedestal today: chef Heston Blumenthal, and 'jellymongers' Bompas & Parr. And we ask food writer Jill Norman if jelly's savoury past could be set for a comeback.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Simon Parkes celebrates the renaissance of proper jellies.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Yet, Joe tells Sheila Dillon, somewhat modestly, 'I'm not really great at cooking...

In this programme Sheila visits Joe at home in London to find out what drives his ambition and enduring popularity. They talk cooking, parenthood, and how his own fame has affected his whole family.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

From bootcamps to book deals: Joe Wicks explains his phenomenal success to Sheila Dillon

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

And then, just as he was about to embark on a tour of UK primary schools, the Coronavirus pandemic swept the world and the UK. We were told to stay at home. Schools closed. Overnight, Joe came up with an idea. What if he could keep P.E lessons running from people's front rooms?

In this programme Sheila catches up with 'The Body Coach' to hear how the huge spotlight on him during lockdown has affected him and his family. And there's a chance to listen again to what happened when Sheila and Joe cooked together in 2019.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced by Clare Salisbury.

Sheila Dillon and Joe Wicks talk PE, feeding family and his phenomenal rise to fame.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The second of The Food Programme's 2018 season of African food stories in Britain.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and Tayo Popoola

Produced by Siobhan Maguire.

Tayo Popoola introduces Sheila Dillon to a controversial bowl of rice.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In a sector that was already struggling, with slow business hitting chains such as Jamie's Italian and burger brand Byron, what will it take for these brands to not only survive coronavirus, but thrive long term?

Who better to ask than a man who's been instrumental in shaping the nation's high-street fast food offerings: Julian Metcalfe.

Sheila Dillon speaks to the co-founder of international food retailer Pret A Manger about entrepreneurship, his on Asian-inspired brand itsu, staying creative during lockdown - and what he sees as his mission to offer healthy, affordable fast food on the high street.

Presented by Sheila Dillon, produced by Lucy Taylor.

The man behind Pret A Manger and itsu on the future of high-street food brands.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Born and raised in Auckland, an experience with some French cheeses in Paris changed everything for Juliet, who decided there and then that cheese would be her life's focus.

She sold her deli-restaurant in Wellington and moved all the way to London, to open up a cheese shop based on her experiences in France. This was the start of a journey that coincided with a huge change in the way Britain approaches, and makes, cheese. This is the story of that period, and Juliet's life in food.

Along the way, Juliet founded The British Cheese Awards and edited the World Cheese Book, which won a Guild of Food Writers Award for Food Book of the year in 2010.

Looking back on those three decades, it's a time in which cheese has become one of Britain's great food successes, but it has not been a smooth ride - and things nearly turned out very differently. At its heart, this is a tale about one person's fascination with and passion for cheese, which is, as Juliet says - 'a combination of man's ingenuity and one of Mother Nature's finest miracles, milk'.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Cheese educator and campaigner Juliet Harbutt shares her life in food with Sheila Dillon.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Marcus's restaurant, The Red Rooster is part of a success story that has seen the 46 year old chef become a major television personality, a cook for Presidents and a major influence of the food scene in the US. But on the restaurant's menu, if you know the story behind some of the delicious dishes, an incredible life story is also being told.

A pasta dish from Ethiopia captures an early life being born in a mud hut in a tiny east African village where everyone had berbere spice, coffee and the grain tef in their store cupboards. This was the world Marcus left at age of two after he, his sister and mother contracted TB and had to make a 70 mile trek to a hospital in the capital Addis Ababa. Macus and his sister survived, their mother died.

They were adopted by a Swedish couple, and Marcus grew up with two passions, football and food. His grandmother Helga taught him to cook and forage. This is why on the menu of his Harlem restaurant is a dish called Helga's meatballs.

After a brutal apprenticeship and training in restaurants across Europe, Marcus travelled to New York City, narrowly missed being caught up in the attack on the Twin Towers and 9/11 and realised his life had to take a different path. That's why he ended up in Harlem.

Dan Saladino hears his life story, from Ethiopia to New York.

Presented and presented by Dan Saladino.

Harlem chef Marcus Samuelsson tells his food story, from Ethiopia and Sweden to New York.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

It's hard to believe that it was nearly 30 years ago when Ken Hom first appeared on BBC television with his series that arguably revolutionised British cooking.

Back in 1984, many people in the UK had hardly tasted Chinese food (let alone tried to cook it for themselves) when they tuned into BBC TV to watch the youthful presenter of Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery. Since then, Ken has continued to spread the word both here and abroad through television, books and teaching. It's said that seven million of his woks have been sold internationally.

Sheila and Ken recall the key moments and mentors in his life; since he began to learn to cook as an 11 year old working at his uncle's Chicago restaurant, to his position now where he is regarded as one of the world's most renowned chefs and ambassadors for Chinese cuisine.

In tomorrow's edition, Sheila and Ken talk further about his political beliefs, his 2012 landmark series Exploring China, about teaching and about his hopes for the future.

Producer: Sarah Langan.

Sheila Dillon talks to Ken Hom about his extraordinary life through food. Part one of two.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In yesterday's programme, Sheila and Ken discussed the impact his first BBC series 'Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery' had when it aired in Britain in 1984. They also talked about his very early influences from his childhood in Chicago's Chinatown.

In the 60's though, Ken moved to California and became something of a hippy; dropping out from University and even declaring himself a Maoist for a while. He never admitted this allegiance to his mother who had very anti Communist views.

Sheila discusses his political motivation and how that has changed over years. They also talk about his landmark 2012 TV series 'Exploring China', which revealed much more about China than just the state of its food. In the programme Ken was reunited with his father's family who he had not seen for over twenty years.

Ken also tells Sheila about how much teaching means to him, and how he intends to carry on inspiring the next generation of young people, through a passion for food.

Producer: Sarah Langan.

Sheila Dillon talks to Ken Hom about his extraordinary life through food. Part two of two.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Warwickshire cook Dan Fell made headlines for sharing his 'perfect' fried chicken recipe after spending 18 months testing it. In New York, journalist and chef Bill Buford became obsessed with cooking the perfect roast chicken. And journalist Kate Ng spent her days emulating the perfect crimps on her Grandmother's curry puffs. It seemed we'd become culinary perfectionists in our own kitchens.

For Leyla Kazim, lockdown was all about baking the perfect sourdough loaf. In this programme she wants asks why so many of us became obsessed with creating the perfect meal, and what the quest for perfecting a dish says about us. She speaks to long standing recipe obsessives food writer Felicity Cloake and 'obsessional' Youtube cook Alex.

Presented by Leyla Kazim.

Produced by Clare Salisbury for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Leyla Kazim meets cooking obsessives Felicity Cloake, Bill Buford and Kate Ng.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan Saladino explains why a plate of food shouldn't be taken at face value in this special episode of the Food Programme, made in collaboration with the Food Chain on The World Service. This week we enter an arena usually hidden from public view; the kitchens behind the most powerful people on the planet, where politics, policy and diplomacy are the main ingredients.

For millennia, international relations have been massaged by the chefs working inside palaces and state kitchens and their food might have influenced some of the biggest decisions in history. Dan meets Gilles Bragard, the founder of the world's most exclusive culinary club, Le Club des Chefs Des Chefs, which brings together 20 people who cook for Heads of State. Gilles shares some food secrets, including President Putin's food security protocols.

We visit the kitchens of Hampton Court Palace, where in 16th century England, wine fountains and roasted meats were cooked to help Henry VIII impress and intimidate foreign dignitaries. The White House kitchen, is perhaps the most influential in the modern era and Sam Kass, former chef and close friend to the Obamas, explains how policies were cooked up in State kitchens.

Professor Stephen Chan of London's School of Oriental and African Studies tells the story behind Robert Mugabe's lavish feasts. David Geisser, a former Vatican Swiss Guard, provides insights into the culinary preferences of Pope Francis and finally, we hear from a journalist in Brussels who has witnessed some recent and dramatic EU meals, including the former British Prime Minister David Cameron's last supper with European leaders.

Producer: Emily Thomas.

From White House food to the Pope's favourite dessert, Dan Saladino on kitchens of power.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

One of the most primal yet treasured implements, any chef worth their salt knows that you don't mess with another chef's knife. Sheila talks to chef Henry Harris from Racine's restaurant about his passion for knives. There's a report from a knife shop where the prices reach into the the thousands. With knife skills courses popping up all over the country, this programme is a celebration of the craftsmanship and artistry of knife making and of the people with a passion for this ancient tradition; from the home cook, the new chef buying his first set of knives, to the people who hanker after the rare Japanese blade.

Producer: Sarah Langan.

Sheila Dillon takes a look at that most coveted of kitchen tools: the knife.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme, Jaega Wise looks at why that may be as well as sampling some drinks from our BBC Food & Farming Awards finalists and investigating the health claims of kombucha.

This programme features Old Tree Brewery, William Kendall, Mark Ilan Abrahams, Paul Cotter, Lucy George from Peterson Tea and Kara Monssen.

Presented by Jaega Wise and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sam Grist

Jaega Wise investigates the world of fermented tea.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A complex legislative framework has built up over many years in the UK - Sheila looks at the shape of today's labelling regulations, seeks to demystify some of the terms, and asks where things might mislead or confuse. On her journey Sheila goes down a rabbit hole, reveals some labelling surprises - and makes use of a time machine.

Her guide is Vitti Allender, who teaches food law at Cardiff Metropolitan University. The programme also features author and professor of religion Alan Levinovitz, Sue Davies who advises on food for the consumer rights organisation Which?, professor of food safety at Queen's University Belfast Chris Elliott who wrote a high-profile report on the UK's horsemeat scandal, Investigations Manager at the Advertising Standards Authority Jessica Tye, and wine importer and writer Doug Wregg.

The podcast and Monday broadcast of this edition also features Dan Charles, food and agriculture correspondent for NPR, on the controversy around the labelling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the USA.

The podcast is an extended version of this programme.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon investigates food labelling; what's on, what's not, and how we got here.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The companies producing lab-grown meat say it is the answer to many of the world's problems; deforestation, factory farming, antibiotic resistance and carbon emissions. Sceptics say it is too expensive, highly-processed and any 'green' credentials have yet to be proven.

In this programme, Sheila Dillon speaks to some of those at the forefront of developments, and asks if lab-grown meat is the fix the meat eating world has been asking for?

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Sheila Dillon looks at what the future holds for lab-grown or cultivated meat.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Although chocolate eggs and Hot Cross buns take centre stage at Easter, millions of people also sit down to share a joint of lamb to celebrate. In this episode, Sheila Dillon finds out more about the tradition for eating lamb at Easter with Welsh food writer Carwyn Graves, and hears how despite its prominence on Easter tables, the timing of lamb production doesn't always fit with when the festival falls on the calendar. So should we be considering eating other types of sheep meat at this time of year? Sheila speaks to sheep farmer Steve Lewis from Pembrokeshire Lamb whose lambs are being born at this time of year, and is currently selling customers last season lamb and hogget. She also visits Spanish restaurant, Asador 44 in Cardiff to learn from chef Owen Morgan how to prepare older cuts of sheep meat, including 8 year old mutton from The Cornwall Project.

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Sheila Dillon explores the significance of eating lamb at Easter.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Graham Kirkham makes an unpasteurised Lancashire cheese near Goosnargh that's now celebrated far and wide - but things were nearly a very different story. Ian and Sue Steel made an audacious offer to a coffee merchants that was founded in Lancaster in 1837. They're now running a business with their two sons, that's growing and thriving, and are guiding that deep history into a new caffeinated future. Every region needs a storyteller for its food, and for Lancashire that person is Nigel Haworth, respected chef based at the Michelin-starred Northcote - who opened a pub in the Ribble Valley in 2004 specifically highlighting local produce and local producers, which was truly groundbreaking at that time.

Kay Johnson is a food campaigner who grew up in Lancashire, worked abroad, and came back to the county six years ago. Noticing a deep disconnect around food, she's working to reconnect people, food producers, and the fresh local produce of the region. Kay draws direct inspiration from a social reform movement that was involved with setting up the Sailor's and Soldier's Free Buffet that operated at Preston station during World War One. Sheila meets James Arnold, history curator at The Harris in Preston, on the platform to find out the remarkable story of what took place.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon returns to her food roots, taking a road trip through Lancashire.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Graham Kirkham makes an unpasteurised Lancashire cheese near Goosnargh that's now celebrated far and wide - but things were nearly a very different story. Ian and Sue Steel made an audacious offer to a coffee merchants that was founded in Lancaster in 1837. They're now running a business with their two sons, that's growing and thriving, and are guiding that deep history into a new caffeinated future. Every region needs a storyteller for its food, and for Lancashire that person is Nigel Haworth, respected chef based at the Michelin-starred Northcote - who opened a pub in the Ribble Valley in 2004 specifically highlighting local produce and local producers, which was truly groundbreaking at that time.

Kay Johnson is a food campaigner who grew up in Lancashire, worked abroad, and came back to the county six years ago. Noticing a deep disconnect around food, she's working to reconnect people, food producers, and the fresh local produce of the region. Kay draws direct inspiration from a social reform movement that was involved with setting up the Sailor's and Soldier's Free Buffet that operated at Preston station during World War One. Sheila meets James Arnold, history curator at The Harris in Preston, on the platform to find out the remarkable story of what took place.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon returns to her food roots, taking a road trip through Lancashire.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

He's become one of the most influential chefs in the world because of his use of wild ingredients, foraged from the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

With dishes that revive lost food traditions, that use unfamiliar ingredients like mosses, lichen, spruces as well as native fruits. fish and fungi he has succeeded in putting a part of Europe ignored for its cuisine on the gastronomic map.

The idea of chefs and restaurants sourcing ingredients from the wild is not new, some already employ foragers but according to Joe Warwick, food writer, restaurant expert and the programme's reporter, Rene Redzepi has taken that approach to sourcing to whole new level.

For anyone sceptical about the abundance of wild foods in Britain suited to the needs of a restaurant Redzepi goes on a foraging trip to north London's Hampstead Heath. There he finds a new ingredient, the service berry.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Rene Redzepi, chef at the 'world's best restaurant' looks for food in Lapland and London.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon visits the community while lambing is underway and school visits are in full swing to celebrate the return of Spring, and joins in the preparations for their Easter celebrations.

Sheila Dillon joins the Larchfield Community to mark the approach of Spring and Easter.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Science journalist Gary Taubes is researching saturated animal fats and says that eating lard is healthy. Food writer Oliver Thring visits restaurant Quo Vadis where chef Jeremy Lee is a lard evangelist. And Tim hears about gourmet Italian lardo di colonnata.

Presented by Tim Hayward and produced by Emma Weatherill.

Tim Hayward learns to love lard, discussing our complicated relationship with animal fat.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Whether it's hitting your local with colleagues after work, raising a reception toast to newly-weds or selecting a favourite bottle to accompany dinner at a special restaurant, those traditional opportunities to buy and sell alcohol have been all but wiped out under lockdown.

As Jaega Wise discovers, pubs, bars, restaurants and the drinks producers who supply them have been some of the hardest hit by virus control measures.

But at the same time, alcohol sales have soared in recent weeks: retailers have enjoyed a boom in online orders, as have the producers and venues who've been able to adapt and target this new, stay-at-home market.

So what does this mean for the British drinks sector in the longer term - and, once we're allowed to meet mates down the pub again, just how significantly will the UK's social landscape have changed?

Presented by Jaega Wise, produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Is lockdown an opportunity as well as crisis, for alcoholic drinks vendors and producers?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Legendary New Orleans cook Leah Chase tells her story of seven decades in the kitchen.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan Saladino explores the city - which has historic links to supermarket chains, wealth from the textiles industry and 'Leeds Dripping Riots'. The last 2 years have seen a thriving independent food and drink movement, with innovators starting projects which are changing the face of Leeds but also inspiring others around the world.

Adam Smith was working in Australia when he became aware and angered at the scale of edible food being wasted. After being told if he wanted to change the world he needed to change his home town he returned to Leeds, setting up a cafe which intercepted food being thrown away from shops, markets, projects and allotments to 'feed bellies not bins'. The pay as you feel model of the Real Junk Food Project has been replicated across Leeds and around the world with 126 cafes and more in the making. Yet Adam is far from content.

At Trinity Kitchen, a radical new model for a shopping mall food court which has drawn attention from others as far flung as Sweden and China. A 6 week rotation of new traders is no mean feat - with road closures and cranes hoisting food trucks into place.

Dan also meets Northern Monk in Grub and Grog - brewing quirky ales to match a changing, mainly vegan menu while Northern Bloc ice creams are keeping things close to home with flavours like Yorkshire Parkin and Black Treacle but with their eyes on expansion into the London market.

Leeds is a city on the rise when it comes to food and drink. Dan Saladino finds out why.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sara Parker reports and speaks to Rama Santhahram Vindlacheruvu - Women's Institute member and instructor in Asian cookery about use of leftover foods in Indian cookery.

She speaks to Bish Muir about her plans to publish the `Scrapbook` leftovers recipe book.

And to broadcaster and now pig farmer Rosie Boycott about the waste of food caused by the ban on pigs swill - which used commercial food waste - following the 2001 Foot and mouth crisis.

We speak to environmental group WRAP about the problem of food waste - we throw away one bag in every three due to poor planning, poor portion control, and lack of household skills, with the result that we dump 6.7 million tonnes of domestic food a year.

But is using leftover food safe? We ask the FSA.

Sheila Dillon celebrates the art of eking out and reusing leftovers.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

We're living in an era of grab-and-go. It's a sector of the food industry already worth £16.1 billion pounds and which forecasts suggest could rise by more than a third by 2021. If we eat, we do so 'al-desko'... or maybe we don't eat at all.

Whether you opt for sausage rolls or sushi, last night's leftovers or a just a latte, Sheila Dillon hears what the modern British lunch break says about us. And what it might suggest about where our midday meal is headed. She meets the thinkers and cooks who believe that in time poor Britain, it's perfectly possible to reclaim your lunch break.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury.

In the time taken for your average midday meal, Sheila Dillon unpacks the future of lunch.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The project, a not for profit farming operation called 'Libera Terra' (which translates as 'Free Land'), was made possible by an Italian member of Parliament killed by the mafia in 1982, Pio La Torre. He was a Sicilian and communist who believed the best way of taking on Cosa Nostra was by seizing its assets, including its farm land.

Decades later that law is the way in which thousands of acres of citrus groves, wheat fields and vineyards have been placed in the hands of farming co-operatives. Libera Terra is the main organisation helping to turn this seized land into a food and wine business, create jobs and give young Sicilians a way of improving the island's future.

As John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at University College London, and author of Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia, food and agricultural provided the conditions necessary for the mafia's birth in 19th century Sicily.

By the 1860's the lemon groves around Palermo were among the most profitable agricultural land in Europe, that combined with the weak political and legal framework in place after the unification of Italy, provided the conditions for what became the world's most successful criminal organisation.

In the 1940's, when efforts were made to instigate land reform and give more access to farmland to Sicily's peasants, the mafia would often intervene and exert its control over this valuable resource. Dozens of peasant leaders and trade unionists were killed in the years following the second world war simply because they tried to implement these new laws.

It's this backdrop that gives the Libera Terra project added significance, but it's more than just a noble cause. As Italian wine expert and writer for www.jancisRobinson.com Walter Speller explains, some of the confiscated land is in territory that has the perfect conditions for excellent wines. Land seized from the former 'boss of all bosses' Toto Rinna, is now producing excellent Nero d'Avola wine that also tell a powerful story of Sicily and its fight against the mafia.

Dan also visits people farming this land despite experience of mafia intimidation in the past, young farmers who say they want to build a future in Sicily free from the influence of organised crime.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino learns how farms confiscated from Sicily's mafia are providing food and wine.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This is a programme about pies. The pork pie of Pete Brown and his ‘soon-to-be-wife' Liz's first date in Barnsley market. The pies that Julie Jones made with her mother which helped to keep her calm after a dementia diagnosis. Pies crafted by chef Calum Franklin, inspired by the surroundings of his London childhood, and pies creating a new future for young Preston businessman Robert D'Orville. Sheila Dillon travels to hear these stories, and uncovers a pie story of her own.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

Sheila Dillon hears the stories of pies and the people whose lives were changed by them.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

As judges on the 2018 BBC Food & Farming Awards, Romy Gill and writer Kathleen Kerridge visited three finalists in the UK - Helen Boyce who cooks with inmates at Hydebank Wood College and Women's Prison in Belfast, the Welcome Kitchen and Cinema in London where Rose Dakuo cooks for refugees, asylum seekers and the general public and Sam Storey, a research chef in Newcastle working with head and neck cancer survivors who have been left with altered eating difficulties.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Caitlin Hobbs.

Sheila Dillon explores how food is used around the country to transform lives.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon visits Growing Communities, a local food network in Hackney, East London who run a veg box scheme, to hear what's needed to help networks like theirs to expand. She also talks to Rana Foroohar, global business columnist and associate editor at The Financial Times, about what the Biden administration is doing to decentralise the food system in the US. Nigel Murray, Managing Director of Booths Supermarket, explains how they support smaller producers and local supply chains in the North West of England and Yorkshire. And we hear from the Food Producer finalists in the 2023 BBC Food and Farming Awards, about how they are carving out their own diverse network of customers outside the supermarket system.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

To what extent is food localism working, and how is that helping smaller producers?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon hears how the major supermarket chains are finding new ways to source food from suppliers closer to their stores .

Reporter Sarah Parker visits a Tesco's producer road show in Surrey, where potential suppliers get to meet the supermarket's buying team. Caz Graham visits a regional food hub in Cumbria set up by Asda to get more local food into its stores.

Michael Pollan who champions local food in his recent book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, tells Sheila why he believes a new movement is growing of people interested in buying food grown locally.

Six months ago the Earl of Plymouth estates, with grant help from DEFRA, set up a local food centre just outside Ludlow in Shropshire called the Ludlow Food Centre. Sandy Boyd, Managing Director and creator of the Food Centre explains his approach to sourcing local food.

Sheila Dillon discusses this increasing interest in local food with Patrick Holden, director of The Soil Association, the largest organic group in the UK, and supplier of vegetables to supermarkets and with Sir Don Curry author of the 2002 Curry report on the future of British Farming.

Sheila Dillon asks whether the major supermarket chains can offer locally sourced food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Food can bind a community together, and give it new life. In this third programme of the series, Sheila travels to Loch Fyne to see how this rural Scottish community has preserved its food traditions, with recipes handed down for generations. She discovers how local food businesses have become international, working together to sell their fish in the Far East - despite the frustrations of poor broadband connections. And she eats dinner with a group of local food producers, feasting on mutton - a traditional dish for the Christmas holiday.

Producer: Elizabeth Burke.

Sheila Dillon explores how food binds together the rural Scottish community of Loch Fyne.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With the US economy in crisis LA's 'food truck' scene is growing. People who have lost jobs are finding new careers by serving street food from trucks with relatively small start up costs.

These new businesses work well in LA because generations of immigration have created a diverse food culture and it's so close to one of the biggest farming regions in the United States.

Richard Johnson meets these street food pioneers, tastes a 'cheese trilogy' and asks the city's most famous chefs and food writers what else the food future might hold.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Over the course of this programme, Sheila Dillon and Dan Saladino - chatting remotely from their respective lock-down locations - hear from just a small selection of the incredible community efforts going on across the country, supporting the most vulnerable during the outbreak: from delivering essentials to the ill and the elderly, confined to their homes; to providing meals for hospital staff working long shifts in Intensive Care Units; to supporting children missing out on their regular free school dinners.

