The Food Chain

Imagine being able to ‘taste’ every word that comes out of your mouth. Everything you or someone else says provoking something in your brain to kick your taste buds into action. It sounds incredulous, but for a tiny proportion of the world’s population, that is their reality. It’s a neurological phenomenon called synaesthesia, where two or more senses merge. Tamasin Ford meets two sisters from Gla...

Can you imagine suddenly finding that it hurts to eat? Or that when you take a bite of your favourite meal you feel nothing? In this episode, we’re talking about something that isn’t much talked about: what happens to your relationship with food when you’ve got cancer. Ruth Alexander is joined by three women who want you to know about a side effect of treatment that they weren’t fully prepared for...

How do you feed a dog? The answer may be more fraught than you had imagined. Should you give them ‘dog food’? Is it a step too far to feed them at the table? And can man’s best friend thrive on a vegetarian diet? we bring together three dog-loving experts from the UK, India and the USA to analyse what dog feeding reveals about our relationship with animals and even our own relationship with food....

A lack of sleep might leave us tired, but it can also have a major impact on what we eat, and our health. Ruth Alexander explores the surprising relationship between diet and a poor night’s rest, and learns that it’s not just what we’re eating, but when: we hear about the perils of consuming calories late into the evening or, even worse, overnight. But it’s not all bad news: there’s growing resear...

Caffeine is a key ingredient in some of our favourite foods and drinks, but it’s also a mind-altering drug that can be very tricky to quit. Tamasin Ford meets three people who’ve tried to cut caffeine out of their lives by eliminating some of its main sources from their diets - coffee, tea and chocolate. We hear about some uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms, social awkwardness, and the struggle to...

In this final episode of 2021, we're revisiting some of the most powerful food stories from the pandemic. Following widespread restaurant closures and labour shortages across the hospitality sector, we catch up with a New York chef who is forging a new path. And what about those people who thanks to Covid-19 can’t even smell or taste their food anymore? We’ll be finding out whether this leading sy...

World War Two rationing imposed severe restrictions on food, so why would anyone voluntarily go back to it? Ruth Alexander meets three women who chose to adopt the diet endured in 1940s and 1950s Britain, one of them for an entire year. We hear how such scarcity inspired creativity, a reverence for the ingenuity of wartime cooks, and an enduring change of perspective on the responsibility of the 2...

What dish says Christmas to you - roast turkey, goat? Carp perhaps? What about fried chicken? In Japan nothing says ‘festive family food’ more than a bucket of KFC fried chicken. And if you’re Jewish and from the US, a Christmas meal will almost certainly mean a trip to Chinatown. Ruth Alexander unearths the origin stories of these two unlikely, but incredibly popular, - alternative Christmas food...

Catering on film and TV sets is notorious for being one of the toughest jobs in the hospitality industry. Imagine feeding hundreds of people in a different location every day, running your kitchen in some of the world’s most remote places, and accommodating the varied diets of the planet’s biggest stars. Tamasin Ford speaks to three caterers to find out what it takes to succeed in Hollywood, Bolly...

Rationing looms large in the memories of a generation who lived through World War Two. Basic groceries were limited and getting enough food on the table became a daily challenge that went on long after the last bombs fell. Ruth Alexander brings together a German and an English woman, who grew up on opposite sides of the world’s deadliest ever conflict, to share their recollections of wartime eatin...

Gabriella D’Cruz, from Goa, wants to improve diets, transform livelihoods, and protect the planet using an often-overlooked marine vegetable - seaweed. 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...

How is a new cuisine created? Ruth Alexander explores two unique cuisines in South Africa and the USA: ‘Cape-Malay’- a 300-year old tradition born out of colonialism and slavery that unites Indonesian and Dutch tastes; and ‘Viet-Cajun’ - a more recent phenomenon that has seen the Vietnamese diaspora experimenting with Cajun flavours in Texas. We explore how history’s darkest episodes can lead to s...

