The Food Programme

Sheila Dillon looks at the award winners who are leaving high flying careers to follow their passions and dreams in food production Producer: Maggie Ayre.

The story of Mott Green, cocoa farmer and chocolate maker, who was changing the industry one bar at a time. 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 wor...

In the throes of bereavement food can seem unimportant. People lose both their appetite and their sense of taste. But food and cooking can also play a positive and healing role in helping individuals come to term with their loss. Sheila Dillon explores the healing power of food and how it can help to remember and recapture memories of those who have died. Sheila visited the Hospice of St Francis i...

Sheila Dillon speaks to the writer Michael Pollan on the craft, science and pleasures of cooking. 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 yea...

Sheila Dillon finds out why the debate about the role of sugar in our lives is hotting up. Recent books and news stories have re-awoken a forty year debate about what makes us fat. 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...

Sheila Dillon asks if food and nutrition should have a bigger role in treating cancer. Is the medical profession too reluctant to see food as an essential component in improving the well-being of cancer patients Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Jancis Robinson remembers the specific bottle of wine which ignited her passion for both drinking wine and writing about it. She began reviewing for the University paper 40 years ago and has grown to become a world renowned author and critic on the subject. 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 superm...

Inside one kitchen in Bristol, thirteen strangers from all over Europe gathered to share food and stories about food. The Food Programme was there to capture it all as the cooking got under way. 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 h...

Charles Campion reports from Normandy in France as he helps judge the world black pudding championships, which features entries from Japanese, Austrian and Irish butchers. 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...

There's an army of lorries at work right now, transporting food and other goods all over the country. They keep food on our shelves and without them the UK's economy would collapse within days. 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 Ra...

Tim Hayward bites into Britain's growing chilli scene, from growers to expert eaters and those who like their chillies red hot. Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Sheila Dillon meets Madhur Jaffrey, Indian cooking legend, who's just returned from the sub-continent on her latest adventures into its vast food culture. 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 ser...

Sheila Dillon looks at the practice of fasting - then and now - from a religious and medical perspective Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Each January, with the arrival of the seville oranges, hundreds of people across the UK ritually boil and jar batches of marmalade, following family recipes and leaving their kitchens sticky and fragrant with citrus. But who's eating it? For years sales figures have been in decline and the under 25s say it's 'boring'. So Tim Hayward heads out to a little corner of Cumbria to the Dalemain estate wh...

Sheila Dillon looks at how our sense of taste develops throughout our lifetimes, and what happens when we lose it, through old age, illness or injury. Two hundred thousand people a year seek medical help over loss of taste, Sheila hears the story of Marlena Spieler, a food writer who lost her sense of taste following a road accident.

Sheila Dillon explores Africa's forest foods, both an emergency larder and source of wonderful flavours. 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", w...

Hectic lifestyles are increasing the demand for ready-made, 'grab n go' convenient foods. Today's time pressed commuters buy bagels at the station or carry breakfast bars in their briefcase. Retailers have led this change - offering snack size portions and handy grab packs to stave off hunger. Gourmet 'food on the go' has been identified as a key growth sector and sales are increasing. Sheila Dill...

It's an ingredient that is key to many cuisines of the world, and has a prominent role in folklore and traditional medical systems- although some people avoid it because of the passions that it is said to arouse. Sheila Dillon explores a bulb which provokes strong feelings - both culinary and otherwise - and is now to be found in most of our kitchens: garlic. The United Kingdom is importing five t...

Sheila Dillon investigates the food lives of people surviving on the basic state pension. 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...

Sheila Dillon reports on fresh developments in the horsemeat scandal. As more tests reveal large amounts of horsemeat in beef products, Sheila investigates the supply chain. Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon with an exclusive food interview with former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney. More than thirty years since becoming a vegetarian he reflects on his life through food. 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 an...

Ireland's horsemeat burger scandal makes the guarantees on traceability and product standards by some supermarkets look unreliable. The discovery may also be a wakeup call for the Food Standards Agency. 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...

Traffic light labelling - whether red lights will stop us eating bad foods. Sheila Dillon investigates whether this year's change in food labelling will encourage us to improve our diet. Sue Davies from Which? explains the change to food labelling. This year a consistent system will be adopted across supermarkets. The labels will show a combination of guideline daily amounts, colour coding and "hi...

Sheila Dillon presents a special New Year, "From our Own Food Correspondent" with stories from China, France, Italy, Britain and the United States that reflect our changing attitudes towards the food we eat Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Dan Saladino explores the cocktail, a story which begins with 18th century Indian punch and keeps on evolving with new wave flavours being developed in the bars of New York , London, Bristol and Manchester. 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...