This episode is not only a recognition of the ingenious solutions being found - but also looks at how these local strategies, developed in response to a national crisis, could help change our food system for the better in future.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and Dan Saladino, and produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Sheila Dillon and Dan Saladino hear inspirational tales from those helping others via food

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme, Jaega Wise seeks to uncover some of the reasons why this connection between food and love exists, and asks whether it's what's on the plate that is doing something inside us, or if it's all placebo, and it's the act and ritual around eating (the setting, the conversation etc..) that can give us these feelings of love.

Featuring aphrodisiac and absinthe pairing at The Last Tuesday Society (east London) with historian Dr Jennifer Evans (University of Hertfordshire); romantic dining at London Shell Co; chef José Pizarro and partner Peter Meades; food writers Clare Finney and Skye McAlpine; experimental psychologist Prof Charles Spence plus research from The Good Housekeeping Institute on the relatively modern Valentine's day institution of dine-in meals for two.

Presented by Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan

Stories of food, love and romance with Jaega Wise.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Jaega Wise seeks to uncover some of the connections between what we eat, and how it can make us love.

So how can we make the most of festive leftovers? And for that matter, leftovers at any time of year? Because this isn't just about reducing the 4.5 million tonnes of food that UK households waste every year, it can also be a route to some seriously delicious dishe

In this programme, Sheila Dillon meets people who are obsessed with air fryers, pressure cookers and slow cookers. She hears from Belfast's Nathan Anthony about how his social media account 'Bored of Lunch' has propelled his slow cooker recipe book to the top of the charts, and she speaks to Bristol's Square Food Foundation to find out why they are considering introducing pressure cookers on their courses.

And could the devices help outside the home too? Hospitality businesses are under pressure with rising costs, and customers with increasingly tighter budgets. In Somerset, chef and restaurateur, Nicholas Balfe tests out some low energy appliances to see if they could make any difference in the professional kitchen.

Are you now using a low energy cooker again, for the first time, or more than before? Tell us about what difference it's been making on social media. We are @BBCFoodProg on social media, or email thefoodprogramme@bbc.co.uk

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

They're having a moment - but can low-energy gadgets do more than simply save us money?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Harry Parker.

Sheila Dillon investigates developing trends in the shellfish trade.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

We discover the history of the dish. Food historian Polly Russell tells us how a macaroni recipe first appeared in the UK in the 1700s and slowly it became more and more prevalent over the subsequent centuries.

We'll hear how macaroni cheese became a staple in the UK: cheap and easy to make its popularity spread. It was also embraced by Caribbean cuisine, regularly eaten as a side dish, especially with Sunday lunch, and now there's even an annual celebration of the meal. Each May Glasgow hosts 'Pastaval' - a festival of Mac n Cheese. The event sells-out each year and is popular with everyone.

And whilst you can still buy basic packet versions, tinned macaroni cheese and simple home-made macaroni cheese is easy to make, there are many 'going-to-town' on the dish: Lobster mac n cheese anyone?

This is the story of a dish that crosses cultures and classes to be the world's favourite comfort food.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts.

Sheila Dillon on the humble mac'n'cheese, a dish that crosses culture and classes.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This year the actress, broadcaster and food writer turns eighty. She left Delhi sixty years ago to pursue a career in the west, but still remains the world's most influential and respected exponents of Indian cuisine.

With her BBC television series and more than fifteen books she's managed to convey the rich history and flavours of authentic Indian regional cooking. Now, as India becomes one of the most important economies in the world, and a nation increasingly interested in western tastes and modern brands, Sheila meets Madhur to reflect on her early food life in Delhi and to ask her about a rapidly changing India.

This is a life story of exquisite family meals in the 1930's that mixed British and Indian traditions, of school lunches where food would be shared between friends from very different food backgrounds and where watching a mushroom dish, 'devoured by greedy men' was one of the images that led her to leave India.

The programme also includes a fascinating encounter between Madhur and a British food tradition, chips with curry sauce.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Madhur Jaffrey, Indian cooking legend, returns to India and tells her food life story.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Today Sheila Dillon meets some of those prominent and hugely successful female chefs, restaurateurs, food writers and stylists who are currently working in the UK, to find out about their lives, and what they make of Madhur Jaffrey's legacy.

Asma Khan rose to fame when she was chosen as the first British chef to star in the Netflix series, Chef's Table. She runs her London restaurant, Darjeeling Express, with an all-female staff.

Chetna Makan worked as a fashion designer in India before moving to the UK. She switched careers after making it to the semi-finals of the Great British Bake Off in 2014. She is now the author of 5 cookery books, and has more than 210,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Ravinder Bhogal is a chef, food writer and author of two books. She also runs the London restaurant, Jikoni, which she describes as being `proudly inauthentic`.

Romy Gill is a chef, broadcaster and food writer, and was one of the first Asian women in the UK to own her own restaurant.

Rukmini Iyer is a food stylist and writer and the author of the bestselling 'Roasting Tin' series of books.

Sejal Sukhadwala is a London food writer. Her first book 'The Philosophy of Curry' has just been published.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Sheila Dillon hears how Madhur 'paved the way' in food for women of Indian heritage.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Harry Parker.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Her aim is to create an exhibition and a book to celebrate the people of the town and give them an opportunity to share personal stories.

Once a thriving holiday destination for Londoners Margate is now trying to find a new identity. The recently opened Turner Contemporary Gallery is one step in that process. Sophie Herxheimer is hoping the food stories, and her drawings will also make a contribution to Margate's future.

The project was launched at Christmas in the town's Tudor House and produced a wide range of stories; funny, sad, nostalgic, joyful, eccentric and thought provoking.

People were invited to sit down, talk and watch their memories appear as Sophie drew them live. The work has been building up to the Easter bank holiday weekend when all of Sophie's drawings will be unveiled to the public.

Producer: Dan Saladino

Reporter: Sara Parker.

Featuring Sophie Herxheimer, an artist who collects and draws food stories.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Together with his business partner, Franco Lagattolla, Mario Cassandro helped make dining out in 1960s Britain a far more fun, informal and gastronomically pleasing experience.

A former waiter from Naples he created Soho's Terrazza Restaurant. As well as attracting the like of Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and Princess Margaret it was a restaurant that brought together all layers of British society.

They were all keen to experience a new look in restaurant design (care of Enzo Appicella, the man who went on to create the look of the early Pizza Express restaurants) as well carefully sourced and authentic ingredients.

Mario Cassandro passed away this summer, former Good Food Restaurant Guide editor Tom Jaine described him as one of a small number of people who helped transform the restaurant industry in the UK. Tom joins Sheila to help tell his story.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon looks at the life of Mario Cassandro, a man who re-invented the restaurant.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The annual Marmalade Festival at Dalemain House in Cumbria was founded by Jane Hassel McCosh to celebrate domestic and artisan marmalade production. Judy Merry meets participants and judges, including baker Dan Lepard. Some of the winning marmalades are available at Fortnum and Mason in London, including Wild and Fruitful Lemon and Lavender.

Premier Foods is the largest marmalade manufacturer in the UK, accounting for 60 per cent of sales. They recently announced their new push to boost marmalade sales: a tie-up between Paddington Bear and a new squeezy marmalade for children, Robertson's Golden Smooth Sweet Orange Marmalade (available later in the year). Simon Parkes visits their Cambridge site to talk to general manager for spreads David Atkinson and technical manager David Smith. Robin MacArthur from market researchers IRI discusses the latest marmalade sales figures.

In the studio Simon is joined by food historian Ivan Day to discuss the history of marmalade, Clare Simpson, senior consultant with the branding agency Dragon Rouge, to assess its image problem, and food columnist and Tom Parker Bowles, author of Full English: A Journey Through the British and their Food.

They taste Robertson's Golden Smooth, Robertson's Golden Shred, Frank Cooper's Oxford Original Thick Cut, Wild & Fruitful Lemon and Lavender.

Simon Parkes discusses marmalade.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

So Tim Hayward heads out to a little corner of Cumbria to the Dalemain estate where the amber preserve is celebrated at the Marmalade Championships. From 'dark and chunky' to 'any citrus' hundreds of home-made and artisan examples have been entered for judging while enthusiasts dressed in orange accessories browse the presentations.

He asks whether marmalade, once commonplace on British breakfast tables, is dying a slow death or becoming the preserve of the wealthy or an enthusiastic elite. He also learns a worrying truth - could foreign marmalade makers now be beating us at making the best?

Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Tim Hayward asks if Britain can still hold its own in the competitive marmalade stakes.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In a candid conversation over exemplary lemon drizzle cake, Mary talks us through her life through food: from the challenges of forging a culinary career as a woman and a mother in the 1960s, to learning how to handle celebrity in her seventies.

With the new series of Best Home Cook, Mary is continuing her quest to educate people of all ages about the joys of cooking. But, as Sheila discovers, this ambitious cook is also a huge advocate for women in the industry - as Mary shares tales of her own struggles to carve out a niche in the culinary world, challenging female stereotypes and sexual harassment in the kitche

Bee speaks to Michelle Berriedale-Johnson and Professor Chris Elliott about the state of current food regulations and the frustrations of the 'May Contain...' label. Dr Adam Fox and dietitian Lucy Upton talk through the probable causes of food allergies and why they're increasingly prevalent in young people. Bee visits Vita Mojo whose use of digital menus offers their customers pinpoint accurate information about which potential allergens are in which dish. Kerrie Foy describes the shock of discovering that her daughter Bluebell may have a peanut allergy and describes how it's turned their lives upside down.

Producer: Toby Field

Bee Wilson asks whether food labelling needs to change to protect allergy sufferers.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme Sheila finds out how medicinal mushrooms went from ancient wild food, to the latest hot health and wellness trend. We hear from Professor Nik Money, mycologist at Miami University in Ohio, about Lion's Mane and what we currently know about the claims that it's supposed to be good for our brains. To taste the freshest UK-grown medicinal species in the flesh, Sheila visits specialist mushroom grower Forest Fungi in Devon. And she has a mushroom coffee with Dr Emily Leeming, Scientific Researcher at Kings College London, to discuss mushroom supplements, and what we know about the nutritional benefits of mushrooms and their impact on the gut microbiome.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Are mushrooms like Lion's Mane, Shiitake, Chaga, and Turkey Tail really medicinal?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Diana Kennedy's life reads like an adventure story. Born in Loughton, Essex in 1923, after serving in the land army she set off on a journey that would take her to Canada, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. She stopped off in Haiti, met the New York Times correspondent Paul Kennedy, fell in love and they moved to Mexico.

Soon after arriving she became fascinated by Mexican food. A maid looking after the home was also a cook and the regional dishes made Diana Kennedy curious about the ingredients and recipes of other regions of Mexico.

After Paul Kennedy died in 1966 Diana found herself living in New York, with no income and an uncertain future. The Food Editor of The New York Times, Craig Claiborne encouraged her to use her knowledge of Mexican food and give cooking lessons.

To research recipes and find ingredients she'd travel to remote parts of Mexico, into villages, to markets and into kitchens with domestic cooks to learn more about traditional foods. That research has continued for five decades.

It has produced nine books, and a body of work that is now regarded as the most

authoritative account of Mexico's cuisines ever created. In the programme Diana Kennedy explains her life in food.

In the programme food writer and editor of Swallow magazine, James Casey visits Diana Kennedy in her home in Michoacan to see how she's also created a garden containing varieties of fruit and vegetables from all over Mexico.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino meets a world authority on the food of Mexico, British-born Diana Kennedy.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Contents include:

Gary Nabhan (Agave Spirits book): https://www.garynabhan.com/

Agave Road Trip Podcast: https://agaveroadtrip.com/

Sin Gusano: https://www.singusano.com/story

Kol: https://kolrestaurant.com/

El Pastore: https://www.tacoselpastor.co.uk/

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

From the way eating at the event is reported it seems to be a celebration of soft drinks, popcorn and chicken wings. But on closer inspection this year's Super Bowl Sunday in Miami contained a much richer food story.

Richard follows a group of so-called 'tailgaters' who'd driven for 14 hours equiped with cooking equipment, ingredients and beer. Tailgating involves cooking a pre-game meal as close to the stadium as possible.

Elsewhere in Miami, around the football stadium, Richard tastes alternative Super Bowl meals in a Cuban market, in a botanical garden with giant avocados and along Miami beach. Enough food to make him rethink his first impressions of Super Bowl cuisine and in fact American food itself.

Richard Johnson is in Miami to hear how the 2010 Superbowl had its very own food story.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In his new book, Cooked, 'a love letter to cooking', Pollan who is one of the world's most popular thinkers on food reflects on the value of being a cook and preparing our own food.

From understanding the physics and culture of the barbecue to the art of fermentation, Pollan has spent the last two years researching cooking techniques around the world to help explain how transforming food has influenced our evolution and development over millions of years.

Cooking, says Pollan, is 'baked into our DNA', we are 'the cooking animal'. For that reason he examines what we've lost as rates of domestic cooking have declined since the 1960's and what it will take for more of us to make a meaningful return to the kitchen.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon speaks to Michael Pollan on the craft, science and pleasures of cooking.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Michel Jr is the second generation of the Roux family to run the Mayfair restaurant, which was started by his father Albert and his uncle Michel. When he took over the kitchen nearly 30 years ago, he fought to put his own stamp on the style - and write the next chapter of the family's food story.

Michel kicks off in the kitchen, cooking two dishes that have special importance to him: Souffl退 Suissesse, his father's decadent cheese souffl退 creation that diners won't allow to be taken off the menu; and roast quail with potato fondant and mushrooms, a dish that he loves and often cooks at home for the family.

Over the course of cooking and eating the meal, Sheila asks Michel about his life, his love of food, his inspirations and drive - as well as the pressure that come with being part of a dining dynasty. They also discuss how he's dealt with the challenges in his life: from the pay scandal of 2016, when Gavroche employees were found to be earning below minimum wage - to his regret over never quite managing to achieve a work/life balance.

They're later joined by Michel's daughter Emily, who now has her own restaurant in London with her husband Diego Ferrari, and who has a fresh perspective on the industry and how her family have shaped her career.

The programme also hears from one half of the team who originated this dynasty: Albert Roux shares his take on his son's success.

Presented by Sheila Dillon, produced by Lucy Taylor.

Sheila Dillon meets the renowned chef to talk food, family and festive inspiration

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon visits North Aston Dairy in Oxfordshire, where a small herd of 18 Ayrshires provides milk to 250 residents in local villages, all within a two-and-a-half mile radius. She also catches up with Nick Snelgar of Future Farms co-operative in Hampshire, who is planning to start a 'micro dairy' along the same lines as North Aston. She also hears from dairy farmer Ian Crouch in Dorset about his struggle to stay in business with a mixed herd of 150 cows including Holsteins, Jerseys and Guernseys.

MP Michael Jack, Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, gives his view of the state of the industry, and Charlotte is joined in the studio by Gwyn Jones, Dairy Board Chairman of the National Farmers' Union.

Are small community dairies, serving local customers, the way forward for dairy farmers?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Could paying attention, as cheesemonger and podcast host Sam Wilkin argues, be the secret to great food and drink production and relishing what we consume on a daily basis?

Sam takes us to Westcombe Dairy, where he's been following their transition to regenerative agriculture for the past year, as part of the Westcombe Project. We visit a pioneering island distillery in the Inner Hebrides, as well as growers and brewers at an inaugural organic food festival in the East Neuk of Fife.

The common thread that binds them? The belief that a more attentive approach has the power to transform the food system and improve our lives in the process.

Presented by Jaega Wise.

Produced by Robbie Armstrong in Glasgow.

Why the simple art of paying attention could be the secret to great food and drink.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Chefs Fergus Henderson and Cyrus Todiwala are both lyrical on the virtues of mutton and give tips on the best way to cook it. And Dan visits the Thomas family sheep farm deep in the Welsh hills to understand why our lack of interest in mutton has changed their way of life.

The programme also hears of a mutton story from America, the Moonlite BBQ in Kentucky, a destination restaurant that draws people from all over the US in search of their slow cooked mutton. It was also a destination for artisan mutton producer Tony Davies who travelled to the restaurant to see if you could provide an answer to mutton's woes in the UK. As he explains in the programme, he arrived at a dramatic conclusion.

Presented by Dan Saladino and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

Photo image copyright - Bob Kennard.

The audio of the Moonlite BBQ restaurant kindly provided by Mark Dolan of www.bbqpilgrim.com and the American Southern Foodways Alliance www.southernfoodways.org.

Dan Saladino explores why we should all be demanding to eat older meat.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With more types of cultivated mushroom available in the UK now than there has ever been, Dan hears about Korean mushrooms grown in jars, visits Europe's biggest mushroom farm, and tracks down the biggest global company in the ultra-specialised world of spawn production.

Dan also encounters a photographer whose street-food mushroom project inspired him to create a new type of imagery - the 'fungi luminogram', gets insights from Eugenia Bone - author of 'Mycophilia' - and Paul Stamets, legendary mycologist and advocate of mycelium. There will also be plenty of butter and garlic.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Dan Saladino discovers a mysterious, surprising and delicious world of edible mushrooms.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sicily has one of the oldest, continuous, food cultures in western Europe. Invasions, conquests and Mediterranean trade led to influences being exerted by the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish and French. That combined with an abundance of sun and fertile soil has given it one of the most important and delicious food stories to tell.

With a Sicilian father, and extended family, Dan spent a lot of his childhood staying with his grandmother, watching home cooks in action, visiting markets and eating in espresso fuelled bars. For many years traditional Sicilian foods like caponata, cannoli, arancini and pasta con le sarde, were enjoyed but not fully understood. Sicily remained a mysterious place with an equally mysterious array of foods.

In the last in the series in which presenters meet their food heroes Dan meets Mary Taylor Simeti at her home and farm on the outskirts of Palermo. Her series of books on Sicily and its food provided the first detailed insights into this ancient cuisine in the English language.

She started to write in the early 1980's, 'On Persephone's Island' is a personal account of life on a family farm and of life lived near Palermo. It was a violent time in the city's history, a period now known as the 'second mafia war'. The book weaves in snapshots of that side of Sicily, but also captures the changing seasons on the farm, olive and grape harvests, religious festivals that feature food rituals and first-hand accounts of traditional lives lived on the land and producing ingredients.

It was followed by 'Pomp and Sustenance: 25 Centuries of Sicilian Food', a book that explores the island's cuisine from the classical world right up to her own experiences of food among family and friends. A third book, 'Bitter Almonds' told the story of Maria Grammatico, who grew up as an orphan in a convent, trained to make intricate biscuits, cakes and sculpted almond paste. The book explains how from a Dickensian childhood she'd produce the most skilfully made and delicious foods.

Mary Taylor Simeti's work not only helped Dan make sense of all the food, cooking and festivals he saw around him, but also helped chefs including Giorgio Locatelli have a better understanding of Italian food.

Mary explains how she left a life in Manhattan that seemed destined for an academic career to life on a Sicilian farm documenting one of the world's most colourful food stories. Presented and produced by Dan Saladino.

Sicilian food expert Mary Taylor Simeti reveals the island's food secrets to Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

As a leading and respected farmer, writer, campaigner, philosopher and poet, he wrote that 'Eating is an agricultural act' yet argues we have become disconnected from the land by the industrialisation of the food chain, that the growth of agribusiness has driven many small farms out of business with a loss of their 'moral fibre and wisdom' and is destroying rural communities. He argues we must acknowledge the impact of agriculture to society.

Yet despite his widespread influence he lives at a different pace to the majority - using horses to work the land and refusing to get a computer.

For those unfamiliar with his work Ella will explain just how significant he's been on politicians and game-changers and, for those who know him already, a chance to hear his thoughts on how to feed ourselves without destroying the land and plant we have.

Ella also visits the city of Louisville to see how people are putting his thoughts into action in projects that provide access to fresh food and but also unite communities otherwise divided.

Presented by Ella McSweeney

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Ella McSweeney meets Wendell Berry - the farmer, author and campaigner who inspired her.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Susan George published her first book 'How the Other Half Dies: The Real Reasons for World Hunger' almost 40 years ago. It was a book that, at the time, offered a radically different perspective on famine in the developing world.

In 1985, as pictures of East African drought and hunger started appearing on our TV screens, Susan George published 'Ill Fares The Land' a collection of essays which didn't shy away from criticising International aid efforts, and demanded a different approach to trade and development. She wrote 'A more just society is a better-fed society'. It would become a seminal text.

Now, aged 81, and continuing to speak at conferences around the world, Susan George speaks to Sheila Dillon about her career, the predictions she made 30 years ago, and the problems we still face in feeding our growing global population.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Sheila Dillon speaks to her food hero, campaigner and writer Susan George.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A surprising food figure perhaps, he is a best-selling author, writer of 'The IPCRESS File', creator of Harry Palmer (played by Michael Caine). He is also an illustrator, and pioneering food writer. He rarely gives interviews. He is Len Deighton.

Leonard Cyril Deighton - now 86 - has had a fascinating life - and as he explains, food has always been at its heart. His vivid and extraordinary story takes in post-war London with double agents and off-ration cooking, to a newly opened-up world of international air travel, and into the swinging sixties.

Len Deighton created the totally unique 'cookstrips', fusing his skills at illustrating and writing with his cooking knowledge. For a young Tim Hayward, once he had seen these things would never be the same again.

Photograph by David Rose.

Presented by Tim Hayward

Produced by Rich Ward and Dan Saladino.

Best-selling author Len Deighton talks with Tim Hayward about his incredible food story.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Leyla Kazim sits down for a conversation with the baker from Luton who has become one of the UK's most beloved TV cooks to ask about her teenage years, her family life and the discrimination she's faced making her way in a majority white food industry. Along with her friend and fellow baker Tan France, she reflects on the significance of her winning the Great British Bake Off all those five years ago.

Presented by Leyla Kazim.

Produced by Clare Salisbury for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Nadiya Hussain and Tan France speak to Leyla Kazim about Nadiya's life and career.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan Keeling of Noble Rot magazine argues this movement echoes indie labels in the music scene in which he started before immersing himself in wine writing. Award-winning sommelier Charlotte Sager-Wilde explains how trying to train up on wines while earning a small salary working in hospitality led her and her husband to a new model of wine bar - selling good wines by the glass rather than the bottle and training staff to share ideas with the curious rather than look down their noses. Meanwhile Peter Honegger has started his own wine store - while still a student - selling Austrian wines from niche producers who weren't being stocked elsewhere. Meanwhile we hear about the new tech which is enabling wine enthusiasts to gen up on wines and form their own opinions and ask is branding is putting style over substance.

Sheila Dillon asks if the slow moving world of wine is seeing its own revolution and if these new ideas can open the world of wine to more enthusiasts.

Presented by Sheila Dillon, Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sheila Dillon uncovers the new ways of drinking, selling and writing about wine.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

As well as meeting pioneering producers from Australia and America, Sheila talks to campaigners from former communist countries in eastern Europe who have to use the black market to buy and sell artisanal cheeses. This is the only way they believe food traditions can be kept alive.

Should we care about these cheese struggles in far off places? Sheila is joined by cheese expert Juliet Harbutt who argues that we should.