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic some people discovered a solace and comfort in cooking, but for many others the opposite was true - the joy they had once felt in the kitchen evaporated. Tamasin Ford speaks to three formerly passionate cooks to find out what it’s like to lose the love of the thing you enjoy doing the most. What’s really behind their ‘cooking burnout’, how have they tried to rei...

The pressure to tackle climate change by altering what we eat is huge, and it can be a daunting prospect. But you don’t have to go vegan, shop 100 per cent local, or start your own allotment to make a difference. This week, as world leaders gather for a key climate conference in Glasgow, we’re asking you what small changes you’ve made to your everyday food habits to make them a little bit greener....

The UK food industry relies on foreign workers, but what happens when they stop coming? A combination of COVID-19 and Brexit has led to fewer workers available to pick, process and transport food. For some farmers it has led to heartbreaking dilemmas. Tamasin Ford speaks to two pig farmers who face having to kill thousands of healthy pigs, and a salad farmer who has seen millions of lettuce heads...

The hospitality industry is facing a staffing crisis, but why have thousands of chefs and waiters quit, and why now? Tamasin Ford speaks to three former restaurant and bar workers to find out why the coronavirus pandemic prompted them to leave, and what they're doing instead. We find out what, if anything, might tempt them back - higher pay, more sociable hours, or better work culture, maybe kinde...

Alcohol is part of the fabric of life in many cultures. It’s associated with socialising, dating, networking, even commiserating . But what happens if you take it away? Tamasin Ford brings together three people who decided to give up alcohol in a drinking culture. We ask them why and how they did it. What effect did it have on their lives professionally, socially, physically and emotionally? And w...

Insects are cheap, packed full of nutrients, and farming them for food could help save the planet. Convincing more people to eat them, though, remains a big challenge. Tamasin Ford speaks to three insect entrepreneurs trying to persuade the squeamish, especially in Europe and North America, to overcome their fears of crickets, worms, and spiders, and instead see them as a tasty, sustainable, alter...

From bread making to Thai cuisine, cookery classes have become a popular way for people to learn new culinary skills and meet people. But coronavirus lockdowns suddenly brought these businesses to a standstill. Rory Cellan-Jones hears from three cooks, who quickly pivoted to virtual cooking classes to survive. Could they get over the technical challenges, and can you really teach someone to cook t...

Hot stoves, perishable food, and potentially dirty surfaces can make the kitchen a difficult place for someone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. People with OCD will frequently experience unwanted thoughts, images or urges - which may include worries about contamination or harming themselves and others. They will often use repetitive behaviours to relieve their anxiety - including washing and cl...

Food photography is about much more than beautifully presented dishes in cookbooks - it’s also being used to change the way we think about what we eat. Emily Thomas meets three photographers to discuss some of their most powerful images - from a bloody scene in a Thai slaughterhouse to a display of human resilience in a refugee camp. They explore why still images of food and food production can be...

Starches are among the most important and versatile additives in processed food, but most of us know little about them and there are some we should be wary of. Emily Thomas hears why starch is a food manufacturer’s best friend - making pies crispier, cakes airier, and yoghurts creamier. It’s even used to mimic and replace ingredients some of us want to limit, like sugar and fat. But although starc...

Is there someone in your life who needs to have total control in the kitchen? Someone who breathes down your neck, micromanages your every move and can’t resist explaining exactly how to chop a carrot? If so, you may be in the company of what we’re calling ‘a Chefsplainer’. Or perhaps all this rings a bell because you are a chefsplainer? Whoever you are - this episode of The Food Chain is for you....

Calories are ubiquitous across most of the world and have been used to help people manage their weight for more than a century. But have we been counting them wrong all along? In this episode, Emily Thomas finds out how the calorie is a lot more complex than many of us realise. Historian Louise Foxcroft describes how this measure of energy became the darling of scientists and public health experts...

Sugary drink and fast food sponsors have become almost inseparable from sporting superstars and major events like the Olympics. But why are these epitomes of health and exercise aligning themselves with products linked to obesity, heart disease and diabetes? Simon Tulett explores the reasons for this relationship's long history and hears about the damage it could be doing to young, impressionable...