Sheila Dillon hears how an Australian campaigner risked being jailed over raw milk cheese.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Join Leyla Kazim for a tour of New Year's Eve food traditions around the world, from eating lentils in Italy, scoffing 12 grapes in Spain, slurping soba noodles in Japan and Kransekage in Denmark and Norway.

We hear from food writer, Rachel Roddy; owner of Japanese Cookery School Hashi Cooking, Reiko Hashimoto; Spanish chef, Omar Allibhoy; co-founder of ScandiKitchen, Brontë Aurell; and author of National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home, Anya Von Bremzen.

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Join Leyla Kazim for a tour of New Year's Eve food traditions around the world, from eating lentils in Italy, scoffing 12 grapes in Spain, to slurping soba noodles in Japan.

Recorded in front of a live audience at The Abergavenny Food Festival this special edition of the Radio 4 Food Quiz features panellists comedian Chris Neill, food writer Richard Johnson, television presenter Gizzi Erskine and restaurant insider Thomas Blythe.

This week's quiz categories include, 'beer or racehorse' and 'what's cookin' as well as more from inside 'the museum of brands'.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Tim Hayward and the Food Quiz team juggle more food history, trivia and recipe knowledge.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

At the show Sheila meets Ron Tanner, one of the organisers who explains how food from Britain displayed at the show has changed in the last twenty years and how our regional food is now better understood.

Sheila also meets producers from Wales and Scotland, like the Patchwork Food Company and Walkers, who explain how they managed to get their products into America's delicatessens and food stores.

Sheila Dillon follows a group of small producers at the New York Fancy Food Festival.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Organised as part of a food festival in Newcastle, the meals are based on Havana's paladares, family-hosted intimate cafes serving local food. Behind these paladares or 'pop up restaurants' in Newcastle are four volunteer cooks who want to share food from their home countries with people in the north east.

The programme follows them as the evening of the meals unfold. Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Four cooks from four different countries open up their homes to serve food to strangers.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme, Nigella shares the food memories, the dishes and flavours which have shaped her life. Being taught to cook by a mother with eating disorder, balancing a career in journalism with cooking for young children, what food means when you lose those closest to you, and how navigating a rise to food-icon status sometimes feels like joining the circus.

When food writer Diana Henry read 'How To Eat' for the first time, it was on a rainy afternoon after the birth of her first child. Nigella's recipes got Diana back into the kitchen and when she said so in a recent article, she realised the electric influence Nigella has had on home cooks all around the world.

Now Diana joins Nigella at home in the kitchen to talk life, death, and roast chicken. Marmite sandwiches to 'Steak Mirabeau', grouse to goose fat to Christmas 'goddess'. This is Nigella in her own words.

Presented by Diana Henry

Produced by Clare Salisbury

You're invited to dinner with Nigella as she shares the memories and flavours of her life.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Tim Hayward.

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Tim Hayward discovers the secret underground culture of 'dirty trifle'.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dr Joan Morgan, apple expert and author of the seminal New Book of Apples, outlined many of the great northern varieties at the RHS London Autumn Harvest Show.

Michael Jack, President of the National Fruit Show, and a BBC Food & Farming Awards judge, samples some of the orchard drinks: Cheshire Apple Juice from Eddisbury Fruit Farm, Husthwaite's cider, and Ampleforth's cider brandy.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Scagglethorpe Queening, Ribston Pippin, the Wass - in praise of a local apple tradition.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

While in the South the food revolution of the past 30 years created a plethora of innovative, quality food businesses to feed a burgeoning tourism sector, in the North the food and farming industries have been more commodity focused, and have lagged behind on the quality front. The Focus on Food strategy aims to provide expertise and support to stimulate the food and farming sectors, which, after the public sector, are the single biggest employers in the region.

Sheila Dillon visits two new value-added businesses, the sorts of enterprise Focus on Food is designed to encourage: Mash Direct, selling a range of mashes and vegetable dishes fresh through the retailers and providing an economic future for the family, and Glastry Farm whose dairy herd provide the milk for their premium ice creams based around regional produce like Armagh Bramleys, and strawberries. She also talks to established artisan baker Robert Ditty. Is the government strategy enough to kick start quality food entrepreneurism in Northern Ireland? And in the era of public-sector cuts will the financial back-up be available?

Sheila Dillon visits Northern Ireland where food is being used to drive economic growth.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Together they look at the versatility of nutmeg as a spice that can bring life to mulled wine, egg custards, meats and puddings.

People take it for granted now but nutmeg was highly prized in the kitchens of 16th and 17th century Europe. Traders ventured to the ends of the earth to secure it because of its value. The Dutch and the English vied for nutmeg supremacy and, in December 1616, Nathaniel Courthope and his small army saw off all competitors to gain control of the valuable nut so it could be shipped back to Britain for the culinary elite to enjoy.

Today in Grenada the spice is so important it features on the national flag. But when Hurricane Ivan struck in 2004 it devastated the entire crop and hit the economy with a vengeance. Almost ten years on the nutmeg crop seems to be well on its way to recovery and we find out how it is used on the island.

Producer : Perminder Khatkar.

For Nigel Slater, nutmeg is 'the scent of Christmas', but Sheila Dillon needs convincing.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Robert Clark of Retail Knowledge Bank looks at the recent history of the off-licence, and who has emerged successfully from the recession, including Majestic, Bargain Booze and Tesco. We speak to Tesco's director of Beer Wine and Spirits Dan Jago about their wines, as well as their discounting policy and what impact that has on the industry.

Bargain Booze, based primarily in the north is now the biggest high street off licence chain. What they offer is clear - big brands sold as cheaply as possible. Sheila visits their joint managing director Matthew Hughes to find out more about their success. And at the other end of the scale she visits Green and Blue, a thriving independent off licence based in East Dulwich in London, an off-licence as well as a wine bar and restaurant, running wine courses as well. The independent sector has bought many of the premises left empty by First Quench.

To discuss what all these changes and different options mean for us as drinkers Sheila is joined in the studio by Peter Richards, wine writer and broadcaster in Saturday Kitchen with his wife Susie Barrie. And Matthew Dickenson from Thierry's, the largest importer of French wines in the UK. They taste Britain's best selling wine, Blossom Hill White Zinfandel to find out what that tells us about what's popular in the UK. They also discuss Naked Wines, an online company allowing shoppers to help winemakers around the world produce great wines, in return for a good discount themselves.

Produced by Rebecca Moore.

Sheila Dillon asks if there is a future for the high street off licence.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the programme we meet the participants of the latest Man with a Pan cookery course, run by Community Chef at Lewes Community Kitchen, as well as a weekly class run by Age UK in north London. Jimi also chats to the team behind Men's Pie Club, which uses food as a tool to help tackle loneliness and social isolation with men, getting them in a room once a week, to make a pie, connect and meet people.

Presented by Jimi Famurewa and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Jimi Famurewa talks to men who are learning or rediscovering cooking later in life.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Jimi Famurewa talks to men learning or rediscovering cooking later in life, maybe due to a change of circumstance or loss of a partner, to hear how it's changed their lives.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

As manufacturers add omega 3 to a whole host of products, consumers can be left confused in the face of claim and counter claim. What can they believe? What is in the products we buy anyway, and how much does it matter?

Sheila Dillon explores the issues.

Sheila Dillon explores the issues surrounding our intake of omega 3 fatty acids.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

How our sense of taste develops throughout our lifetimes and what happens when we lose it.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon heads to Galloway on a wild spice challenge set by forager Mark Williams.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme Sheila Dillon asks young butchers, food entrepreneurs and a 3rd generation sheep farmer in his thirties whether there's any saving shepherd's pie, lamb shanks and Irish stew. She gets a lesson in Iranian midweek lamb cooking from cook and author of 'The Saffron Tales' Yasmin Khan. And Ben Ebbrell and Barry Taylor from SORTEDfood share the lamb recipes which excite their 1.7 million Youtube subscribers.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Is lamb in a stew? SORTEDfood help understand why millennials aren't cooking with lamb.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer Sukey Firth.

As the sun continues to blaze, Sheila Dillon examines the ups and downs of outdoor cooking

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Visiting Oz to share a glass or two from his collection, Jaega Wise hears about his varied career and lifelong passion for wine, as well as how he's never been afraid of introducing controversy into the wine world. Oz also shares his thoughts on the natural wine movement and how the industry will need to adapt to climate change.

We also hear from fellow wine critic Jancis Robinson on Oz's impact on our wine drinking culture; and we visit winemaker Emma Rice at Hattingley Valley to hear how the English wine industry is faring, which Oz has long been a cheerleader for.

Presented by Jaega Wise and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Jaega Wise talks to the writer about his lifelong passion for wine and its future.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Used for centuries as a cooking oil in West Africa, palm oil has properties that make it a highly desirable and affordable component in food production. It is also used widely in animal feed, and in ever-larger quantities in South-East Asia as a cooking oil.

The target of several high-profile campaigns highlighting environmental damage caused by the rapid unchecked spread of palm plantations, it currently does not have to be labelled as palm oil, only 'vegetable fat' or 'vegetable oil'.

Dan Saladino goes on a journey to find out why the global use of this oil is growing so fast, and speaks to some of the key players in the palm oil world.

Tim Hayward meets Lloyd Mensah from Ghanaian street-food caterers Jollof Pot to discover palm oil's use in traditional West-Africa cuisine.

Dan follows the trail of this infamous and ubiquitous substance, ending at the Liverpool refinery of New Britain Palm Oil. Despite all the difficulties that the industry faces he asks if palm oil - actually an incredibly efficient, high-yielding crop - is the future for food?

Produced by Dan Saladino and Rich Ward.

A traditional cooking oil and a controversial food ingredient. What's up with palm oil?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Fires, droughts and speculation in the wheat market together with poor harvests of durum wheat is creating a rise in prices. Pasta producers all over the world compete for the best quality semolina, produced from the milled, high protein and low yielding durum crop.

John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at University College London, outlines the rise and rise of pasta making in Italy dating back to the Middle Ages. Sicily had a large scale pasta export business dating back at least 1000 years but it wasn't until Italy's economic boom of the 1960's that pasta became a truly national dish.

Reporter Dany Mintzman follows five tonnes of spaghetti as it travels along the production line of the world's largest pasta factory, owned by Barilla, a family owned business started in the 1870s.

Farmers in the UK used to grow durum wheat when it was an EU subsidised crop. Although it is best suited to hot and dry weather conditions a lot of it was then used by British companies producing dried pasta for the supermarkets. That is no longer the case and the last factory selling mass market pasta stopped production in 2001, unable to compete with the vast scale of the Italian producers.

However in Cornwall, one farmer, Charlie Watson-Smyth has spent the last two years trying to grow durum wheat and then turn it into pasta to sell in his farm shop. As reporter Dilly Barlow discovers it's been such a success that he's now supplying The Eden Project and restaurants around Padstow.

Produced by Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

To some, Patience's name evokes a masterpiece, one of the most evocative and imaginative food books written in modern times. To others, her name will mean very little; Patience Gray, by her own admission, kept a low profile, living and writing for most of her working life among rural people in Italy, Greece and Catalonia.

Patience, who died in 2005, would have been 100 in 2017. So Sheila Dillon looks back on Patience Gray's life through food with the help of Adam Federman, author of a new biography 'Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray' and food writers Jojo Tulloh and Louise Gray. They hear from the Food Programme archives. From two visits to Patience's home in Puglia recorded by Derek Cooper and Simon Parkes.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Jojo Tulloh, Adam Federman and Louise Gray introduce the food writing of Patience Gray.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Nominations are now open for this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards until June 19th, including Best Innovation which was created to celebrate ideas that will make food production better for us and for the planet.

For more than a century, and around the world, ground-breaking ideas linked to food have featured in awards and prizes, from Ivan Pavlov's research on our digestive system through to Norman Borlaug's efforts to increase food production with crop breeding in the 1960s. Both received a Nobel Prize.

In more recent years awards have been created to find solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face in food and farming. The former chef of the Swedish restaurant Faviken, Magnus Nilsson now oversees the Food Planet Prize, the world's biggest environmental prize. He tells Dan about previous winners who have created solutions to plastics in our oceans and the problem of abandoned fishing equipment, so called 'ghost nets' and also a project in Africa providing refrigeration to farmers which is resulting in a dramatic reduction in food waste.

Another award winner in the programme is Heidi Kuhn, founder of Roots of Peace. This year she was recognised by the US based World Food Prize for decades of work helping to clear mines from regions impacted by conflict and return the land to food production.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

From Nobel winners to great innovators, Dan Saladino explores prize-winning food ideas.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Andrew Whitley, philosopher/baker and author of Bread Matters, invites Sheila into his kitchen as he bakes a batch of his low-yeast, slow fermented bread, and back in the studio Paul Molyneux of the Federation of Bakers responds to concerns about the nutritional value of mass-produced breads.

During 200 years of industrialisation modern bread has evolved to suit the mass scale. Roller milling, invented in the late 19th century, produced the first truly white flour with bran and wheatgerm removed. The British Empire brought bakers high-protein wheats capable of rising and stretching in a way UK lower-protein grains found difficult. And in 1961 a piece of British technical wizardry in the form of the Chorleywood Bread Process finally allowed those UK grown, lower-protein wheats to achieve that same fluffyness through high speed mixing and additives.

For some, the changes have not been without cost both to the flavour of the breads we eat, and their nutritional value.

Sheila Dillon dissects our national loaf. How is most bread made, and what goes into it?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Elderberry and Apple Chutney

Ingredients:

425g Elderberries

425g Bramley Apples (peeled and cored)

1 Large onion (chopped)

50g sultanas

150g soft light brown sugar

150ml red wine vinegar

½ tablespoon cayenne pepper

½ tablespoon mixed spice

Method

In a large pan place the elderberries, apples, onion, sultanas, spices and half the vinegar and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer until the fruit is soft

Add the remaing vinegar and sugar whilst still simmering and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Continue to simmer until the chutney has thickened.

Ladle the chutney into sterilised jars and seal.

Store for three months before eating.

Sheila Dillon looks at some of the ingenious ways we have developed of preserving food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Spotlight and Ignition are a taste of change to come but Jaega finds opportunities like these in the food industry are hard to come by for most people with learning disabilities so she meets Mencap's Natalie Duo to talk about her work training potential employers in the changes they can make to create a more accessible workplace.

Presenter: Jaega Wise

Producer: Tom Bonnett

Jaega Wise meets the brewers pouring away preconceptions in the workplace

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

So what does all this mean for the UK's food future?

Sheila Dillon is joined by industry experts, to discuss how our food system could and should change in future, and answer questions from listeners and special guests about what those changes might mean and involve.

The panellists are Helen Munday, chief scientific officer for the Food and Drink Federation and President of the Institute of Food Science and Technology; Dee Woods, a food educator, co-founder of Granville Community Kitchen and member of the Food Ethics Council; and Chris Elliott, Professor of food safety at Queen's University Belfast and founder of the Institute for Global Food Security.

Sheila also speaks to Henry Dimbleby, author of the National Food Strategy, about the first instalment.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Discussing the future of UK food policy in light of the National Food Strategy

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

That's the ambition of the National Food Strategy, the first independent review of our food policy in nearly 75 years, commissioned by the government in 2019 and authored by Henry Dimbleby - who published the second and final part of the report this week.

Food-related problems have been stacking up in the UK for a while: inequality, poor diets, a boom in costly bariatric diseases, the environmental impact of food production, the resilience of the overall system - the list goes on. But now we could be at a turning point, as the country starts to emerge (hopefully) from months of restrictions with fresh perspectives and priorities, and seeks to reposition itself post-pandemic and post-Brexit.

Now, Part 2 of the National Food Strategy has set out a framework for transforming our food system.

So how exactly does it propose we do that?

Sheila Dillon digs into the detail of the report, speaking to Henry Dimbleby (co-founder of the restaurant chain Leon and co-author of the 2013 School Food Plan) about the strategy's focus and recommendations; and inviting listener feedback for a future episode.

The programme also features questions from Caroline Keohane at the Food and Drink Federation, Martin Lines from the Nature Friendly Farming Network, and Jeanette Orrey: a former dinner lady turned school meals campaigner and co-founder of Food for Life. And we revisit previous guests Nutritank - a student organisation campaigning for better nutritional education for medics - and Social Bite: a project supporting Scotland's homeless through social enterprise caf退s.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Lucy Taylor in Bristol

Can the new National Food Strategy successfully transform the UK food system?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Food has taken on a major role in many modern games - not only in terms of beautiful, Instagram-worthy designs bringing dishes to life on screen, but also food-related quests and story-lines - and even game-based recipe books inspiring players to cook their favourite on-screen meals. And even if you don't play these games yourself, the technology behind such virtual vittles could have a significant impact on how and what we eat in future.

In between battling monsters in huge open-world fantasy adventures such as Elder Scrolls Online, and trying to beat the clock in the cooperative kitchen-based stress-fest Overcooked 2, Dan speaks to games enthusiasts and developers to find out more.

He even finds time to do a little game-inspired cooking himself...

Presented by Dan Saladino.

Produced by Lucy Taylor.

Dan Saladino discovers what we can learn about food - from playing video games.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon speaks to the author and food campaigner Michael Pollan.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Why are today's Londoners embracing the concept of turning their homes into 'pop up' restaurants and inviting strangers in to dine?

Food writer Tim Hayward believes the answer lies in the story of a dining club founded in 1930's London called 'The Half Hundred'. Many of its members were artists, designers and writers and residents of the Isokon building. The group set out to challenge established thinking about dining out in London. Is that what today's 'pop up' hosts are setting out to do? Sheila Dillon finds out.

Produced by Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon asks if a 1930s block of flats was London's first ever pop-up restaurant.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Sukey Firth.

Food writer Charles Campion indulges his love of pork scratchings.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Sukey Firth.

Food writer Charles Campion indulges his love of pork scratchings.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon explores porridge.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

So we now have Sainsbury's Taste the Difference, Asda's Extra Special and Morrisons' The Best. The Food Programme explores what lies behind these labels. Simon Parkes talks to Edward Garner from TNS Worldpanel, a market research company, about the rise in sales of supermarket premium brands.

Simon also visits one of the major suppliers of supermarket premium range cakes, The Finsbury Food Group and speaks to Chief Executive, Dave Brooks about what goes into a premium product. We hear from Catherine Collins, chief dietician and nutritionist at St. Georges Hospital in London and Peter York, branding consultant about the packaging, the descriptions and the contents of some of the ready meals on offer in premium brand ranges.

Tim Lennox, marketing manager for Sainsbury's explains the brand values behind the Taste the Difference range and Neil Nugent talks about the thinking behind Asda's Extra Special range. Simon is then joined by retail analyst and Food & Farming Award judge, Robert Clarke and food journalist and author of Bad Food Britain, Joanna Blythman to discuss the so called trend of `premiumisation`.

The food magazine investigates the premium brands of major retailers.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

How healthcare is being brought out of GP surgeries and into communities in south London.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

GP Dr Chi-Chi Ekhator shows Sheila Dillon how healthcare - with fresh fruit and veg - is being brought out into the heart of communities in south east London.

Two recent events have brought the production of chicken into sharp focus. The first is an investigation by the Guardian's Special Correspondent Felicity Lawrence into allegations of hygiene failings at major production plants.

It was a serious claim as poultry production is already under scrutiny because of the presence of campylobacter in most chicken, a bacteria that can cause food poisoning.

The report triggered a call by the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, for checks on two factories. The company involved strongly denied any problems had taken place, subsequent checks by the Food Standards Agency found no breaches and the plants were given the all clear. However the episode brought poultry production under national scrutiny.

Dan is given full access to the production line of one of the plants involved. Based in Scunthorpe it's the largest poultry slaughter house in the UK and is owned by the largest supermarket chicken supplier 2 Sisters. They explain how our chicken is produced and what kind of measures are in place to reduce levels of campylobacter.

The second story that brought poultry to renewed national attention was a recent decision by the Food Standards Agency on its plans to publish data revealing which supermarkets had the highest levels of campylobacter in their supply chains. In March it was announced that the agency was pushing ahead with 'steely determination' to publish the names and levels of the bacteria. In July that decision was reversed and that data might not be available for another year. Dan asks the Food Standards Agency why consumers won't be getting this information as soon as possible.

Is the poultry industry fit for purpose? Dan Saladino looks at how UK chicken is produced.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Jaega Wise wants to find out more about these products. Do we need them? What are they made of? How much protein should we be eating?

Jaega visits Balance festival in East London to observe how protein is taking over the wellness scene. She also talks to her partner Will who has been drinking protein shakes. She visits a factory where they make Form Protein - a more upmarket, vegan supplement.

We hear from Professor Stuart Phillips on the effectiveness of protein supplements and Dietitian Dr Linia Patel on the Refence Nutrient Intake - the amount of protein we are recommended to have every day.

Presenter: Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan and Sam Grist

Jaega Wise investigates the hype around protein supplements.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She's enjoyed success as a cook, restaurateur, businesswoman, broadcaster, campaigner, food writer and novelist; and in conversation with Sheila Dillon, on a balmy summer afternoon on the terrace of her Cotswolds home, Prue shares the lessons she's learned from her career so far.

We also hear from Prue's niece Peta Leith, a pastry chef and food writer with whom she recently collaborated on the book 'The Vegetarian Kitchen' - and from Dr Rupy Aujla, the NHS GP who started the Culinary Medicine UK programme teaching doctors to cook, and creator of the podcast 'The Doctor's Kitchen' linking better health to good cooking and eating, who is Prue's co-host on the television series ‘Cook Clever, Waste Less'.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Lucy Taylor in Bristol

Sheila Dillon meets broadcaster and businesswoman Prue Leith to discuss her career in food

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Prue Leith has run a catering business, then Michelin-starred restaurant and cookery school. She's a consultant, sits on various boards and, earlier this year, was appointed chair of the School Food Trust, a government body set up to improve pupils' diets. She has also written her third novel, The Gardener, which came out in the summer.

Simon visits Prue Leith at her home in the Cotswolds and finds out about the forces that have shaped her career. He also talks to her about her own eating habits and what has influenced her approach to food and why she feels that chairing The School Food Trust is the most important job of her life.

Simon Parkes profiles Prue Leith, celebrated cook, writer and champion of healthy eating.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With 40 pubs a week closing down and food sales starting to equal those of drinks, the role of food in the future of the public house has never been more important. Sheila Dillon explores how one pub has come up with a groundbreaking solution to keeping business thriving.

Producer: Dave Battcock.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

He explores the role of the public purse, which funds food in schools, hospitals, prisons and beyond. Rising prices, biofuels, and global warming have pushed food up the political agenda, with long-term sustainability now as important as cost. What part can the public purse play in reshaping our food economy, and how well is it doing?

Simon Parkes explores the funding of food in schools, hospitals, prisons and beyond.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Simon Parkes explores why Britain has excelled at producing puddings through a heritage going back to the Norman Conquest. Mary Norwak, author of English Puddings, explains her passion for trifle, while food writer and publisher Tom Jaine outlines the development of the sweet pudding through history. But how do the shop-bought selections measure up? Award-winning company Manna from Devon explain the success of their hand-made and home-made puddings.

Simon Parkes celebrates British puddings, the ultimate comfort food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

It's Halloween time, and pumpkins are making their annual appearance in windows and on doorsteps. But these winter squash are part of a fascinating family of fruit (yes, fruit - not vegetable) with huge culinary potential that many feel uncomfortable around. This programme aims to change that. Sheila invites chef, restaurateur and squash-lover Romy Gill to her kitchen, where they're joined by Neil Munro - manager of the Heritage Seed Library at Garden Organic (formerly the Henry Doubleday Research Association). To help with the deeper history, they enlist the help of Ken Albala, Professor of Food Studies at the University of the Pacific in California.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme Leyla Kazim aims to demystify MSG. She looks into where it came from, what it is and how it became so demonised.

Professor Lisa Methven from the University of Reading explains the taste science behind how and why we like MSG. David Gott from the Food Standards Agency clarifies what the science says around the health issues associated with it. Historian of Science Dr Sarah Tracy tells Leyla about the complicated history of MSG. MiMi Aye and Huong Black from the MSG Pod talk about their experiences with MSG and coach Leyla on how to use it in food. Alison Cheung and Marina Lai's families both own restaurants in London's Chinatown, Plum Valley and Lotus Garden. They talk about how they want to confront the decades long stigma

Presented by Leyla Kazim

Produced by Sam Grist in Bristol

Leyla Kazim investigates the history, science and culture around MSG

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon's panel will kick off any tarnished reputation of wind and worthiness with tips on how to prepare pulses with ease and how to choose them. Chef Sanjay Kumar and cookery expert and author Jenny Chandler get cooking in the studio with a breakfast sambhar from Goa and 'black badgers and bacon' - a traditional Black Country dish better known as grey peas and bacon which tastes far better than the name would suggest.

Farmers across the UK grow fava beans to help enrich the soil yet most of them are exported or fed to animals. Nick Saltmarsh was so shocked when he learnt this that he set up a company to market British beans to consumers and he's now asking farmers to grow other varieties especially. In addition to dried and tinned pulses he's selling them as snacks and flours and looking into pastas and other uses for them. Sheila's also discovered a beer made from British fava beans and now chocolate covered pulses are hitting the shelves. It's a hard job but someone's got to try them for you.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sheila Dillon discusses pulses with Sanjay Kumar, Jenny Chandler and Nick Saltmarsh.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

To find out about the current state of the rapeseed market, and the impact of the biofuel commitment on the food market, Sheila visits a conference organized by industry group, The Home Grown Cereals Authority and talks to the HGCA Director of Crop Marketing, Alastair Dickey.

Sheila visits Duncan Farrington on his 700 acre farm, to talk about Mellow Yellow, cold-pressed, fully traceable, Northampton-grown rapeseed oil, and Duncan's wife Ellie prepares a meal.

Sheila talks to Ian Munnery, Commercial Manager of United Oilseeds Marketing about the history of rapeseed varieties.

And Sheila talks to Steven Zehr, Commercial General Manager of ADM Pura in the UK and Phil Hogan, Director of ADM's Global Oils and Fats Research about the closure of their hydrogenation plant and how they have adjusted to business without this, and about how they process their rapeseed.

Sheila is joined in the studio by Professor Michael Crawford, Director of the Institute for Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, to talk about `healthy` vegetable oils and where rapeseed sits in the spectrum.

Sheila Dillon explores the culinary uses of rapeseed oil.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon looks at the controversial subject of raw milk.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Raymond Blanc spent decades growing an orchard. He explains to Dan Saladino why it matters

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Produced by Emma Weatherill in Bristol.

From krill burgers to goat's blood, the intriguing diet of the BBC Natural History Unit.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She also meets two academics whose work focusses on how to help people living in the UK live longer and healthier. Liz Williams from the Healthy LifeSpan Institute at the University of Sheffield explains that although the current life expectancy for people in the UK is just over 81 years - our average 'healthy life' expectancy is much lower, at around 63. Dr Oliver Shannon from The University of Newcastle explains how some of the Blue Zones observational findings are consistent with research they have been doing into the impact of the Mediterranean diet on brain health.

The promise of a long healthy life is all well and good - but as we know the reality of diets is that they are impossibly hard to keep to. So could choosing to make a 'lifestyle' change be any easier to stick with? Leyla hears from Jean Newton who in her 70s has done just that.

Presented by Leyla Kazim

Produced by Natalie Donovan for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Could research into centenarians living in Blue Zones help us live longer?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Leyla Kazim speaks to Blue Zones author Dan Buettner about the culinary aspects of his research into five parts of the world where people seem to live longest.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat.

She also meets two academics whose work focuses on how to help people living in the UK live longer and more healthily. Liz Williams from the Healthy Lifespan Institute at the University of Sheffield explains that although the current life expectancy for people in the UK is just over 81 years - our average 'healthy life' expectancy is much lower, at around 63. Dr Oliver Shannon from The University of Newcastle explains how some of the Blue Zones observational findings are consistent with research they have been doing into the impact of the Mediterranean diet on brain health.

As Drew Smith, author of Oyster: A World History explains, 'the oyster is older than us, they're older than grass, they go back into pre-history and it's quite mind boggling how we've forgotten we really survive on this planet because of oysters'.

From discoveries of middens (piles of oyster shells left by our ancestors) through to tales of the Victorian Britain's enormous appetite for the oyster, Dan hears the evidence of why we used to have a much more intimate relationship with the bivalve.

Overfishing, disease and parasites turned something that was abundant into a rarity a century ago, but now people around the world are making an effort to bring the oyster back into mainstream.

In Denmark, where there still is an abundance of oysters in their waters, a national park along the Wadden Sea, on the north west coast of Denmark has started to encourage people to wade in the water and gather as many oysters as they can carry and eat. It's hoped the experience will help people understand the oyster more and also fight to protect the environment it lives in.

Meanwhile on the British Isles the oyster is seeing interest from brewers and shellfish farmers alike, all convinced we need to reconsider how delicious and import the animal has been in our food culture.

In New York, the most ambitious oyster mission of all is underway, the 'billion oyster project', an effort to return the oyster to New York City's harbour, once a breeding ground for trillions of oysters.

Listen to the programme and hear why these efforts are underway, and why a gold speckled jar of marmite could be the oysters' best friend.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Oysters are receiving renewed attention around the world. Dan Saladino explains why.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Ken Hom tells Sheila how food changed his life and his fortunes. Claudia Roden explains how food brought the Egyptian diaspora together. And we hear from a former drug addict who found a new life growing salad.

Presented by Sheila Dillon produced by Emma Weatherill in Bristol.

Sheila Dillon presents inspirational stories from The Food Programme in 2014.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The focus on reformulation has always been on reducing the level of ‘bad' nutrients in food. Now the concept of ‘ultra-processed' food is calling that strategy into question. It defines food on the level of processing rather than on nutrients - if a product includes ingredients you wouldn't find in your kitchen and was made in a factory, then it's probably ultra-processed. UPF food makes up half of the average diet in the UK, and there is growing evidence to show that it's very likely driving the rise in diet-related diseases, and the global obesity epidemic.

So when it comes to nutrients, what are the technical challenges for reformulating our food, and how far can this approach go in improving the quality of ultra-processed food? And if the problem really lies with processing rather than nutrients, do we need a different approach entirely?

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Sheila Dillon explores the challenges of reformulating unhealthy processed foods.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Many in the industry say their costs are going up and so margins are getting tighter. But there are ways chefs and owners can maximise profits from a simple plate of food. Simon Parkes takes a look behind the scenes and explores the latest trends and techniques in the trade.

At Arbutus Restaurant in central London Colin Kelly explains how he uses his skill as a chef to design and assemble dishes in a way that keeps food costs down. The co-owner of the restaurant Will Smith explains how the front-of-house costs are minimised.

Joanna Blythman, food writer and restaurant critic for Scotland's Sunday Herald, explains the trends she sees underway in the restaurant world - and the shift away from `formal dining`.

Restaurateur Steven Glaister owner of Glaister's Restaurant in London explains how the current system of tipping works in most restaurants.

Joe Warwick, editor of Restaurant Magazine and head of the team behind the World's 50 Best Restaurants, and chef and food writer Rowley Leigh, who is opening a new restaurant this autumn explain the effect these costs are having on our experience as diners.

Simon Parkes then talks to pioneering restaurateur Alice Waters, who started her restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California over 35 years ago for her reflections on the restaurant business.

Simon Parkes explore the latest trends and techniques in the restaurant business.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

With an abundance of different restaurant reviews, Sheila Dillon asks who we can trust.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Produced by Dan Saladino.

As part of the BBC Rethink series Dan Saladino looks at food post-Covid.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Tom Parker Bowles discovers the joys of the gourmet hot dog.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this edition of The Food Programme, Sheila Dillon hears from two influential and meat-loving food writers, Mark Bittman and Alex Renton, who have found themselves looking again at a vegan plant-based diet.

Sheila Dillon joins in at a Vegan Potluck and discovers a new chain of German vegan supermarkets and asks if there is a wider shift in attitudes towards veganism underway.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

How a new generation is rethinking and embracing a meat and dairy free diet.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But some outlets aren't able to open safely yet - some may never open again. And although small, independent outlets might seem like the most obvious victims of this crisis, no business is immune to the effects of Covid-19; as we've seen from the slew of recent closures announced by established high-street brands.

There has been government support for hospitality businesses in the shape of grants, for those who can access them; the staff furlough scheme; the dine-in VAT cut; and the new ‘Eat Out To Help Out' meal discount scheme that launches this month. But with the situation still precarious, will it be enough?

Today, Sheila Dillon finds out how Britain's £130-billion hospitality industry is managing its post-lockdown come-back.

We hear from Tanya Gold, food critic for The Spectator Magazine, on the reality of distanced dining; Mark Lewis from the benevolent charity Hospitality Action discusses the influx of requests for support they've seen in recent months; and Vernon Mascarenhas from fruit and veg supplier Nature's Choice talks about how the pandemic has permanently changed the supply sector.

We also follow the fortunes of the north London Nigerian tapas restaurant Chuku's, as sibling founders Ifeyinwa and Emeka Frederick gear up to the big reopening.

A BBC Audio production presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Sheila Dillon finds out how the restaurant sector is handling the move out of lockdown.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Siobhan Maguire.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Despite failing his A-levels, becoming well-read and his experience travelling won him a place studying at Oxford University and he describes his path into food as 'accidental' - first becoming a DJ and then running a raucous nightclub - serving Vesta meals - which got shut down by the police. His remaining licence allowed him to open a restaurant, starting his path to culinary success. The Seafood Restaurant celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

This programme was recorded in May in front of a live audience at the Bristol Food Connections Festival.

In Part 2 Rick goes on to discuss being discovered in television - first appearing with Keith Floyd and going on to cook and travel around the world.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Rick Stein talks to Sheila Dillon about starting out and his 'accidental' path into food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Rick talks about why their dynamic works well but also how a shared love of wine can also cause a few spats while filming. We hear from the fishermen, colleagues and his ex-wife and business partner about why he's been such a success. He talks about who in particular has inspired him while on his travels and what he hopes to do next.

The programme was recorded earlier this month in front of a studio audience as part of the Bristol Food Connections Festival.

Presented by Sheila Dillon. Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sheila Dillon continues to talk to chef Rick Stein about his TV career and travels.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

His writing saw him forge a path to parts of the world where few were travelling - including hunting out beers and brewers in Czechoslovakia before the fall of the Iron Curtain, his eyes were opened to Belgian beers and tastings through France, and across to the USA, all of which he shared with his readers.

Roger has also worked for the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) since the 70s helping bring real ale back from the brink of extinction as a threatened minority drink to a thriving British craft industry. His work has also seen him fighting to help save pubs - to put it simply, 'no pub, no ale'. But his opinions haven't been without controversy and while he celebrates the rise of the microbrewers, CAMRA is now asking its members on whether it should remodel itself and embrace all beers and beer drinkers.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Beer writer Roger Protz - from reviving real ale to the rise of the microbrewers.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Reading taken from Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta.

Simon Parkes is joined in the studio by author of 50 Great Curries of India,Camellia Panjabi and novelist and author of The Heretic's Feast - A History of Vegetarianism, Colin Spencer.

Simon Parkes visits the Parekh family in Calcutta and talks to Devendra Parekh and his mother Karuna as lunch preparations are getting under way.

Simon Parkes visits the Jain Temple in Leicester during a 9 day fasting period which coincided with the birthday anniversary of Lord Mahavira. He talks to Usha Mehta at home in Leicester.

Simon Parkes explores Jainism, a strictly vegetarian religion.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

After dropping out of university at the end of the 1960s, Rowley Leigh says he was a young and lost soul. Desperate for cash he applied for a job cooking burgers and immediately fell in love with restaurants and kitchens.

It took him to Le Gavroche and an apprenticeship under the Roux brothers. Armed with that classical training and a curiosity for British ingredients and flavours he helped launch the British food renaissance of the 1980s. In Kensington Place he created one of the most talked about dining rooms in British restaurant history.

He is also a writer and so he takes Dan Saladino through some of the recipe highlights of his two decades worth of columns at The Financial Times.

Expect the perfect omelette, some great spaghetti and one of the simplest vegetable dishes you could probably add to your own repertoire.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Rowley Leigh, 'godfather' of modern British cooking, tells his food story to Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon looks at the history of state banquets and investigates their modern role.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A visit to the Tudor kitchens of Hampton Court palace reveals the scale and grandeur of wedding feasts of the past. Power, wealth and their display was all-important, and food was a central part of this. Huge marzipan sculptures, models in food of St Paul's Cathedral, and in the case of James II, a feast with 145 dishes in the first course alone; nothing was too extravagant or beyond the skill of the working-class cooks who invented these dishes. And historically, even beggars on the street got to share the food of the wedding feast, after each layer of the aristocracy had enjoyed its fill.

Food historian Ivan Day traces the evolution of buffets, wedding breakfasts, and looks at the influence of 'the first celebrity chef' - Patrick Lamb, master cook to four monarchs, and author of an early aspirational cookery book.

And as bunting and trestle tables take their place in streets across the UK, The Food Programme asks whether royal food has left a legacy of public feasting which might enhance 21st century communities.

Presenter: Simon Parkes Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan discovers how one particular type of lettuce with roots in 19th-century America changed food forever, he encounters a man who travels the globe searching for the next 'hero leaf' - and learns secrets about preparing and growing.

Along the way he'll meet pioneering chefs Ren退 Redzepi and David Everitt-Matthias, US food writer Irene Sax, greengrocer Charlie Hicks, as well as gardener and writer Mark Diacono.

Dan Saladino reports on the increasingly complex world of salad leaves.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Sheila Dillon asks why dried and salted cod is still loved by cooks around the world.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, the harvesting of seaweed for food is worth upwards of 5 billion US dollars every year.

Yet many of us still associate the greens with Asian food, or experiments in haute cuisine.

But now a new generation of wild food entrepreneurs, are asking us to change our habits, and to rethink seaweed as something that can be enjoyed in every meal, for every occasion.

Sheila Dillon hears stories of finding food from the sea. People harvesting and cooking with seaweed. And as seaweed enters the mainstream, she hears how age old harvesting traditions, could be under threat.

This programme includes the fifth instalment from the Ark of Taste series.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Sheila Dillon asks if seaweed can become a kitchen cupboard staple.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan Saladino travels to Sandor's forest home in rural Tennessee to meet Sandor, hear his story, and discover for himself the transformative, delicious potential of these mostly simple culinary processes.

Coming up in a future edition of The Food Programme, a practical masterclass in fermentation with Sandor Katz.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Photo: Jacqueline Schlossman.

Dan Saladino heads to Tennessee to meet the fermentation teacher and writer Sandor Katz.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The pilchard and its young offspring the sardine used to be the basis of a thriving fishing and processing industry in Cornwall. In the late 19th century nearly 20 thousand tonnes of sardine was caught, salted, packed and sent to northern Italy where it was highly prized.

By the end of the 20th century the fish had fallen out of favour. Supplies of the fish were still abundant but consumers had started to switch to more aspirational fish like cod and salmon. Sardines being landed fell below 10 tonnes. Fisherman gave up the profession, boats were destroyed and processing plants closed.

Now with concerns over global stocks, one solution is for more of us to switch to 'poorer' more abundant fish species like the sardine and pilchard.

Chef Sanjay Kumar, born in Calcutta and now based in Cornwall, wants to help make that happen. He moved to the county five years ago, fell in love with Cornish food and its fishing traditions.

In May Sanjay travelled to a bi-annual event held in Italy called Slow Fish. It brings together fishermen, chefs, policy experts and fish scientists, all keen to promote small scale, traditional and sustainable forms of fishing. His mission was to use the event to find new ideas to help revive Cornish fishing tradition.

As well as cooking a traditional Italian sardine dish, meeting fellow campaigning chefs, Sanjay also gets to interview the European Union's Fisheries Commissioner, Maria Damanaki. Find out how Sanjay's trip can make a difference to how we all think about fish.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Cornish chef Sanjay Kumar goes on a cooking mission to Italy to save the Cornish sardine.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The Food Programme talked to Jamie Oliver about school meals at the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards in 2006.

Sheila Dillon visits Chestnuts Primary School in Haringey, North London who now run their own kitchen. She talks to head teacher Cal Shaw about why they left their local authority catering contract. And to school catering consultant, Kemmy Atijosan of Eagle Solutions who helped them to make this transition, and explains the reasons why it's often cheaper for schools to go in house.

The inflated costs that are often charged by contractors for their ingredients was one reason why Highshore School in Southwark decided to take their own catering in house. Sheila spoke to business manager Jackie Cheeseman.

Vic Laws, of AVL Consultancy gives an overview of the school catering sector post-Jamie.

To discuss all the above issues Sheila is joined in the studio by Ian El-Mokadem Managing Director of Compass Group, owners of Scolarest the largest private school catering company operating in the UK, Irene Carole chair of the Local Authorities Catering Association and Dr. Michael Nelson head of research at the School Food Trust.

Sheila Dillon looks at school catering after Jamie Oliver's acclaimed TV series.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A hot and healthy daily meal should be taken for granted by all our children and young people. And that's why school meals have been consistently high on the government's agenda, (with a little help from celebrity chefs and dinner ladies). The latest development is a commitment to free school meals for another half a million pupils from low-income families.

Faced with complex new nutritional standards, school cooks all over Britain are pushing the boundaries in finding ways of improving the quality of school dinners, using fresh local produce and working within tiny budgets. And ideas of healthy eating and cooking are filtering their way into the curriculum; cooking clubs are multiplying, and increasing numbers of schools have their own kitchen gardens.

Producer: Sukey Firth.

Sheila Dillon is joined by Jeanette Orrey and Hugh McLennan.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

It's also 10 years since Sheila visited Sweden to see a free school meals system known for nutritious food, where students and teachers dine together. This spring, Tony Mulgrew, Catering manager at Ravenscliffe High School in Halifax and 2014 winner of Best Cook at the BBC Food and Farming Awards, set up an exchange with Lyndon McLeod, school chef in Gislavedin Sweden. Their aim? To bring together school chefs around the world and share ideas on improving school food online.

Our panel also hear from the Copenhagen 'House of Food', an innovative centre that's creating a school food culture in the city where there used to be none.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Can UK school food be made better by learning from abroad? Sheila Dillon investigates.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon joins delegates at the LACA summit to hear both sides of the argument. Previous Chair of LACA Pat Fellows puts the case against the nutrient standards. Joe Harvey, Director of the Health Education Trust and Chair of the Caroline Walker Trust (the body which devised the guidelines on which the nutrient standards are based) defends this attempt to improve children's diets.

Professor Jack Winkler and Sarah Sinclair, of the Nutrition Unit at London's Metropolitan University, recently undertook what appears to be the only independent research ever done in Britain on what school children eat outside the school gates ('fringe eating'), where children graze freely on chips, fizzy drinks and sweets. Sheila and Jack visit a north London high street to observe the fringe and find out what children don't like about school dinners - not, it turns out, the food, but the dining areas, the queues, or the lack of freedom.

Professor Winkler provides examples of successful schemes to provide healthier school fringe food. Eileen Steinbock, Head Nutritionist for Brakes, a catering company who supply restaurants and schools with meals and ingredients, suggests making the types of food children want, but with good ingredients.

Judy Hargadon, chief executive of the School Food Trust, set up by the government in 2005 to promote the education and health of children by improving the quality of food in schools, and the body charged with implementing the new school meal standards, defends the nutrient standards.

Will new meal standards for secondary schools sink the frail school catering sector?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

But in this programme, one of the authors of the School Food Plan says the Government failed to listen to the advice it asked for. Now thousands of primary schools across England face funding cuts which could see them struggling to provide school lunches to tens of thousands of pupils.

Sheila Dillon hears how a Government report on funding food in small schools was never published and asks what the future holds for school food across the UK in an uncertain political climate.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Sheila Dillon investigates why schools are struggling to provide infant free school meals.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

More importantly, given the very public problems that have cropped up in recent months, how can the system be improved and made more sustainable and resilient?

Sheila Dillon brings together a panel of school food visionaries to re-imagine the way we provide meals to pupils across the UK, and consider whether and how we could change the system for the better.

They are Jeanette Orrey - a former dinner lady and winner of the BBC Food and Farming Awards Cook of the Year, now a school meals campaigner and co-founder of Food for Life, an organisation focused on transforming school food and food culture; Nicole Pisani - a former head chef at Yotam Ottolenghi's London restaurant NOPI, now a school chef and co-founder of the organisation Chefs in Schools, bringing together chefs and teachers to change attitudes to school meals and food education; and Christina Adane - a food poverty activist and chair for the Youth Board of BiteBack2030, a youth-led movement on a mission to fight child obesity and give young people access to healthy food and lifestyles.

The panel also hear from past programmes that featured schools doing something special around food provision: St Winnow's School in Cornwall, Logie Primary School in Moray and Washingborough Academy in Lincolnshire.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Lucy Taylor

Photo: Washingborough Academy's Chef Michael Richardson prepares meal boxes for delivery during the pandemic (2020).

Sheila Dillon asks school food visionaries how the system might be improved in future.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Joe digs into the history of this bundle of glory, hears from chefs as they prepare for the big night and finds out why a pub can get packed to the rafters by people clamouring to try a piece of scotch egg heaven.

Presented by Joe Warwick

Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock

iPlayer photo by Laurie Fletcher.

How did the scotch egg rise from humble bar snack to a chef's favourite? Joe Warwick knows

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon and her Scottish producer Robbie Armstrong assess the country's health and food system, and find out what opportunities and hurdles lie ahead as the Good Food Nation Bill is introduced to the Scottish Parliament.

Sheila speaks to Scotland's national chef Gary Maclean about the past, present and future of Scottish cuisine, while Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands Mairi Gougeon sets out what she hopes to achieve with the bill.

She meets Pete Ritchie from the food policy NGO Nourish to hear why he believes the bill does not go far enough and should include a ‘right to food'. She visits social enterprise food business Locavore to speak to its founder Reuben Chesters, before exploring the complexities of food poverty with author of Feed Your Family for £20 a Week, Lorna Cooper.

Robbie heads to his home town in the Scottish Borders to speak to Bosco Santimano from a social enterprise teaching basic cooking skills, and visits Food Punks, a project run by young chefs in the town of Peebles.

Produced by Robbie Armstrong in Glasgow.

Can Scotland become a 'Good Food Nation'? Sheila Dillon explores a new government bill.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The raw ingredient is something of an acquired taste, and knowledge of different seaweeds and their uses is not widespread. However, as Sheila Dillon discovers in this edition of The Food Programme, things are starting to change.

In food cultures such Japan's, seaweeds have long been an important and treasured food. Through the work of people such as Prannie Rhatigan, author of Irish Seaweed Kitchen, people are starting to rediscover how to cook and utilise seaweeds and are looking again out to sea.

With a rise in scientific interest into the unique compounds within seaweeds, appreciation of its unique flavour properties, and trials of its uses as a food fortificant, Sheila asks if seaweed is a food of the future?

Producer: Rich Ward.

Nutritious, tasty but overlooked, Sheila Dillon asks if seaweed is the food of the future?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Pierre Laszlo, a Professor of Chemistry and a full-time writer recalls a walk in the French Alps and the importance of having an orange in your backpack. Professor Laszlo published Citrus a History earlier in 2007.

The FT restaurant critic, Nick Lander is joined by Elena Salvoni at the restaurant L'Etoile in London's West End where Nick reminds us of the important service provided by waiters and waitresses.

Food writer, Elisabeth Luard talks about teff, a grain grown in Ethiopia and probably enjoyed by our earliest ancestors.

Executive chef, Dale Hawkins, based in West Virginia prepares an old family recipe for mincemeat cookies.

And Jason Lowe, food photographer, describes the experience of the Palio horse race held twice a year in Siena in Tuscany and the feast for 1500 that occurs the night before the race.

Food writers, chefs and producers reveal their secret culinary passions.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Could fruit and veg wholesale markets help build a more secure food system in Britain?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The impact Covid-19 has on food supplies explains some of this. Many farmers who supplied restaurants had to quickly start growing different types of food which they could sell into markets that hadn't been shut down. Veg box schemes were also seeing unbelievable levels of demand and needed access to more seed to ensure future supplies.

Lockdown also meant that people gardens were spending more time in them and perhaps experimenting by planting seeds to grow food for the first time. Seed producers became aware that many customers were being motivated by a desire to become more self-sufficient and escape the growing supermarket queues.

With the help of gardener and writer Alys Fowler Dan finds out more about our changing relationship with seeds and the power and autonomy seed saving provides.

Phil Howard, Associate Professor at Michigan State University explains how the global supply of seed now rests in a small number of corporate hands.

In Bristol, Dan meets people who are striving for a new form of food independence during the pandemic, and beginning to grow their own. Another seed producer Fred Groom of Vital Seeds argues that more of us should be saving seeds, growing food and helping to save diversity. He's setting up an online course this summer as a way of recovering some of these lost skills (to find out more go to https://vitalseeds.co.uk/.

For decades, helping to keep the seed saving flame alive in gardens and allotments have been various communities around the UK who have continued to rely on them for fresh food. Among them are people who arrived from the Caribbean in the 1950s. Dan meets two inspirational Jamaican growers, Mr Brown and Leon Walker, both are evangelical about the power of seeds to shape our lives.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon traces the history of plant breeding from neolithic times to today's GM era with Noel Kingsbury, author of Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding. Early examples of tasteless strawberries well suited to the railroad, and fights between farmers and millers over which wheat variety to grow, inform today's battles for control.

Geoff Tansey, co-editor of The Future Control of Food, outlines the changing legal instruments which cover seeds, and which have placed ownership of seeds and genetic material increasingly in private hands, while many of our older, non-commercial breeds are now illegal to sell.

European legislation means only listed varieties can be sold, with a set fee payable irrespective of volume of sales, which hit heritage and non-commercial varieties hardest. One place attempting to preserve them is the Heritage Seed Library at Garden Organic in Ryton, Coventry, who instead arrange seed swaps and a membership system to distribute these seeds. Neil Munro manages the collection.

The desire to grow traditional seeds is now an international movement. Geoff Tansey visited a village seed bank in Jarkand region of India with Gene Campaign Director, Suman Suhai. And new collaborative approaches, like the participatory breeding in Rwanda, bringing farmers back into the breeding debate, may be the answer to developing seeds that suit farmers needs, and that will be able to respond to changing climates.

Who decides what plants we breed, and what effect does it have on the food we eat?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Founded in 1981 the Symposium takes a theme and invites scientists, anthropologists, historians, cooks and food enthusiasts to deliver papers and share experiences on the topic. This year they chose one of the biggest subjects possible, seeds.

Using the Oxford Botanic Garden's 'Plants That Changed The World' display as their backdrop, Dan and Polly have selected six speakers to provide insight into the past, present and future of seeds, from politics to pleasure and from culture to cooking.

Professor Simon Hiscock, Director of The Oxford Botanic Garden, starts of by explaining what a seed is and when they first appeared in earth history. Over millions of years biodiversity has meant we've so far identified 400,000 different plants. Elinor Breman of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank explains why a team of seed hunters have been travelling to the most remote parts of the world in search of seeds. As Elinor explains, a fifth of these seeds are at risk of becoming extinct and need to be stored safely for the future.

All seeds have a story to tell and one of the most intriguing (and disturbing) is told by food historian David Sutton, 'Amaranth: Food of the Gods, or Seed of the Devil?'.

Meanwhile Steve Jones of the Washington Bread Lab describes his efforts to bring deliciousness back to wheat.

Produced by Dan Saladino.

Presented by Dan Saladino & Polly Russell.

Dan Saladino and Polly Russell share seed stories from this year's Oxford Food Symposium.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She has pie, chips and peas and a few drops of ‘the black stuff' with Kane Yeardley who runs pubs and bars in the city, roasts coffee and brews beer with his company True North. Jules Gray from Hop Hideout bottle shop talks about striking out to move to run a bar, Matt Bigland who owns the city's Cutlery Works food hall talks about the regeneration happening north of the city centre and Professor Vanessa Toulmin and Tim Nye sit down for a coffee at Marmadukes caf退 near the famous Crucible Theatre to explain why the future of Sheffield's independents could be opening up in the heart of the city.

Presenter: Leyla Kazim

Producer: Tom Bonnett

Picture: Meat 'N' Tater Pie by Pete McKee

The independent spirit of the early steel works is inspiring change in modern Sheffield

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Before they start to arrive, Nigel Slater drops by to help Sheila prepare. Each visitor will bring a dish, or a drink, that for them captures something unique of the flavours and spirit of the season.

Knocking on Sheila's door are: Giorgio Locatelli, Angela Hartnett, Anna Jones, Pete Brown, Neil Borthwick and Yotam Ottolenghi.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon and very special guests share their favourite Xmas food and drink treats.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

These bivalves are plentiful all around the UK coastline, tied up with the diets and fortunes of coastal communities for millennia. Many species can be efficiently farmed at minimal cost to the environment. Their nutritional value stacks up against mussels and oysters. And yet our desire for these 'uglier' shellfish is at risk of disappearing.

In this programme we meet chefs, fishermen and food thinkers trying to change that. One of Wales's best chefs Nathan Davies put Welsh razor clams on his heat winning fish course on BBC Two's Great British Menu. Fisherman Tom Flatt who thinks there's a sustainable fishing future in hand dived shellfish. Cambridge scientist David Willer whose research could lead to environmentally sound shellfish farms that fight malnutrition across the world. Welsh food writer and thinker Carwyn Graves wants us to dwell on food traditions from the past in order to make our own in the future, and so we hear from people living in the Welsh village of Penclawdd, where cockles have been part of residents' lives for as far back as they can remember.

The problem they all face is the same; How to convince the UK to see past their ugly exterior and put shellfish back on the table.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

The climate conscious food entrepreneurs who want us to think again about ugly shellfish.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Sheila Dillon travels to Shetland.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Simon Parkes drops in on the islanders as they prepare for the weekend's feasting in many different kitchens across the islands. The tables groan with fare, not all of it traditional, as Sunday approaches, and visitors anticipate a weekend of culinary over-indulgence.

Simon Parkes finds out about the traditional Shetland summer Sunday afternooon teas.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme Sheila Dillon delves into the complicated world of palm oil. She hears how the fat made from the fruit of the oil palm has become the world's most used vegetable oil. She speaks to environmentalists, and food producers about the environmental and social impacts the growth of the industry is having worldwide. And hears why avoiding palm oil completely might not be the simple solution that it sounds.

We're making this programme, because so many of you have written to us asking whether you should avoid palm oil, so we help to shed some light.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury

Sheila Dillon asks whether we should avoid buying foods containing palm oil.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The Sicilian citrus farmers who protested in London about the decline of the industry.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Competition from other producing countries like Spain, Egypt and Morocco have placed a centuries old form of farming under threat. In the last twenty years the island has lost 80 per cent of its export market.

The Sicilians believe the answer lies in concentrating on varieties of the blood orange - less well known than the so called 'blondes' such as the Navel or Valencia.

The programme visits an unusual dinner organised by the Slow Food movement on the east coast of Sicily. Every dish in the five course meal uses the island's blood oranges as an ingredient. The president of Slow Food Italy, Roberto Bordese, explains the impact the abandonment of citrus groves is having on the island.

Farmer Concetto Ferrerro explains why he is one of many farmers leaving the orange groves. Land that has been in his family for generations.

The programme also visits the citrus groves of Castello di San Guiliano, near Syracusa, owned by one of Sicily's oldest families, and meets Guillia di San Giuliano. She explains how she has found a different way of putting the citrus crop to use.

Agriculture Minister for Sicily, Giovanni La Via, talks about his ambition for improving sales of Sicilian oranges, by promoting a single variety, the Tarocco.

Sheila Dillon is joined in the studio by Emma Poggi, whose family has been importing Italian fresh produce into the UK since the 1950s, and food campaigner Caroline Cranbrook. They taste and compare the blood orange varieties Moro and Tarocco with a blonde orange variety - the Navel.

Sheila Dillon explores the tradition of orange growing in Sicily.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this first of two special editions, Simon covers his early food memories to his time as a chef, at the height of his powers, in the kitchens of Hilaire and Bibendum restaurants.

Born in Lancashire, Simon Hopkinson was influenced by his parents home cooking and their regular trips to Bury Market. Early memories include the smell of his mother's jugged hare to the sight of black puddings and cheeses on busy market stalls.

In his teens he was committed to a future career in a restaurant kitchen and found work in the nearby Normandie restaurant under the gifted and demanding chef Yves Champea.

By 20 he'd opened his own restaurant and would soon receive awards and high praise from respected guides. In the years that followed he'd work as a restaurant inspector for Egon Ronay and then spend time as a private chef.

By the late 1980's he was back in the restaurant world and one of London's most influential chefs. Sheila Dillon finds out what motivated him throughout and why he was so confident that his life would be one spent in kitchens.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the second part of this interview with Sheila Dillon he explains why he left restaurant cooking behind, focus on writing that led to the 'most useful cookbook of all time'.

Simon describes life as chef at Bibendum restaurant, which counted among its loyal customers Elizabeth David, Dirk Bogarde and Alec Guinness. In 1994, aged only 40, he decided to move on.

For a decade there would be modest sales of his first book, Roast Chicken and Other Stories, and then a magazine poll in 2005 brought it to public attention and soon after, at one point it would be outselling copies of Harry Potter.

Sheila Dillon explores Simon's lifelong fascination with food and cooking and finds out why he no longer wanted to focus on life as a head chef.

Simon Hopkinson explains why he left the success of Bibendum's kitchen to write about food

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon speaks to the 'Severn Sisters' as well as their guests, including former BBC Food & Farming Awards winning Shauna Guinn and Sam Evans, about what it means to be female in food in 2016.

Also interviewed are Eleonora Galasso, Natasha Corrett, Rosie Birkett, Laura Field, Fiona Beckett and Xanthe Clay.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

A female takeover. Sheila Dillon speaks to ten women chefs coming together to fight hunger

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

After meeting the prime minister in the Rose Garden, which is now a bounteous vegetable garden, Ms Steel and Sheila take a walk around London to see the radical changes to the country. She meets Chris Young from the Real Bread Campaign to hear about how the banning of industrial bread has created thousands of jobs in bakeries. Sheila holograms with Stephen Ritz, founder of The Green Bronx Machine, to hear how his pioneering work inspired the prime minister to turn school playing fields into gardens and classrooms into kitchens. And they speak with ‘agriwilding' farmer Rebecca Hosking to see how nature and farming now coexist.

Back in the Rose Garden Sheila interviews the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Patrick Holden - who in 2020 was the chief executive of The Sustainable Food Trust - to question him on how Britain can afford to live in Sitopia without a substantial raise in taxes.

Prime Minister Steel explains how the Good Food Revolution all began after her book ‘Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World' was published in 2020.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Emma Weatherill

This special edition of The Food Programme comes from the year 2030.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

One of the highest profile blogs is 'A Girl called Jack', written by Jack Monroe, a single mum who lives in Southend-On-Sea. Out of work, having complications with benefits and reduced to feeding her small boy Weetabix mashed with water, she went online to share her experience and started writing about food.

What followed was a record of some of the most savvy shopping tips to be found anywhere, from dishes that can be cooked for 27p a portion, through to a forensic guide to every supermarket shelf, freezer cabinet and fresh produce aisle.

In a recent report by Oxfam, the numbers of people now using food banks has reached 500,000, linked, charities say, to recent reforms of the benefits system. The government disputes this link, but food insecurity is increasingly found in every region of the UK.

Others who have taken to writing about their efforts to cook and eat well on low budgets include

Belfast born, now London based, Miss South who along with her brother, who lives in Manchester, Mr North, share recipes and pictures of the food they enjoy. Miss South recently came out as being 'properly poor' in a blog posted last November and her writing has inspired others who need to cook on food budgets hovering between £15 and £20 a week.

The third blogger in the programme is Tony, aka Skint Foodie. Once a high flying, restaurant going professional, his writing documents a determination to eat well despite losing everything to alcoholism.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon meets the cooks who've specialised in making great food on very low incomes.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Cheese! a bi-ennial event, organised by Slow Food, is aimed at keeping traditional raw milk cheese making alive.

Among the hundreds of cheese producers who travelled to the northern Italian town of Bra were three farmers still making artisan Somerset Cheddar. It is a cheese which is still made using raw milk, with a traditional starter and is crafted by hand and matured in lard soaked muslin.

As Sheila finds out the Somerset Cheddar makers have travelled to Bra in a bid to rescue the name of Cheddar from the world of industrial block cheeses now produced all over the world.

Sheila Dillon meets producers of rare and unusual cheeses from around the world.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Rob and Tim are part of a team attempting to save the tradition of gathering native oysters from the Fal Estuary. The oysters are fished in 200-year-old sailing boats as no mechanical power is permitted on the fishery. By taking their catch to Genoa, they hope to raise the profile of the native oyster and create a market that will help ensure the survival of a traditional and sustainable form of fishing.

Two Cornish oyster fisherman travel to the 'Slow Fish' gathering in Genoa.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

It's a time of year when a whole new palette of British produce is ripe and ready to turn into pies, pickles, chutneys, cakes, jams and stews: hearty comfort food to warm and nourish as the weather turns colder.

Autumn is also a season for festive gatherings: with Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night leading swiftly into the frenzied run-up to Christmas, providing plenty of opportunity to eat, drink and be merry - and on November 5th in particular, food traditions abound across the UK; from regional specialities to family favourites.

In this programme, Sheila Dillon heads to North Yorkshire, to gather round a fire with Michelin-starred chef Tommy Bank; cook and food writer Meera Sodha; and chef and restaurateur Andrew Nutter. Together, they keep the autumn chill at bay with a bonfire feast - whilst sharing stories of their seasonal food memories.

From parched peas to parkin, Sheila Dillon explores our Bonfire Night food favourites

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

We hear from producers bringing diverse barbecue and smoking techniques to new audiences, as well as those keeping traditional processes alive.

Leyla Kazim visits Cue Point to hear from Mursal Saiq and Joshua Moroney about their unique ‘British Afghan Fusion BBQ' that brings an inclusive style of smoking to a wider audience while drawing on diverse culinary heritages. Melissa Thompson, writer, cook and author of Motherland, discusses the central role smoke plays in Jamaican cuisine, and why food and history in the Caribbean are so intertwined.

Author of the Barbecue Bible and Project Smoke, Steven Raichlen, traces the history of smoking from its Palaeolithic origins to present day, and argues that cooking with fire was one of the greatest technological advances in the history of humankind.

Helen Graves, editor of Pit Magazine and author of Live Fire, explains why she has made it her mission to champion the broad range of diversity in open fire cooking, and the reasons she tends not to follow the trend of US-style barbecue.

Producer Robbie Armstrong heads to F耀is ̀le, Islay's annual whisky and music festival, to hear about the renaissance of peated whiskies with Ardbeg's visitor centre manager Jackie Thompson. He speaks to Arbroath smokie producer Iain R. Spink about reviving ancient methods on the verge of being snuffed out. Christian Stevenson, better known as DJ BBQ, tracks the popularity of US grilling and smoking in the UK.

Leyla and Robbie sit down to taste some smoky drinks, while pondering the future of traditional methods, and how to balance the world's love for peated whiskies with peatland restoration.

Leyla discovers that while some processes born out of necessity may be less popular today, it's clear the practice of smoking is showing no signs of dissipating.

Presented by Leyla Kazim.

Produced by Robbie Armstrong.

The story of smoke and live fire cooking, from current trends to traditions at risk.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

As Jaega Wise discovers in this programme, it's a world of extremes. On one hand, in the past decade, bartending has become a respectable, profitable career for some. International awards and competitions have thrust people like Monica Berg of London bar Tay?r + Elementary, and Max Hayward of Cardiff's Lab 22 into the media spotlight.

But the other side is darker. Zero hours contracts, long hours, bullying and harassment. And a hospitality industry which is stretched like never before.

In this programme, Jaega Wise speaks to bartenders, business owners and writers to make sense of where the professional bartending world is, and where it's heading.

Presented by Jaega Wise.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Jaega Wise looks at the highs and lows of professional bartending.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Over the past 15 months since the first Coronavirus lockdown forced hospitality to shut down, many businesses have had to adapt to keep going. Some restaurants started selling takeaway, others did 'heat at home' boxes, or meal kits. Many have used the Government furlough scheme, taken advantage of rent holidays, government grants and loans. For some, it's not been enough. Research from CGA and AlixPartners suggests there are now nearly 10% fewer restaurants to choose from than before the pandemic, while analysis from The Local Data Company for The Food Programme suggests certain types of cuisine fared better than others in staying open.

During the programme we meet Oskar Ali, the owner of Falafilo Island, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Newport, which shut down after Christmas because of financial pressures. We also hear from restaurants and cafes around the UK that have been adapting to keep going, including Contini's in Edinburgh, Hangfire in Barry, Fodder in Downpatrick, and Chutney Ivy in Leicester.

Presented by Leyla Kazim

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Leyla Kazim heads to Padstow to discover how restaurants are adapting to new Covid rules.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The City of Philadelphia, along with New York and Pittsburg, is attempting to levy a tax on so called sugar sweetened beverages. The Deputy Mayor of Philadelphia and Health Commissioner, Dr Donald Schwartz believes the link between sugary soda drinks and obesity is strong enough to justify a 2 cents per ounce tax to reduce consumption. A vote on the tax will take place at the end of May.

The American Beverage Association, which represents Pepsico and Coca Cola, strongly disagrees with the soda tax. It argues that it is not the solution to America's obesity problem and has spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress to convince policy makers to reject the idea.

Here, the Food Standards Agency is taking a different approach. It is working with the soft drinks industry to try and remove sugar from the regular brands of soft drink. So far only Pepsico has said it will commit to a 4% sugar reduction target. Sheila asks which of these two strategies will bring the greatest health benefits?

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon asks if a 'health tax' should be placed on sugary soft drinks?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Tim Hayward is passionate that this dish is more than simply an appetiser and keen to stamp out memories of wishy-washy, tasteless broths. Past horrors had made it a laughing stock with 'Brown Windsor Soup' being the punchline of many jokes in the 50s and symbolic of austerity and low-quality catering. He searches out the roots of this much-mocked comic dish, alongside Turtle and Bombay duck varieties, and seeks to clear its name.

Along the way he meets the man who made millions and revolutionised the market with fresh soups which are stealing our hearts from the old tins, gets top tips from the 'Soupsayer' and spins the colour wheel at the pub whose soup is always a mystery but 'never vegetarian'.

Presented by Tim Hayward.

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Tim Hayward asks why the British love soup and searches for the origins of brown Windsor.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Baker Dan de Gustibus explains how the bread is made from a sourdough starter, a mixture of flour and water which is left to ferment until wild yeasts and bacteria start breeding. But there are many myths around this sourdough starter - bakers compete over who can trace back the oldest lineage. Yeast technologist Dr Bill Simpson debunks these myths to explain the truth behind how sourdough works.

And food historian Erica Peters explains why she thinks the famous San Francisco sourdough isn't linked to the Californian Gold Rush, despite its claims.

Presenter by Sheila Dillon and produced by Emma Weatherill.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Jaega Wise explores this love of SPAM with Hawaiian chef Sheldon Simeon. She also meets Becky (Hanguk Hapa) in New Malden to talk about Budae Jjigae (army base stew), a dish born out of necessity, it is now a national comfort food.

SPAM also saw big increases in sales in the pandemic. As well as being a shelf stable and practical food, did our war nostalgia play a part in our renewed interest? Jaega talks to historian Dr Kelly Spring about how SPAM, gifted to Britain during the Second World War by the American's, was initially received.

She also talks to Dr Duane Mellor from Aston University about the science and nutrition of tinned meat.

Archive of Stan Suffling and Walter Price is from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive.

Presenter: Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol by Sam Grist

Jaega Wise investigates the worldwide cultural importance of SPAM.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The British are second only to the Irish in the amount of tea they drink but Henrietta Lovell wasn't convinced they were getting a decent cuppa, so set up the company to bring 'the good stuff' to the nation's mugs, including a surprising new tea from Malawi. African tea is traditionally regarded as low quality commodity tea best used in blended teabags, and lacks the cache of China tea or Indian Darjeeling. Henrietta has been working with a third-generation Malawian tea producer to bring a single estate 'gourmet' tea to the market, fit to rub shoulders with traditional premium teas.

Sheila is joined in the studio by Bill Gorman from the UK Tea Council, which represents all the major tea brands in the UK, and Edward Eisler, founder of internet-based Jing Tea.

Speciality tea is the biggest growth area in the tea sector - so what's the appeal?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The technique of distillation was first devised by Arabs and then embraced by Europeans more 700 years ago. It has given us whiskies, cognacs, Armagnac, and countless other drinks but behind them all lies eau de vie, 'the water of life', the clear spirit that emerges from the tool of the distillers' trade, the still.

The most prized eau de vies are those produced from nothing but fermented fruits such as pears, raspberries, quinces or bilberries. Few drinks are so dependent on landscape, tradition and craft. Often, local wild fruits are gathered, fermented and then heated in a family-owned still.

Sheila Dillon looks at this centuries-old practice of producing eau de vies. It is a tradition now in sharp decline across Europe, but Sheila discovers a brave, lone effort underway in Somerset to revive a British form of this drink.

To help tell the story Sheila is joined by food historian Ivan Day and drinks buyer Sarah Knowles. Reporter Ray Kershaw travels to the valleys of the Vosges mountains of Alsace, on the French border with Germany, to visit one of the surviving family distilleries, and Sheila hears from C Anne Wilson, author of Water of Life: A History of Wine Distilling and Spirits.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A handful of global businesses look after most of the food in Britain's sports venues. Companies like Compass Group and the US-based Aramark have turnovers which run into the billions of pounds, generated in part by the food they sell at sports venues.

Sheila hears about two major sports events, Glorious Goodwood, at which Compass serve burgers made using organic beef produced on the Goodwood estate, and Lord's cricket ground, which decided to go it alone, bring catering in-house and leave the world of contract catering.

With the London 2012 Olympic Games approaching, Sheila asks if these examples of catering at sports venues will be suited to an event at which up to 20 million meals are due to be served.

Sheila Dillon examines the business of food at sports events, from racing to football.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the programme Leyla Kazim visits oatcake bakers in Stoke to hear how they're keeping this much-loved local staple going strong. And we catch up with Glenn Fowler, the owner of the very last traditional ‘hole in the wall' shop which closed in 2012, to find out how this Stoke institution lives on through its recipe. But as demand goes up, this is driving more automated production, so what could that mean for the traditional methods and the long-established recipes? And it is time for this overlooked oatmeal pancake to finally gain nationwide appeal?

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Leyla Kazim asks oatcake bakers about the future of the much-loved yeasted oatmeal pancake

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In hospitality, as restaurants reopen, PR agencies faced with contract cancellations at the start of the pandemic are now being called on to get people back through the doors. They don't use stunts, but publicising the stories of those involved and their recipes can be as effective in drumming up interest. Leyla meets hospitality PR expert Gemma Bell, who was involved in encouraging restaurants to take part in the Eat Out to Help Out Campaign, she says the way they communicate about restaurants over the past 10 years has really changed - and it's no longer just about getting good restaurant reviews.

Plus we hear from one of London's first food influencers @onehungryasian about the role he plays in promoting restaurant businesses, and young food campaigner Dev Sharma tells Leyla how he hopes fast-food brands won't shift their marketing campaigns completely to PR once the laws change on advertising junk food to children.

Presented by Leyla Kazim

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Leyla Kazim finds out how food PR is evolving to get us talking and eating.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Stouts and porters, dark malty beers maybe used to have a reputation of being a bit stuffy but there has been a recent trend of these drinks growing in popularity.

Guinness, the biggest player in the market, has seen a big increase in sales, for a period being the bests selling pint in pubs for the first time. There’s been a big interest in it from young people, there is a whole genre of social media influencers comparing pints and even Kim Kardashian was photographed with one in London last St Patricks day.

In this programme, Jimi Famurewa looks at how a drink that is so ubiquitous and established becomes a cool.

Jimi goes to the wildly popular Devonshire Arms to meet Oisin Rogers and drink the arguably best pint of Guinness in London. The story of dark beer starts with porter in London and Jimi talks to beer writer Laura Hadland about the history of porter and stouts between the UK and Irish capitals.

Adding nitrogen to stout and porter is a huge part of Guinness’s success. Jimi visits Anspach and Hobday, brewers who are taking on Guinness with their own nitro porter, London Black.

Jimi also look at the history of stout and porter in West Africa with Eko brewery who are taking inspiration from the continent including the Guinness brewed in Nigeria.

Social media is a huge part of the interest in Guinness. Jimi sits down with a pint to talk to Ian Ryan who runs the shitlondonguinness Instagram page and has written a book One Man's Search for the Perfect Pint of Guinness, who is credited in having a big part in this trend.

Produced in Bristol by Sam Grist

Jimi Famurewa finds out why stouts and porters like Guinness are having a bit of a moment.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Stouts and porters, dark malty beers maybe used to have a reputation of being a bit stuffy but there has been a recent trend of these drinks growing in popularity.

Guinness, the biggest player in the market, has seen a big increase in sales, for a period being the bests selling pint in pubs for the first time. There’s been a big interest in it from young people, there is a whole genre of social media influencers comparing pints and even Kim Kardashian was photographed with one in London last St Patricks day.

In this programme, Jimi Famurewa looks at how a drink that is so ubiquitous and established becomes a cool.

Jimi goes to the wildly popular Devonshire Arms to meet Oisin Rogers and drink the arguably best pint of Guinness in London. The story of dark beer starts with porter in London and Jimi talks to beer writer Laura Hadland about the history of porter and stouts between the UK and Irish capitals.

Adding nitrogen to stout and porter is a huge part of Guinness’s success. Jimi visits Anspach and Hobday, brewers who are taking on Guinness with their own nitro porter, London Black.

Jimi also look at the history of stout and porter in West Africa with Eko brewery who are taking inspiration from the continent including the Guinness brewed in Nigeria.

Social media is a huge part of the interest in Guinness. Jimi sits down with a pint to talk to Ian Ryan who runs the shitlondonguinness Instagram page and has written a book One Man's Search for the Perfect Pint of Guinness, who is credited in having a big part in this trend.

Produced in Bristol by Sam Grist

Jimi Famurewa finds out why stouts and porters like Guinness are having a bit of a moment.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This castaway coastal feast is something of a tribute to the 300th anniversary of the publication of Daniel Defoe's novel, a story itself inspired by the experience of a Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk who in 1705 survived for four years on a remote and uninhabited island in the Pacific.

Selkirk survived on wild cabbages, shellfish and goat meat, Dan and his forager friends try and recreate something of the sailor's desert island menu. But during their expedition an unexpected guest arrives on the beach, a real life, modern day Robinson Crusoe.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino is on a beach for a Robinson Crusoe experience. Can he survive on wild food?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

First they meet Manjit Kaur and Michael Jameson from Manjit's Kitchen in Leeds. Manjit and Michael started by doing home deliveries of vegetarian traditional Punjabi food and now have a permanent home in Kirkgate market as well as a horsebox they use to serve across the country.

The Bees Country Kitchen in Chorley is run by Sarah and Mike Bryan. The Bees serve a huge array of dishes from Chorley Market including vegan and healthy meals. They have a huge commitment to using local produce and serving their community.

The Old Granary Pierogi in Herefordshire is run by Emilia Koziol-Wisniewski, husband Piotr and brother Jacek Koziol. They talk about the difficulty they had as immigrants coming to this country and starting their business selling traditional Polish food when hardly anyone knew what it was.

Nigel also talks to Mark Laurie from The Nationwide Caterers Association (NCASS) about how the industry has changed even in a short amount time as well as what we can expect in the future.

Presented by Nigel Barden

Produced in Bristol by Sam Grist.

Nigel Barden investigates the rapidly evolving world of street food in 2018.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The judges had the challenge of travelling and eating their way around the three finalists very different stories in what turned out to be something of a 'food road trip' .

Charles and Valentine, find out about north African cooking cuisine with The Moroccan Soup stand team in west London, they talk authentic Indian dishes at Inder's Kitchen in Cambridge, and if it's acceptable to have strawberry jam in a Bakewell Tart at The Pudding Stop, a small team who bake desserts and then sell them from in a van parked outside a train station.

After the journey both Charles and Valentine have to decide a winner.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Valentine Warner and Charles Campion eat with the Food Award's 'Best Takeaway' finalists.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Lucinda Montefiore.

What food do students have access to, what do they eat? Sheila Dillon investigates.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon meets the farmers who turned around their own failing pig rearing business 34 years ago by carving out a new market for themselves, supplying suckling pigs to Chinese restaurants. Reporter Ray Kershaw visits Barry, Gillian and Richard Pugh of Pughs Piglets to find out about their business, where now 40 per cent of their activities are directed at the mainstream restaurant market.

She traces our own British suckling pig heritage with food historian Ivan Day; historically it was suckling pig we ate, not full grown ones, and we also had a taste for many other juvenile birds and animals.

Sheila also visits China Tang at the Dorchester Hotel, where whole suckling pigs are a regular feature of the dining room, and a traditional part of Chinese wedding feasts. She speaks to Fuchsia Dunlop, a BBC journalist and award-winning author of several books on Chinese food, and Steve Downey, founder of Chef Direct, who supplies suckling pigs to English restaurants, about their potential for the future.

Suckling pigs fell out favour in Britain centuries ago, but are they ready for a comeback?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Robert H. Lustig is a paediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco. A lecture he gave on sugar has attracted more than three million hits. He makes a case that sugar is problematic, not just because it contains calories, but because the fructose component of sucrose interacts with our bodies in a very specific way.

His claim that sugar not only causes obesity but a wide range of other conditions including type 2 diabetes, is disputed, but he's succeeded in capturing public attention. Sheila Dillon speaks to Robert Lustig about his research, and she explores other reasons why sugar is back in the headlines.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Joining Sheila around a Monmouthshire campfire are BBC 6Music presenter Cerys Matthews, author of 'How to Eat Outside' Genevieve Taylor, forager and wild drinks teacher Andy Hamilton, Matthew De Abaitua - author of 'The Art of Camping: The History and Practice of Sleeping Under the Stars', and Josh Sutton - who has just written a book called 'Outdoor Ovens' and is also known as the Guyrope Gourmet.

Produced by Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon, Cerys Matthews and friends go camping to celebrate food in the outdoors.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Marine Stewardship Council (or MSC) Chief Executive, Rupert Howes explains the principles of MSC's certification.

Sheila visits Hastings to meet fisherman Paul Joy. They catch MSC Dover sole, herring and mackerel, but are currently receiving no premium for these fish, which are not being sold on by local wholesalers as MSC. Only local restaurants and businesses are paying a premium, including Rock-A-Nore Fishmongers, where Sheila speaks to Sonny Elliot.

The fishermen are forming their own co-operative to sell on their MSC fish as MSC, and their first client is the Dutch company Fishes who will take all the MSC Dover sole. Sheila talks to Ren退 Turing from Fishes.

In the studio Sheila and Rupert Howes are joined by Mike Parker, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Young's, which has been selling fish for 200 years, Andrew Mallison, a marine scientist at Marks and Spencer, this year awarded joint top retailer by the MSC for their fish buying policies.

And finally Sheila and Paul Joy sample the freshly caught mackerel in Pissaro's, one of the 2 local restaurants registered to handle MSC fish.

Sheila Dillon investigates the pursuit of a sustainable fishing policy.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The Nottingham City Hospital has been sourcing sustainably for 7 years, buying its meat and vegetables from local farmers. Food is fresher, higher quality, and no more expensive, and now over half the money the hospital spends on food goes into the local economy, benefitting local suppliers like dairy wholesalers Transfresh, and butchers Owen Taylor.

Also 7 years ago Nottinghamshire County Council began its process of sourcing its school meals food sustainably, and has now achieved Silver Standard under the Soil Association Food for Life Partnership scheme. Donna Baines, School Food Development Manager, met Simon in Maloney's butchers, which now supplies all their meat, with Alison Maloney and Jeanette Orrey, school meals campaigner, to discuss the impact of these changes on the food, their finances, and the threats posed by the current spending review. The service is currently being 'market tested' with a view to potential privisation. Conservative Councillor Andy Stewart explains what that might mean.

In the studio to discuss the Bill are Labour MP Joan Walley (Stoke on Trent North) who tabled the Private Members Bill; Tony Cooke Government Relations Director of catering service provider Sodexo; and Kath Dalmeny, Policy Director of Sustain, which runs the Good Food for Our Money campaign.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Can we afford new standards in public food? Simon Parkes finds out.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sicilian food writer Eleonara Consoli describes three Sicilian examples of agro-dolce including Caponata.

Sheila Dillon is joined by food critic, author, publisher and editor of The Oxford Companion to Food, Tom Jaine, who explains how versions of sweet and sour cooking can be traced back to the ancient Romans.

Chef and author, David Thompson, who runs London's Nahm Restaurant, Europe's only Michelin-starred Thai restaurant, describes how sweet and sour is used in the central plains of Thailand by preparing a red chicken curry with madan leaves.

Dr David Kilcast from Leatherhead Food International and Professor Peter Barham a physicist and author of The Science of Cooking explain some of the science behind sweet and sour.

Simon Parkes visits Skye Gingell at the kitchens of the Petersham Nurseries restaurant in Richmond, Surrey where she demonstrates her modern take on sweet and sour cooking.

Sheila Dillon is then joined in the studio by author Fuchsia Dunlop who prepares an authentic Chinese sweet and sour pork dish and compares it with a supermarket ready meal version.

Sheila Dillon explores sweet and sour, one of the most enduring flavour combinations.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila speaks to sweet makers Freya Sykes and Steven Bletsoe who are giving new life to a forgotten sweet and an old family recipe. She looks at the state of the confectionery market today with help from The Grocer magazine, and Jeremy Dee, Managing Director of family sweets firm Swizzels. And sweets historian Tim Richardson shares a bag of sweets with Sheila that cast light on a long history of sweetness in the UK.

Sheila asks what's still driving our love affair with sweeties - young and old, old and new.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Sheila Dillon asks what is still driving British people's love affair with sweets.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Fabio Parasecoli, Professor of Food Studies at the New York University explains why Chestnuts were so important to the Italian region of Abruzzo and how he still makes his Grandmother's Chestnut and Chickpea soup on Christmas Eve. Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust in Dartington sells 750Kg of Chestnuts a season and explains why he would like UK producers to challenge the imports from Italy, France, Portugal and increasingly, China, and Simon Melik from Besana UK gives an overview on the industry.

Producer: Toby Field

Rachel Roddy and Sheila Dillon share their love of sweet chestnuts.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

How do they do it?

Sheila visits the Venus Beach Caf退 at Blackpool Sands and talks to Mike Smith

Sheila visits the Well Hung Meat Company and talks to owner Geoff Sayers and manager Graeme Roy.

Sheila visits Occombe Farm outside Paignton, set up on a site of special scientific interest on land managed by the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust. She talks to Dominic Acland who is in charge of the whole enterprise.

Sheila talks to Henry Dimbleby, one of the three founders of fast food takeaway, Leon.

Sheila visits Andy Maunder of Lloyd Maunder, West Country growers and producers of The Devonshire Red, specialist poultry.

Sheila Dillon visits some of the new takeaways and discusses the implications.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Tom Bonnett

Stepping into a 'dark kitchen', Sheila Dillon sees how takeaway is changing food culture.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

All of which goes some way towards explaining why, over just one month of lockdown, the UK spent an extra £19 million on biscuits, according to market research firm Kantar; and why baking biscuits helped keep so many of us sane during what's been a tough year.

But there is more to the humble biscuit than comfort. This is a food that helped shape wartime rations, that was front and centre of Britain's factory revolution, that formed the basis for an industry that employed thousands and shaped neighbourhoods - and today, remains a key component of the UK's food manufacturing and trade sectors.

So what's the secret to their success? Sheila Dillon finds out.

Produced by Lucy Taylor for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Sheila Dillon considers how the humble biscuit's become a beloved British institution.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

What are the tastes that have assailed our senses through the ages? Was the arrival of spices one of the most significant events in culinary history? Sheila Dillon explores these issues and is joined in the studio by Prof Paul Freedman, editor of 'Food: a History of Taste' and author of 'Out of the East' - and by chef Gerard Baker who experiments with a blend of fresh spices.

What is taste and how does it develop? And, which tastes will blow the mind?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In 2006 a director of the festival Annie Menter had the idea of asking musicians if they could tell food stories from their home country and cook a dish linked to their food culture.

More than a decade on it's become a format that used at Womad events all over the world, providing fascinating and delicious insights into the connections between food and music and the evolution of dishes around the world.

Find out what happens when you mix Turkish psychedelia with dumplings and what a Yoik served with Sami bread involves.

The artists and their food.

Anandi Bhattacharya (Bengal, India) Chicken Rezala.

Nimba, (West Africa), Fish in peanut sauce

Rura (Scotland) Cullen Skink and Mince and Tatties.

Marja Mortensson (Norway) Sami stew with Sami bread.

Baba Zula (Turkey) Manti beef dumplings

Maija Kauhanen (Finland) Blueberry Pie.

Presented and produced by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino is at the Womad festival's Taste The World stage, where music meets foods.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Are you seduced by food imagery in literature, and lured into rash purchases by the purple prose of food packaging?

This, then, is the programme for you!

Sheila Dillon is joined by author, poet and presenter of Radio 4's 'Word of Mouth', Michael Rosen, to discuss the origins and impacts of food language: from the everyday idioms that hark back to ancient dietary habits, to the seductive language of advertising.

Exploring food language in various forms, they hear from Dan Jurafsky, a professor of linguistics and computer science at Stanford University and author of ‘The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu'; Melissa Thompson, a food and drink writer who runs the recipe sharing project Fowl Mouths, and advocates for the promotion of black and minority ethnic voices in the food industry; and Dinah Fried, author of ‘Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals'.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Lucy Taylor in Bristol

* * *

The literary excerpts featured in this programme are from:

- Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen (from his YouTube channel)

- Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

- This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams

- Hot Food by Michael Rosen

Sheila Dillon and Michael Rosen consider the power and persuasion of food language.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Now many more varieties can be trialled, grown and marketed in the UK. But with the emphasis on quality and flavour rather than quantity, can they ever compete with Spanish imports?

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Sheila Dillon explores the world of the modern British tomato. Has flavour made a return?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Dan Saladino and produced in Bristol.

Dan Saladino investigates tea's past, present and future and explores our changing tastes.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan catches up with the BBC's South Asia Correspondent Justin Rowlatt, who has reported on conditions for tea workers in Assam, India. He also discovers a world of 'rock-star' tea growers and learns how to tell the difference between CTC and orthodox tea - and why it matters.

There is also advice on how to make a 'nice cup of tea' from... George Orwell.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Do we pay enough for tea? Dan Saladino continues his look at our love affair with the leaf

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Leyla sits down for lunch with Michael O'Shea from the restaurant recommendation app Jacapo, ‘the social network for people who love food,' to hear why he thinks apps like his have the potential to reshape the way people find new places to eat.

She meets Jonathan Nunn from online magazine Vittles in Green Lanes, North London, where they discuss the rapid trajectory of lists and map-based recommendations, and what these developments mean for the changing landscape of food media in the UK.

We get the thoughts of three restaurant critics on the subject: The Telegraph's William Sitwell, The Evening Standard's Jimi Famurewa and Elite Traveler magazine's Andy Hayler.

In Glasgow producer Robbie Armstrong meets Julie Lin at her restaurant Ga Ga, where she talks about the way apps and tech now give restaurateurs instant feedback, and why she welcomes the social media reviewer as much as the classic critic.

In Edinburgh, Robbie sits down for lunch with The Times Scotland Restaurant critic Chitra Ramaswamy to hear why she welcomes the democratisation of food reviewing. She outlines why critics continue to play a crucial role, and explains the ethics behind her approach to criticism.

Social media influencers mvlondonreviews discuss the blurred lines that can emerge between restaurants and social media reviewers, and the reasons they set clear boundaries before a review.

Finally, The Palmerston's James Snowdon recounts the game-changing power a restaurant critic still holds.

Presented by Leyla Kazim.

Produced by Robbie Armstrong.

How lists, maps and apps are transforming restaurant reviewing and food writing.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Drinks writer Alice Lascelles guides us through the drinks makers; an experimental brewer from Leeds, a distiller based on the east coast of Scotland and a cider and perry producer from Herefordshire.

Genevieve Taylor describes the street food offer this year, including a pie shop team who bake in the shadow of Liverpool FC's Anfield Stadium and a fish and chip shop in Nottingham run by a former chef.

Barney Desmazery explains the finalists in the inaugural Pat Llewellyn Award set up to recognise young talent in the food world, including two young doctors working to increase the amount of nutrition training in their profession and a young entrepreneur who has devised an ingenious solution to food waste in restaurants.

Presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino selects ten of the remaining food and drink ideas from the 2019 Foods Awards.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She travels to Turin for Terra Madre, the biannual gathering of food communities, farmers, fishermen and cooks organised by the international Slow Food movement. Among the 6000 delegates who'd travelled from 160 countries are people from indigenous communities like the Sami, nomadic arctic reindeer herders as well as native American rice harvesters, the Ojibwe.

Scientists, agriculturalists and nutritionists are now taking more interest in these traditional cultures seeing them as valuable models of sustainable food production and offering fresh insights into human diets.

But many of these food cultures are under threat because of disputes over land rights, prejudice and climate change and so work is underway to understand, document and support these communities. Sheila meets the people involved in making this happen.

Producer Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon hears from some of the world's disappearing food tribes.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Last month, 250,000 people from 160 countries gathered at a former Olympic venue in Turin to taste and celebrate diverse foods and to discuss and debate the issues affecting the world's food.

Jamie Oliver shows Dan around the Ark of Taste - a collection of 2,000 traditional foods which are in danger of extinction. Edie Mukiibi, Vice President of Slow Food International, explains the impact of the project 10,000 Food Gardens in Africa.

Northern Irish chef Paula McIntyre cooks with chefs from Uganda. Dr Geoff Andrews from The Open University explains the political roots of Terra Madre. And Richard McCarthy tells Dan about projects from Slow Food USA - including 'nose-to-tailgating'.

Presented by Dan Saladino and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

Terra Madre: Bringing the world together through food. Presented by Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Terra Madre (aka Mother Earth) is probably one of the world's biggest gatherings around food. Thousands of farmers, cooks and producers travel from 140 countries and five different continents to congregate in the northern Italian city of Turin.

Hundreds of thousands of people simply interested in food also travel from Italy and beyond to join in the spectacle; to watch events, join discussions and (importantly) experience the most diverse range of food and drink imaginable.

The biannual event is organised by the international Slow Food movement to raise awareness about issues around food and drink and to celebrate the diversity of food cultures around the world. It is also a unique opportunity to hear inspirational stories of how people produce and cook food.

Dan Saladino was there to collect as many stories as he could from around the world. Over two editions of The Food Programme he tells highlights from Terra Madre.

In this first programme the focus is on Africa and features the story of three people who in their home countries are trying to make a positive change through food.

The first comes from a village thousands of metres up within the highlands of south-eastern Ethiopia, Rira. There, honey producers use bamboo to create bee hives. They smoke the bark of a tree to 'perfume' the hive and attract the bees. These long bamboo tubes are coated in leaves, sealed with animal manure and then placed 25m high up in trees among the rainforest canopy.

In recent years the honey they collect has been sold to the producers of a honey wine in Ethiopia which is both traditional and popular. However the prices paid for this hard to get honey have been low.

Terra Madre is an opportunity for producers around the world to meet and exchange ideas and over the years the Rira villagers have met honey producers from Macedonia, Brazil, Japan and Indonesia. From this 'knowledge exchange' the Rira were able to set up a co-operative, improve the quality of the honey and sell it in Ethiopia's biggest towns and cities. This has meant more people are now able to make a real living from honey production and remain in the village (and important opportunity when the country is seeing large numbers leave rural areas and move to the cities).

The second story comes from Uganda and is told by Edward Mukiibi who oversees Slow Food projects in the country. One of the most important involves the world's (and the UK's) most popular fruit, the banana. In Uganda 50 different varieties are used on a daily basis. Some are used to brew beers or distil drinks that feature in ceremonies.

The banana we know well in the UK is the Cavendish, the variety that has dominated the global trade for more than half a century. The fungal, Panama disease, has had an impact on Cavendish plantations around the world leading to reduced production in Australia and Asia. In Africa, more Cavendish plantations are being established. Edward explains in the programme why he's now on a mission to save Uganda's traditional banana varieties and protect the country's biodiversity.

The final story from Sierra Leone and is that of the experience of a child soldier who was involved in the violent civil war that tore the country apart in the 1990's. Ibrahim was abducted by the RUF rebel force at the age of nine. As he explains to Dan, he was involved in atrocities and had to fight against the government's forces in armed combat. For seven years he lived and fought with this rebel army. When he finally managed to escape he was rejected by his community. It became clear his return wouldn't would easy and forgiveness hard to win.

In the programme Ibrahim describes how food and farming was the key to his eventual redemption.

Presented and produced by Dan Saladino.

Photo: Carla Capalbo.

A former child soldier from Sierra Leone tells Dan Saladino how food provided redemption.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Polly and Ashley hear how these projects have become part of a food and farming system for Thailand. A food system that's unique in the world, but could provide a model for current opium growing regions. They hear how by growing Western vegetables, flowers and fruits and farming fish, a new supply chain for some of Thailand's finest restaurants is being developed which doesn't rely on expensive imports. Polly visits 'Gaggan' in Bangkok, recently voted best restaurant in Asia, by '50 Best Restaurant Awards' for the second year running, to discover how some of the best chefs in the world are working with the Royal Project.

Presented by Dr Polly Russell & Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

How a 50-year-old food and farming project has helped rid Thailand of illegal opium.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan is joined by Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King's College London, and author of The Diet Myth - The Real Science Behind What We Eat. Tim tells the story of how he became fascinated by the gut microbiome and our diet.

The programme also features a Dutch draper named Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, co-founder of the American Gut Project Jeff Leach, evolutionary biochemist Dr Nick Lane, and Alexandre Meybeck - a Senior Officer at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Dan Saladino discovers the gut microbiome, to find that food will never be the same again.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Featuring Tim Spector, author of The Diet Myth, Jeff Leach, co-founder of the American Gut Project, microbiome scientist Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, food professor and author Ken Albala, and DJs Lisa and Alana Macfarlane - aka The Mac Twins.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Dan Saladino's further adventures into the world of food and the gut microbiome.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila and Pete are joined at Otter Farm by its owner - food grower and writer Mark Diacono. From the Hoary Morning to the Bramley's Seedling to the Old Somerset Russet, from Kazakhstan to Paganism to the Garden of Eden - this is a celebration of a fruit with an incredible story to tell and with a unique place both in Britain, and the world.

Please note: the podcast of this programme is a special extended edition.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon in conversation with Pete Brown on magic, mystery and Britishness of apples.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

It was started in the 1990s when a group of Italian Slow Food campaigners realised the flavour of a traditional street food snack had changed. The reason was that chefs could no longer source a local variety of pepper. It's led to thousands of people all over the world submitting their local traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables, rare breeds of livestock, cheeses and other products into the Ark.

As the leader of the project Serana Milano explains it's not just a list. Once an ingredient is placed in the catalogue work begins to find ways of saving it. An early example was a traditional cheese that was being made by one elderly producer. The Ark project led to a group of young producers learning how to make the cheese and so the recipe and technique has been kept alive.

Slow Food is now working with the European Commission, United Nations and Google to record the stories from the Ark of Taste and support projects to keep food diversity thriving around the world.

As Dan explains earlier examples of this work can be found across the UK going back more than a century. Writers including Florence White (Good Things In England), Dorothy Hartley (Food in England) and F. Marian McNeill (The Scots Kitchen) and researchers such as Minwell Tibbott (Welsh Folk Museum) made records of how we produced food and cooked in earlier times.

Presented and produced by Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The gathered stories all come from the Ark of Taste; an ever-growing list of endangered foods from 100 different countries across the world. Created by the International Slow Food movement, the food NGO founded in Italy 30 years ago, the Ark of Taste is backed by the United Nations as well as the European Union. As the biblical reference indicates, this Ark is on a mission to prevent extinction and protect biodiversity.

The Food Programme is about to start a new mini series of stories found within the Ark of Taste. Each week - in Monday's edition of The Food Programme - listeners can hear about an ingredient or recipe, find out why it is disappearing and why it is important to save. But before he unveils a new batch of forgotten flavours, Dan Saladino plays out some of his favourite stories from our last series.

Produced by Becky Ripley.

Dan Saladino revisits highlights from our regular mini-series of endangered world foods.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

This year the judging will be lead by former Masterchef winner, and founder of the Mexican restaurant chain, Thomasina Miers.

In this programme, Jaega Wise meets Thomasina at one of her London restaurants to discuss how she plans to approach judging, and she chats to Sheila Dillon about how the awards came about, and why she believes they are still so vital.

This year the awards will all have a climate first theme, plus listen out for an announcement of a brand new award for 2023.

You can nominate people and businesses you know and love for the BBC Food & Farming Awards, just visit bbc.co.uk/foodawards where you can also find the terms and privacy notice. Nominations close 19 June at 23:59

Presented by Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Get your entries in now for the BBC Food and Farming Awards 2023!

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon calls on Genevieve Taylor - a food writer, food stylist and presenter with an affinity for the outdoors that's led to books including How to Eat Outside, The Ultimate Wood Fired Oven Cookbook and most recently Charred: a guide to vegetarian grilling and barbecue. She's also the host for today's programme, with a garden packed full of more barbecues and outdoor ovens than your could shake a sausage at.

Joining Sheila and Genevieve for some flame-grilled fun are Christian Stevenson, otherwise known as DJ BBQ: a presenter and barbecue fanatic with a YouTube channel boasting more than 175-thousand subscribers, whose latest publication - The Burger Book - came out earlier this year; and Samantha Evans, one half of the barbecuing duo The Hang Fire Girls: a pair of friends who took a road trip across America in 2012 which fired their enthusiasm for US-style barbecue, and who now run the hugely popular Hang Fire Southern Kitchen in Barry, Wales. They've also written The Hang Fire Cookbook: Recipes & Adventures in American BBQ.

Their mission today isn't just to create a fabulous, inspirational barbecue feast, but to answer all our listeners' grilling questions and help banish boring barbecues for good!

Helping them out with a bit of specialist advice are the American author Harold McGee, who wrote the renowned book 'On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen'; the London-based chef, restaurateur and food writer Yotam Ottolenghi; and Jack Adair Bevan, an award-winning food and drink writer, co-author of The Ethicurean Cookbook and more recently author of 'A Spirited Guide to Vermouth: An Aromatic Journey with Botanical Notes, Classic Cocktails and Elegant Recipes'.

Presented by Sheila Dillon; produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Sheila joins a group of grilling gurus to address listeners' barbecue queries

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

There are an estimated 25 million casks in Scotland, mostly filled with Scotch whisky. Although their contents could not be more Scottish, the casks themselves are generally not. We find out why most in fact originate in the United States, and from one State in particular.. Kentucky.

Jaega speaks to Scottish distillers about why they use second-hand casks for maturation, how different varieties of oak can impart different flavours, and why some are keen to get more Scottish oak casks in use. She meets beer brewers, who are using oak to create new flavours for a new generation of drinkers keen to try alternative flavours. And she hears why English wine makers might prefer to age in oak compared with vintners in warmer climates.

Plus as the number of coopers in the UK starts to creep up again after years of decline, Jaega meets one of William Grant and Sons' newest recruits. Dylan Carter worked as a chef before being furloughed during the Covid pandemic, and has recently successfully become an apprentice cooper.

Presented by Jaega Wise

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Jaega Wise hears how oak barrels continue to thrive in the drinks industry.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme, our judges meet a Northern Irish farmer who went from never trying salami to producing award winning charcuterie in a year. They visit a local deli and cafe owned by a fisherman who has spent his life catching eels and salmon on the Severn. And speak to the founders of a brewery devoted to making great tasting beers with less than 0.5% alcohol.

In the first of two editions of The Food Programme, we celebrate our BBC Food and Farming Awards 'school of 2018'.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

From Belfast via Barrow-in-Furness to Brighton. Sheila Dillon meets our 2018 finalists.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Rick Stein, Giorgio Locatelli, Angela Hartnett, Yotam Ottolenghi and this year's head judge Andi Oliver join Sheila Dillon to launch 2018's search for the best in UK food, drink and farming; the BBC Food & Farming Awards 2018. Sheila celebrates the impact of previous award winners and reveals the expert panel of judges who'll crown the Food and Farming Awards 'Class of 2018'. But it all begins with your nominations...

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced by Clare Salisbury

NB. The BBC Food & Farming Awards will open for public nominations on Sunday 14th January for 2 weeks, closing on Monday 29th January. Details can be found at bbc.co.uk/foodawards.

Rick Stein, Andi Oliver and Yotam Ottolenghi launch the BBC Food & Farming Awards 2018.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Sheila Dillon and judges Asma Khan and Michael Caines open nominations.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila is joined by Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett to catch up with some of the recent winners and nominees. With insights from last year's winners of the Best Food Producer award - Loch Arthur Creamery - to the Best Market - Bolton - we hear why the awards make a real difference.

Valentine Warner and Pete Brown, both new to the judging team this year, give their take on the Drinks Producer and Market categories, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, also a winner in 2011, explains why these awards really do matter.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon launches the search for the winners of the 2012 BBC Food and Farming Awards.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

From the UK's Best Food market to the Best Drinks Producer, The Food Programme explains how to get involved and nominate your very own food hero. Sheila will be catching up with the previous year's winners to find out what happened next, and she'll also be explaining why 2014 is a particularly important year for us all to share our food stories and experiences with the judges.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon, Richard Corrigan and Valentine Warner launch the BBC Food & Farming Awards.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Carbohydrates - friend or foe?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Toby Field.

Tim Hayward travels the UK to meet the people who champion rare breeds of British pigs.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

A brewer's guide to modern cider.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.

Tim Hayward on the very latest in meat and fire.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

For many, including Dan, champagne is a drink purely of fun and celebration, a glass of bubbles most often enjoyed standing up; popping a cork has played a part in countless moments and memories of joy. But to others, it's also increasingly being treated as a serious wine, that as with the world's best bottles, can offer a sense of place, and that behind the fizz champagne can also be a wine of 'terroir'.

Dan is taken on a road trip through the Champagne region to meet a movement of small scale, vineyard driven 'grower champagnes' by award winning wine writer Dan Keeling of the magazine Noble Rot. Influenced by the approach more often found in Burgundy and Bordeaux they're using specific vineyards to produce great wines that just happen to have bubbles.

As wine merchant Robert Walters, author of Bursting Bubbles: A Secret History of Champagne and The Rise of the Great Growers explains in the programme champagne was a product of the scientific and industrial revolutions.

Initially an unwanted accident in winemaking in the 18th century, this sparkling wine became a popular novelty feature across Europe. However it would take 200 years to master the bubbles.

The complex process of secondary fermentation of wine in bottles needed a huge amount of technical innovation and capital investment. From stronger glass bottles to muselet (the wire cage that helps to hold the cork in under great pressure), better understanding of fermentation and skills such as riddling, disgorgement and dosage all needed to be mastered and funded. This explains why champagne production fell under the control of the big houses, the 'Grand Marques' e.g. Krug, Dom Perignon and Bollinger. These brands, also known as negociant houses, typically buy in grapes and wine from thousands of growers throughout the Champagne region and then make a blend in their house style.

Dan and Dan visit Krug, one of the most prestigious Grand Marques, to hear how this model works.

Meanwhile, from humble beginnings in the 1990s, a small group of growers have taken a different approach. They've decided to stop selling their grapes to the negociant houses and produce their own champagnes that are very much the product of their vineyards. Dan Keeling takes Dan on a tour of some of the best 'grower champagnes' to see if this can convert a bubble sceptic into a lover of fizz.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Additional reading;

Bursting Bubbles: A Secret History of Champagne and The Rise of the Great Growers - Robert Walters.

Champagne: The Essential Guide to the Wines, Producers and Terroirs of the Iconic Region - Peter Liem.

Champagne sceptic Dan Saladino heads to the French region in search of mavericks of fizz.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Charlotte Smith puts down her Kit Kat to ask what the future holds for chocolate

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The food writer and broadcaster Anthony Bourdain has described Jeremiah Tower as a 'dangerous person to know', to others he's the Jay Gatsby figure of the restaurant world. Born in the USA, brought up in Australia and England, his childhood was, on first appearances, a privileged one. He was born into a world of wealth, travel and a first class lifestyle. It was also however, strange and difficult with a mother and father who were often detached and uninterested in their young son. As he got to experience more of the world's best restaurants, hotels and ocean liners he sought comfort and pleasure in food, kitchens and cooking.

At age 30, following studies at Harvard which resulted in a failed career as an architect, he answered a job advertisement to work in California's Chez Panisse restaurant, founded by the cook of America's counter culture Alice Waters. Both the restaurant and Jeremiah's cooking would become world famous.

In 1984 he set up his own restaurant in San Francisco, Stars, which went on to become one of the most celebrated and lucrative restaurant in America. Jeremiah's approach to breaking free from French influences and cooking with local ingredients would go on to influence chefs and restaurants around the world. Evenings at Stars would become the stuff of legend with diners ranging from Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn to Pavarotti and the Beastie Boys.

Just over a decade later Jeremiah Tower would put down his apron and walk away. Dan Saladino tells his story.

Jeremiah Tower changed the idea of what a chef could be. Dan Saladino tells his story.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Born in New York, this gifted engineer and mathematician left Manhattan in his twenties to explore the Caribbean. He ended up in Grenada, fell in love with cocoa and with a local drink, 'cocoa tea'.

Despite this chocolate tradition and Grenada having some of the finest cocoa trees in the world, farmers were leaving the land and abandoning their crop because of low prices. Mott Green took it upon himself to change that.

By using hand built machines and creating a co-operative, Mott managed to build a chocolate factory in a tropical climate, the first time this had been done. Sales of his quality bars grew and cocoa farming on the island once again became profitable.

His success was documented in a film, Nothing Like Chocolate, and he was celebrated in Grenada as someone who had not only made a big impact on the island's economy but also changed thinking about chocolate around the world.

Tragically, shortly after the Food Programme recorded with Mott Green he was killed in an accident as he was repairing some equipment. The programme follows him through the chocolate making process and as he embarked on a three month voyage transporting his bars across the Atlantic using only wind and solar power.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

The story of Mott Green, Grenadian cocoa farmer, who tried to change the chocolate world.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon talks to Joanna Blythman, in her first broadcast interview about her new book 'Swallow This' in which she investigates some of the processes involved in making products taste and look good and last longer and her concerns about the ingredients and the secrecy that often surrounds them. We hear reports from food development teams about how they find new ways to produce food and ask the regulators if we can be sure they're safe.

Photo by Alan Peebles.

Sheila Dillon asks how food manufacturing has changed to create more 'natural' ingredients

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

After winning the Best Dinner Man award at the 2005 Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards, he announced his plans to open a restaurant inside High Down, and he has now achieved his objective. Part staff canteen for the prison employees and part four-star restaurant for the public, The Clink aims to have a standard equal to any West End top hotel or restaurant.

Inmates receive training and hands-on experience of working at the top end of the hospitality sector. Potential employers are invited in to see the restaurant in action, taste the food and hopefully commit to employing its alumni. Ingredients are sourced from local businesses, and Al has searched through the seed catalogues to grow a succession of tasty salad crops and vegetables throughout the summer. His aim is to ensure that the inmates involved are fit to work in such establishments on release, that they have the ability to earn a decent salary and will keep out of crime.

Sheila visits the restaurant to learn about the food, the training and the interface between the restaurant food and that served within the prison. She also asks how the project is to be funded, if there will be jobs for the inmates when they leave, and who will be coming to eat there.

Clink - public fine dining inside prison.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Ten years ago Al Crisci was a winner at the BBC Food and Farming Awards for his work at High Down prison. At the ceremony he announced that he was going to open a restaurant in the prison which would be run by inmates and would serve high end food to the paying public. Now there are currently three prison restaurants across the country, with a fourth about to open in HMP Styal.

Sheila visits The Clink Restaurant on the site of HMP Cardiff which has recently been voted the top restaurant in the city by Tripadvisor. She speaks with inmates and ex-prisoners about working in a restaurant and whether this model can help reduce prison re-offender rates.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.

A restaurant run by prisoners becomes the most popular in Cardiff.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

After years of being out of fashion and misunderstood, the cocktail is making a comeback. Drinks that had been forgotten for decades, like the Sidecar, the Old Fashioned and the Manhattan have returned as a new generation is discovering the pleasures of a cold, expertly mixed drink.

Cocktail expert Nick Strangeway explains that the renaissance is largely down to drinks 'following on the coat tails' of wider changes in food in Britain. Meanwhile, television programmes like Sex in the City and Mad Men have excited the imagination of a generation less familiar with the Martini and Bloody Mary.

Joe Carlin, author of Cocktails: A Global History provides some insights into why the cocktail became so successful in 19th century America and why it still endures to this day.

Dan Saladino explores the cocktail, from 18th century punch to new flavours in the USA.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Recently the price for coffee on the world market broke through the important $3.00 barrier. Just a few years ago prices were as low as 60 cents.

Speculation from investors is one reason, but other factors like growing demand for coffee in Brazil and China look like creating a long term spike in prices. So what does this mean for growers and what will this mean for us? Will we start to taste the difference as roasters in the UK are forced to source different and cheaper beans?

This price spike also raises big questions for the Fairtrade model. Current prices are way above Fairtrade's minimum price, so do coffee growers still need Fairtrade?

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Coffee prices are at a 30 year high. Sheila Dillon traces the money along the supply chain

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She meets restaurant guide writer Richard Harden who takes her on a whistle-stop tour of the speedy choices on offer including the fashion for 'the small plate menu'. There's now no distinction between lunch and dinner - if you fancy a steak at 4pm most cities will be able to help. Consequently people seem to be losing track of when and how much they can eat. It's all just one long munchfest.

Sheila also hears from staff and children at a Nottinghamshire school where pupils were arriving having had no breakfast and sometimes no dinner. Their response was to offer free breakfasts to those from families on low incomes but their experience offers some revealing insights into the eating habits of children across all incomes.

With so many snacks to choose from, do those 'on the go' have more nutritious options than simply crisps and a chocolate bar or should we be asking if there is a more serious cost to this new bite-sized way of eating? What is the true cost of speed and convenience?

Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sheila Dillon asks if snacking is killing the tradition of three square meals a day.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A life long lover of the world famous street food he's convinced that a more authentic kebab culture can flourish in Britain. On his travels he finds out how and why it became so popular here and where most of the UK's kebabs are made.

Then, in order to understand the authentic techniques used in Turkish kebab making Richard travels to Istanbul and Bursa home of the Iskender kebab, a form of doner.

Will the family run business share its secret recipes and methods and help revive the kebab's reputation in Britain?

Produced by Dan Saladino.

Food writer Richard Johnson is on a mission to revive the fortunes of the British kebab.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila also visits Tameside Hospital in Greater Manchester which is overhauling its canteen food and vending machine produce to reduce processed carbohydrates and sugary drinks and snacks. In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the NHS the hospital will go completely sugar free on July 4th.

Is it time to revise the Eatwell Guide and what will it take to do so?

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Sheila Dillon looks at the Eatwell Plate.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

NeverSeconds' is the food blog of nine year old Martha Payne (AKA 'VEG'), from Lochgilpead in the West of Scotland. Inspired by a family friend who is a journalist, Martha started to photograph and rate her school dinners.

A few weeks ago her story went global when her local council banned her from taking any more of these photographs. The council backed down after a massive public outcry, but the profile of the site had by then been boosted irreversibly.

What next for Martha and her father Dave, and the rest of the Payne family? Sheila Dillon went to their thirteen acre smallholding to meet them and find out.

Sheila discovered a family very much in tune with where their food comes from, and went on a journey that took in celebrity chef and food campaigner Nick Nairn, a llama, haggis lasagne and a chance to change the Scottish food system.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Nine-year-old blogger Martha Payne explains how she triggered a debate on school food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon joins Sandor Katz - author and 'fermentation revivalist' - to find out more about the wonders of fermentation as well as our very relationship with these microbes.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon on an ancient, mysterious yet essential food-making process - fermentation.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In the first course of the 2019 awards story, Sheila Dillon is joined by food industry experts including Angela Hartnett, Matt Tebbutt, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Andi Oliver - to celebrate the cooks, shop keepers, farmers, producers, entrepreneurs and food pioneers who make up this year's finalists.

The first instalment of our awards coverage features Best Food Producer, Best Drinks Producer, Best Street Food or Takeaway and Best Shop or Market.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor

The winners of the BBC Food & Farming Awards 2019 are revealed in Bristol - Part I

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Sheila Dillon and a group of food, diet and medical experts discuss food and lifestyle.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Cherry Tree in Blackburn like most libraries has a wealth of food books to delve into, but unlike most libraries it also has its own honey producing beehives. Local comedian and author Tez Ilyas pops in to see what books he might like to help on his next venture of learning how to cook.

While Jamie Oliver, Asma Khan, Tim Spector and many others who have featured during this year's programmes tell us what have been their food books of the year.

If you would like to recommend a food or drink book - join the conversation on social media. We are @BBCFoodProg on Instagram and Twitter. And a copy of all the books mentioned has been donated to the library in Cherry Tree.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Sheila Dillon discusses the year's best food books from a library in Blackburn

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Wondering what the next generation makes of food books, Sheila visits a group of young food activists from the organisation Bite Back 2030, to debate one of the top food books of this year - Henry Dimbleby's Ravenous. Meeting at Bite Back HQ, in north London, they also discuss whether TikTok spells the end of an era for recipe books and share their own recommended reads.

Dropping in on cookbook buyer at Topping books in Bath, Kathleen Smith, we find out what's been selling this year and how trends vary according to region. Plus, scattered throughout, we hear the personal book recommendations from best-selling food writers and chefs including Rukmini Iyer, Poppy O'Toole and other familiar faces, picking their own favourite new releases from 2023.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Sheila Dillon presents The Food Programme's favourite food books of the year.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The Food Programme presenters meet in a community arts space in Newport to discuss their book choices of 2023, plus Sheila visits a group of young people to talk reading habits.

Each one is a contender in this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards, in the innovation category. Dan heads into a forest to see how the cull of a growing deer population is resulting in better hospital food. He visits a team of crop scientists who are taking wheat back in time and through its evolutionary history to create greater diversity and resilience. And inside a classroom he hears how the charity TasteEd is transforming the relationship children have with food and flavours.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino explore three big ideas set to influence the future of our food and farming.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Wildfarmed grow cereals, alongside farmers that share their values, using a regenerative farming method that prioritises the health of the soil. They are aiming to create an alternative to industrial farming.

Too Good To Go is an app that lets you rescue unsold food from bakeries, cafes and supermarkets that would have otherwise been thrown away, at a much lower cost.

The Alexandra Rose Charity aims to support low-income families by providing fresh fruit and veg through a voucher scheme and prescription scheme through GPs. The vouchers can be spent in local markets, helping the local economy.

Dan Saladino meets the finalists for this year's Food Innovation Award.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Together with restaurant critic for The Guardian and MasterChef regular, Grace Dent and food blogger and presenter Leyla Kazim, they'll traverse the food trends which have shaped our eating in and eating out, and face questions from listeners from all over the country. From fad diets to food fraud, from the scandals which have shocked us to the cook books we reach for in our flour-coated, milk-spattered kitchen time of need; the highs and lows of 40 years in food and drink.

The Food Programme was commissioned in 1979 as a six-part radio series fronted by Derek Cooper. Join in as we share the food stories which have helped make the series the place on BBC Radio 4, for hungry minds across four decades.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

(Part I of II)

Rick Stein, Yotam Ottolenghi, Grace Dent & Leyla Kazim lead the celebrations. (1/2)

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Together with restaurant critic for The Guardian and MasterChef regular, Grace Dent and food blogger and presenter Leyla Kazim, they'll traverse the food trends which have shaped our eating in and eating out, and face questions from listeners from all over the country. From fad diets to food fraud, from the scandals which have shocked us to the cook books we reach for in our flour-coated, milk-spattered kitchen time of need; the highs and lows of 40 years in food and drink.

The Food Programme was commissioned in 1979 as a six-part radio series fronted by Derek Cooper. Join in as we share the food stories which have helped make the series the place on BBC Radio 4, for hungry minds across four decades.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

(Part II of II)

Rick Stein, Yotam Ottolenghi, Grace Dent & Leyla Kazim lead the celebrations. (2/2)

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Food writer Tim Hayward performs this feat in a special Christmas Day edition of The Food Quiz. Panellists Allegra McEvady, Richard Johnson and Chris Neill pit their gastronomic knowledge, grasp of food trivia and culinary history against each other.

Categories include the devious 'Into the Museum of Brands', a cult cookbook round as well as 'What's Cookin'?' in which the teams have to identify a classic dish from the archives.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Tim Hayward presents a special food quiz edition recorded at the Abergavenny Food Festival

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Two influential thinkers - Michael Pollan in the USA and Joanna Blythman in Britain - have written books that, at a time when food choices and dietary advice seem ever more complicated, offer a cry for simplicity.

The most populous nation on the planet - China - is undergoing its own rapid transition. Could the glamour of the western diet really threaten such an ancient and unique food culture?

Sheila talks to Michael, Joanna and the food writer and expert on Chinese food, Fuchsia Dunlop, about the food that we eat.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon and author Michael Pollan on the shifting sands of our global diet.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Nathan Myhrvold has spent his life trying to understand how things work, he's been a post doctoral fellow researching quantum theory with the late Stephen Hawking, he went on to work as the chief technology officer at Microsoft working directly with Bill Gates and then....... he turned his attention to food.

In 2011 he published Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, which explored the history, science and techniques of cooking, including the world of Modernist cuisine, in which chefs continue to push the boundaries of the kitchen. Now he's turned his attention to bread.

The research for Modernist Bread goes beyond the production of a book, new ideas about bread history are introduced (the first baker could have lived 100,000 years ago), myths are dispelled (French baguettes and Italian Ciabatta are not as traditional as we think they are) and techniques explained (why kneading might often be a waste of time and a squeeze of pineapple juice can work wonders for dough).

Dan and Nathan discuss bread history, correct some falsehoods and ponder on the need for a Modernist bread movement (and Nathan also explains which loaf out of the 36,000 they baked is his favourite).

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino and Nathan Myhrvold discuss one of the biggest bread projects ever undertaken

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan is joined by Bronwen Percival, cheese buyer for Neal's Yard Dairy and contributor to the new Oxford Companion to Cheese. Also featuring John Gynther from Arla Unika, cheesemakers Jonny and Dulcie Crickmore, food writer Patrick McGuigan, researcher Dr M退lanie Roffet-Salque from the University of Bristol, and epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila is joined by award winning markets organiser Malcolm Veigas, Carolyn Steel architect and author of 'Hungry City' and market trader and BBC Food and Farming Awards 2015 judge in the Best Market category, Peter Gott.

She also hears from a 'monstrously huge' and revolutionary new market development in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, from one of the UK's oldest established markets in Leicester and from the organiser of Iceland's first ever farmers market.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Sheila Dillon and guests discuss what a food market needs for success in 2015.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Andrew Webb is a food journalist whose work spans the online and printed worlds. He is the author of 'Food Britannia', which just scooped the Guild of Food Writers award for Food Book of the Year, and also edits a food website. To find out where things are moving in the world of the food book, The Food Programme sent him to meet five key players in the world of food, books and publishing.

Antony Topping is a literary agent, whose clients include Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Thomasina Miers. Mary-Clare Jerram is a Publishing Director at Dorling Kindersley, looking after both digital and print editions. Ian Malone runs a company specialising in food apps for phones and tablets.

Andrew also meets Dr Peter Ross, Principal Librarian at the Guildhall Library, home to the largest collection of food books in any UK public library - and lastly, Hardeep Singh Kohli is a broadcaster, author and is passionate about food.

Sheila is joined in the studio by Neill Denny, Editor-in-Chief of the book industry magazine 'The Bookseller', Kerstin Rodgers - aka MsMarmitelover - food blogger and pop-up restaurant pioneer, and Ben Ebbrell, who cooks and presents on the Sorted food site.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Mary Berry gives Tim some tips on how best to use your oven, and food historian Bee Wilson explains how ovens used to be so cutting edge that people were afraid of them.

Presenter: Tim Hayward. Producer: Emma Weatherill.

Tim Hayward discovers the future of the domestic oven, with the help of Mary Berry.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

He remembers how the Troubles destroyed the night time economy and forced the majority of the region's restaruants to pull down the shutters during the 1970's and 80's.

He describes how the Good Friday Agreement, signed twenty five years ago this month, persuaded a group of pioneering chefs to open new restaurants, which encouraged people to start eating out again and to appreciate the value of home grown produce.

Today, Belfast boasts three Michelin starred restaurants; there's a proliferation of cafes and coffee shops; many pubs pride themselves on fresh seasonal menus and there are food trucks everywhere, serving a huge variety of dishes.

Joris introduces Jaega to one of those pioneering chefs, Nick Price, who opened a wine bar in a derelict part of Belfast in the early 1990s. The area has developed into the Cathedral Quarter - the centre of the city's nightlife.

Jaega meets Michele Shirlow, who founded Food NI, an association which promotes local food and helps producers expand their markets.

In Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second city, she visits the Walled City Brewery, with its own restaurant and tap room, established on the site of a former British Army base. The brewery was opened by James Huey, who moved to Dublin at the height of the Troubles but was encouraged, by the peace process, to return to his home city to open his own business.

Back in Belfast, Jaega gets the opportunity to taste some artisan dishes at one of Belfast's newest food ventures, Trademarket - a pop up food and retail market, housed in shipping containers in the city centre. Joris says it's a trend driven by a new generation of young chefs and the power of social media - a sign of how much Belfast has caught up with the food culture in other parts of the United Kingdom.

Finally, Jaega calls at the home of Zehara Hundito who runs a small takeway business, A Taste of Ethiopia, from her kitchen.

Zehara mixes her own spices and has found a way to make injera flatbread without the traditional Ethiopian teff flour. She's planning to open her own shop and cafe - a reflection of how the peace process has led many different nationalities to choose to live and work in Northern Ireland.....and bring their food customs.

Joris acknowledges that Northern Ireland shares the same economic and social problems as other regions of the United Kingdom and he accepts that the peace process is not yet complete but he's confident that the worst of times are over and that the food revolution is here to stay.

How the peace process has nourished Northern Ireland's flourishing food culture.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With a high-profile documentary film, 'The Grain Divide', about to go on global release, Dan Saladino discovers a worldwide movement of farmers, bakers and breeders rethinking and rediscovering wheat - from long-lost varieties and flavours to re-imagining the future of our relationship with this grain.

The film's Director, JD McLelland, explains how his film aims to change perceptions of wheat - and why this matters. Dan also talks to one of the stars of the film, chef Dan Barber - who's breeding a new variety of wheat named Barber Wheat, and is leading the charge to look again at the taste of wheat.

On the archipelago of Svalbard, far north of the northernmost point of mainland Norway, is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Tunneled into the permafrost there lies a store of seeds like no other - which serves as a 'backup' facility, with samples from every country in the world.

It houses the largest collection of wheat varieties on the planet. Dr Cary Fowler, who helped to set up the seed vault - reveals about the role wheat's past has to play in our future.

Dan also meets Andy Forbes from Brockwell Bake, sourdough specialist Vanessa Kimbell and author of 'Our Daily Bread - A History of the Cereals' - Professor ŀsmund Bjørnstad... as well as Gotland farmer Curt Niklasson, whose life has been changed forever by the contents of a wooden treasure chest.

Presenter: Dan Saladino

Producer: Rich Ward.

Dan Saladino discovers a global movement rethinking our most widely-grown food crop, wheat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The first thing he discovered is that there are only sixty hop farmers left.

The producer is Miles Warde.

Can there really be only 60 hop farmers left in the UK? Miles Warde finds out.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In 2019 the UN's Secretary General Ant　nio Guterres highlighted ways in which the global food system was breaking down: hundreds of millions of people going hungry, billions more overweight or obese and tonnes of food being wasted. These problems were also obstacles in the way of reaching the 2030 target for the Sustainable Development Goals which includes zero hunger. This year's food systems summit was designed to find solutions to these problems.

This week in Rome the ideas generated by the millions of people who have engaged in the process will be set out ahead of the summit in New York in September. But the involvement of some of the world's biggest food corporations has led to concerns over the direction of the summit, and of the global food system itself.

Produced and presented for BBC Audio in Bristol by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino finds out why a United Nations food summit has become so controversial.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

That was the moment one of the UK's most popular TV double acts was born. The Hairy Bikers' food travelogues, diet and campaigning programmes have been on our screens for more than two decades, and in that time Si and Dave have written 26 books. Self-proclaimed home cooks, their cheerful presenting style and on-screen banter have won them awards and scores of fans around the UK and the world.

In this programme Leyla Kazim asks Si and Dave how food and cooking have shaped their lives on and off screen, she hears the secrets to their enduring success, and hears from Stuart Heritage, TV critic for The Guardian, on why they still have much more road to travel together.

Presented by Leyla Kazim

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

The Hairy Bikers talk food and three decades of friendship with Leyla Kazim.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this exclusive investigation, Jaega Wise tests everyday kitchen spices.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Having worked closely with chefs from Jamie Oliver to Raymond Blanc, and played with her band Marsupilami at the first ever Glastonbury Festival (and being paid in milk), Jekka is also inspiring a new generation of chefs including Peter Sanchez-Iglesias at the Michelin-starred restaurant Casamia. Peter shows Sheila just two of the many ways he uses herbs in his highly original cooking.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Culinary herb pioneer Jekka McVicar shares her life through food with Sheila Dillon.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this edition of The Food Programme, Sheila Dillon looks at the business of honey.

The story starts in rural Oxfordshire, where Rich Ward goes on a production site tour with Patrick Robinson - factory manager at Rowse, the biggest honey packer in the UK. The company brings honey in from all over the world for use in its own-label honeys and in honeys that it packs for its many customers. Rowse also blends honeys - matching the exact specifications of customers, including most of the major supermarkets.

Sheila meets Thomas Heck, a honey trader based in the City of London. His company procures large quantities of honeys from many countries that are shipped in large metal drums.

Hattie Ellis, author of 'Sweetness & Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee' joins Sheila to talk honey history and adulteration.

Journalist Andrew Schneider discusses his recent article about 'honey laundering' that sent shockwaves around

the USA, portraying a situation in which mislabelled honey and fake honeys are finding their way on to the shelves.

Tony Spacey, the founder of Littleover Apiaries in Derbyshire, explains why his company has the need for an on-site laboratory.

The highest court in the EU has just issued a ruling concerning GM pollen and honey, which will have far-reaching implications both for the honey trade and beyond. As global demand grows year on year, could the EU be facing a honey shortage?

Produced by Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon takes a look behind the scenes of the honey industry.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Featuring John Dickie (author of Delizia and The Craft) and Polly Russell (British Library) on the history of ice cream.

Graphic novelist Matthew Dooley (who drew the image for this edition) talks about his book Flake, a drama set in the world of ice-cream vans.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino and his dad Bobo (a former ice-cream man) talk about scoops, cones and 99s.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The amount we eat in the UK is now continuing to rise and the trend for keeping hens at home or in community projects has seen many people collecting their own too. Sheila Dillon asks if the humble egg is breaking free of a tarnished reputation and proving itself to be a versatile protein provider worth celebrating.

She hears reports from US where yolk-dodgers have demanded white-only 'heart healthy omelettes' and similar concoctions while in Silicon Valley a 'solution' to the egg has been created in a plant protein based alternative which they claim can mimic many of the egg's functions.

But back in the UK she finds a more celebratory atmosphere - a major retailer has begun supplying guaranteed double yolkers, Neil Rankin, founder of 'Bad Egg' Restaurant has kept his supplier in steady business while Genevieve Taylor found her hens laid so many she had to create new recipes to use them all.

Has the egg been given too much of a bad rap and is now breaking free and what does the future hold?

Presented by Sheila Dillon and Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sheila Dillon asks if the humble egg is breaking free of a once-tarnished reputation.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

In this programme Sheila Dillon investigates our love for the hot stuff, speaking to chefs, growers, and researchers who are taking heat to new, extravagant heights.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Produced in Bristol by Melvin Rickarby

Sheila Dillon investigates our love for the hot stuff.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Now, 75 years after Victory in Europe was declared, we're hearing similar language in political speeches and across the media, as we `wage war` against coronavirus, in a country under lockdown.

The rhetoric might be extreme - but as Sheila Dillon discovers, there are lessons to be learnt from the wartime eating ethos; particularly in this current climate of store-cupboard cooking, making do and reducing food waste.

In fact, the war years marked a period when British diets and health actually improved. They also paved the way for agriculture's Green Revolution, the expansion of processed and industrially produced edibles, and the drive towards cheap and plentiful food for all.

As the UK marks a VE Day anniversary like no other, Sheila Dillon hears how the food legacy of WWII has influenced our modern diets - and considers what lessons we could still learn from the wartime eating ethos.

Presented by Sheila Dillon; produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Following VE Day, Sheila Dillon considers the legacy of WWII food and farming practices

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Retail analyst and former judge Robert Clark and Policy Director of Sustain, Kath Dalmeny join Sheila to talk about key stories and innovative ideas they've encountered through the awards.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon looks back on 15 years of the BBC Food and Farming Awards.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The Food Programme meets piemakers and connoisseurs at the annual British Pie Awards and hears why top chefs and food writers are extolling the virtues of the pie

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Tim Hayward on how the public and chefs fell back in love with the humble British pie.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

From their base in Lyme Bay in South Devon Nicki and John Holmyard grow mussels out at sea. Their pioneering farm, once completed, will be the largest of its kind in European waters, capable of producing ten thousand tonnes of mussels each year. Since January however, they haven't been able to harvest the shellfish which they mostly sell into to Europe. Following Brexit a dispute between the government and the EU has meant the export of much of the UK's live bivalve molluscs (oysters and cockles as well as mussels) has ground to a halt. Dan explains what lies behind this trade dispute and the devastating impact its having on the industry.

Exports into the European Union are essential to mussel farmers in the UK because we eat so little of the shellfish we produce. So why do these bivalves matter? Mary Seddon, a mollusc expert, explains why this source of food was so important to our ancestors and also describes the environmental benefits mussels bring to our coastline.

Belgian food writer Regula Ysewin (pictured) reveals why it was Belgium that fell in love with mussels and also provides a guide to cooking them.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dan Saladino finds out how Brexit could wreck plans to make the mussel a mainstream food.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Vegan cook and YouTube star Rachel Ama tries to find out as she visits Club Mexicana, where the meat is meat-free. She goes to Zionly Manna Rastafarian vegan restaurant, run by Jahson Peat; she finds Renee's vegan Caribbean kitchen and the Deli Jerk Centre at Notting Hill Carnival; she talks to CEO of Quorn Kevin Brennan, Caroline Chin of Loon Fung Oriental Supermarket in Chinatown and nutritionists Laura Thomas and Helen Ford.

Producer: Tom Bonnett

Meat-free meat is on the up, but what is it? Vegan cook Rachel Ama investigates

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The pair saw a disconnect between the rise of diet-related diseases, and the training they received around nutrition - with some students getting as little as eight hours of compulsory nutrition education during their entire time at medical school. So Ally and Iain founded Nutritank, an organisation championing better nutritional education for healthcare professionals, which earned them the Pat Llewellyn New Talent trophy at the 2019 BBC Food and Farming Awards.

Today Nutritank's active in more than 20 medical school societies across the UK, and has been part of a working group charged with finalising a new nutritional curriculum for medical schools, due out this autumn.

Now, they're piloting a scheme taking student and junior doctors out on farm visits - in a bid to better educate future healthcare professionals about food production and nutrition, so that they in turn can better advise their patients.

So could it work? Sheila joins them on a farm visit to the Great Tew Estate in Oxfordshire, to find out.

She also speaks to Kate Henderson from the estate's farm team, Liz Lake and Caroline Drummond from Linking Environment and Farming, and Dr Glenys Jones: a registered public health nutritionist and deputy chief executive of the Association for Nutrition.

Presented by Sheila Dillon; produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Could teaching medics about food production help improve the nation's health?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon talks to Brent Ellis, archivist at the Royal Horticultural Society about the origins of collections of fruit varieties being secured for the nation.

Sheila talks to Brogdale guide, Mary Strutt and some of the visitors at Brogdale.

Sheila talks to Dr. Joan Morgan in the Brogdale library and outside in the Brogdale gardens about the value and history of the Brogdale collections.

Sheila talks to Teresa Watkins, founder and owner of Classic Preserves Ltd, a commercial enterprise linked to the Brogdale collections.

Sheila takes a tour of the orchards at Brogdale with the Brogdale Trust's chief Executive Jane Garrett, which has just submitted its own bid to DEFRA to continue to run the collections but from a different site.

Sheila talks to Jeff Rooker, the food and farming minister, to hear the government's view on the future of the national Fruit Collections.

Sheila Dillon visits The National Fruit Collections in Brogdale, Kent.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

We hear the latest on the well-publicised problem of honeybee colony collapse disorder, meet a beekeeper who first attended the show in 1936 at the old Crystal Palace, and get inside an observation hive with Reigate Beekeepers' Association.

Sheila Dillon visits the 2009 National Honey Show in Weybridge.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

The US 'craft beer' scene started to take shape 30 years ago. Prohibition in the 1920s and post-war industrialisation brought an end to one of the world's most diverse brewing cultures.

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter made home brewing legal again, and soon after, a network of adventurous brewers started to emerge. Known as craft brewers, they operate on a small scale and use traditional brewing techniques but also place great emphasis on experimentation and innovation.

American brewer and editor of The Oxford Companion to Beer, Garrett Oliver puts their quest for new flavours down to the US losing its own brewing culture and so being free to explore all others. Now a young generation of brewers in the UK are looking at these new US styles and discovering techniques like barrel aging as well embarking on experiments with new, intensely flavoured, hop varieties.

Dan Saladino finds out why America's brewing scene is a growing influence on British beer.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Now, nearly 200 years later, that idea is finally being put into practice. In Italy the Slow Food organisation has set up the University of Gastronomic Sciences, where students from all over the world study food taking what they describe as 'a holistic approach'. During the three-year degrees they have lectures in plant biology, study cheesemaking, research the anthropology of food and learn to develop their palates.

Do these courses have any practical value? Their supporters argue that the food industry will now be able to recruit graduates with a deeper understanding of food. To put that argument to the test Sheila Dillon travels to Pollenzo in the north of Italy to meet students and lecturers at the University of Gastronomic Sciences. She also hears how the American television chef Julia Child helped launch a similar course at Boston University.

Back in the UK Sheila hears from academics in Oxford, Shropshire and London who reveal the work underway to bring the study of gastronomy to Britain.

Can you become a great gastronome by taking a university degree in gastronomy?

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

She also meets the Chair of London Food, Rosie Boycott to hear the latest on the city's growing initiative that aims to be part of the Olympic food legacy.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Sheila Dillon meets Jan Matthews head of the UK's biggest catering job, London 2012.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Food writer Rachel McCormack explores deep fried cuisine throughout Europe

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Sheila Dillon travels to Kent to meet Dr Joan Morgan, who is just publishing 'The Book of Pears - The Definitive History and Guide to over 500 Varieties', the product of years of research into and fascination with this fruit and all its manifestations.

Joan shows Sheila the pear orchard at the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, one of the biggest fruit collections in the world, revealing the secrets of this unique collection - some 500 varieties of pear growing in one place.

Domestic production is falling, imports are rising, and just one variety of pear, the conference, dominates the UK market.

The once-prized varieties of cooking pear have been almost completely forgtten. Sheila invites cook and writer Nigel Slater to share his passion for what this fruit can do and how to look after it, and visits fruit farmer Clive Baxter who has invested in new technologies around storing and ripening. Dan Saladino tracks down the Gloucestershire-based distiller and cheesemaker Charles Martell, who has become enchanted by the intricacies and joys of the perry pear and the drinks it can make. As Sheila discovers, some people are working hard to restore a sense of enthusiasm around this ancient fruit, its flavours and its possibilities.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon discovers the secrets of that misunderstood and overlooked fruit: the pear.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Dan Saladino speaks with chefs Heston Blumenthal, Raymond Blanc, food writers Harold McGee and Niki Segnit to find out what a little chemistry and physics can do for our kitchen skills. Each of these chefs and cooks have been influenced by a lecture delivered to the Royal Institution in 1969 delivered by an Oxford professor of physics, a Hungarian called Nicholas Kurti.

In his talk, titled, 'A Physicist In The Kitchen,' Kurti came up with the memorable quote, 'I think it is a sad reflection on our civilisation that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus, we do not know what goes on inside our souffl退s.' He believed that food and cooking were such important features of human life they deserved greater attention from science, and that likewise, that cooks should better understand the science that unfolds when we mix, heat and chill ingredients.

The lecture and the quote inspired chef Raymond Blanc, who in the 1990s made a television series with Nicholas Kurti, and whose own cooking was transformed by working with the physicist. Heston Blumenthal was also inspired. He was among a group of chefs who attended a series of food and science workshops held in Sicily and founded by Kurti. It set him on a voyage of scientific discovery and some of the most experimental cooking seen and tasted in the UK. Dan caught up with Heston as he was researching a new menu for the restaurant Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, at an exhibition at the Ashmolean. New scientific techniques are revealing how people in the ancient city were eating and cooking before Vesuvius erupted. From this research the Dinner team have created a menu featuring ancient varieties of spelt flour served with butter, and crafted to resemble lava rock.

As well as the role of science in creative restaurant cooking, physics and chemistry have been at the heart of the work of food writers Harold McGee and Niki Segnit (author of The Flavour Thesaurus and Lateral Cooking). They explain how learning about copper ions and flavour molecule can transform a dish.

To explain who Nicholas Kurti was, Professor of Physics, and Radio 4 presenter Jim Al-Khalili sheds light on Kurti's career and shares his own thoughts on the role of science in the future of our food.

Presented by Dan Saladino.

Photograph: Emily Jarrett Photography

Can science help us cook better? Dan Saladino asks Heston Blumenthal and Raymond Blanc.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

A common theme in the book, Daniel argues, is that after decades of competition from less authentic rivals, the Neapolitan style pizza is making an impact on restaurant scenes across Europe, Asia and north America.

Professor John Dickie, the author of Delizia: The epic history of the Italians and their food, explains the birth of the Neapolitan pizza in the 18th and 19th centuries on the streets of Naples, then one of the most densely populated cities in the world.

What emerged was a pizza that was quickly cooked at high tempertaures and was soft and moist enough to be folded and eaten on the streets.

The current renaiisance of the pizza can also be seen in the UK. Dan meets some of the pizzaioli (pizza chefs) who have taken a centuries old food and taken it to new heights.

Presented by Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat

With Sheila are cook and food writer Anna Jones, Charles C. Mann - author of '1493 - How Europe's Discovery of the Americas Revolutionized Trade, Ecology and Life on Earth', and the potato revolutionary and agronomist Alan Wilson.