The Food Chain

Of the tens of millions of people around the world with autism or down syndrome, only a tiny fraction is in paid employment. But cooking, making drinks and waiting tables is work where people with learning disabilities can shine. John Laurenson takes us to a Café Joyeux (Happy Café) in Paris, one of a fast-growing chain of cafe-restaurants where most of the staff have autism or down syndrome and w...

Taste, it turns out, is not a matter of opinion. Scientists have discovered that your perception of taste is informed by your genetics. When we eat or drink something, we may be having an entirely different experience to the person we’re sharing a meal with, or the chef who has prepared it, or the critic who has recommended it. In this programme Ruth Alexander explores her likes and dislikes and h...

More of us are living in cities and urban farming is on the rise. Can you be sure the city soil you’re growing in is clean enough? Industry and traffic can contaminate land, but there are ways to deal with the problem. Ruth Alexander finds out how to test soil, how to clean it, and which fruit and vegetables are the safest to grow on former industrial and commercial sites. If you would like to get...

What’s it like spending 24 hours a day together? Ruth Alexander speaks to couples who run restaurants. She hears how they met, what they argue about and why being a couple might be good for business. Ruth visits Andrea Follador and Jazz Navin at ‘The Perfect Match’ restaurant in Sale, in the North West of England. Jazz is the chef and Andrea is the sommelier, the two met working at Gordan Ramsay’s...

In a world where ingredients cost more due to war and inflation how is easy is it to make and sell our daily bread? Ruth Alexander speaks to three bakers about how they started in the industry, the highs and lows and economic pressures in their part of the world. Alex Oke is the owner of XO Boutique Bakery in Lagos, Nigeria, Tracey Muzzolini is the owner of Christies Mayfair Bakery in Saskatoon, C...

Ruth Alexander speaks to patients about their experiences of weight-loss drugs. The new class of drugs impact appetite, making you feel full sooner, and slowing the rate at which your stomach empties. Known as GLP-1 medications, studies suggest that patients can lose 10% or even up to 25% of their body weight depending on which drug they use. For many who have struggled with obesity and obesity re...

Devina Gupta takes a food tour of her home city of Delhi to see how people are adapting to rising summer temperatures. In May this year the city saw a record temperature of almost 50C, and knowing what to eat in such heat can be a challenge. The changing climate is sparking innovative recipes in restaurant kitchens and bringing traditional practices back to people’s kitchens. Devina tries old favo...

Ruth Alexander explores the origins and evolution of the humble grab-and-go food the burrito, which started life in northern Mexico, before crossing over into the US and becoming a hit around the world. Versions of the spicy wrap can be enjoyed in restaurants, street food shacks and supermarket home meal kits all over the world. We explore the burrito’s contested origins, find out why some Mexican...

Cows emit greenhouse gases when they eat, which contributes to global warming. But is it possible to produce meat in a climate-friendly way? Grace Livingstone visits a carbon neutral certified ranch in Uruguay, where farm manager Sebastian Olaso shows her around. She also meets Javier Secadas, a small farmer who raises cattle on natural grasslands, and agronomist Ignacio Paparamborda, from the Uni...

Why eat with your hands? Many food cultures around the world eat using hands, and most of us use our hands some of the time. Do we really need cutlery or chopsticks to eat a salad, peas or rice? And if you were to tackle soup or stew with your hands, how would you go about it? Michael Kaloki reports from Nairobi, Kenya, where the staple dish ugali, made from maize flour, is traditionally eaten by...

Stunning cakes, colourful salads and intricate garnishes use flowers to entice customers, but there’s more to this trend than just beautiful social media pictures. Many cultures around the world have eaten flowers for centuries, and some of them pack a serious punch. Devina Gupta explores the history of edible flowers and visits a site in the UK where they’re grown all year round. She gets quite a...

Do you know how much salt you should be eating? And if I tell you it’s less than 5 grams a day, do you know how much that is? Ruth Alexander explores the wonder of salt and why chefs think their job would be pointless without it and why the impact it’s having on the food might surprise you. Professor Paul Breslin tells us about the “magical” chemical reaction happening on your tongue when you eat...

Over two million people work in the international shipping trade, and they are often at sea for months at a time. That’s a lot of meals being made by the cook on board, and their work is crucial for keeping the crew happy. Ruth Alexander hears from seafarers about why that makes “cookie” the most important person on board a ship and why, in some cases, crew members are going hungry. A former capta...

What’s the secret behind the on-screen chemistry shared by some TV chef duos? The recent death of Dave Myers, one half of ‘The Hairy Bikers’ with Si King, has prompted this programme celebrating successful food friendships. Dave and Si made food shows and cookbooks that took their fans all over the world, and off-screen they were close friends. In this programme Ruth Alexander speaks to two chefs...

These are tough times for restaurants. If the pandemic's rolling lockdowns were not bad enough, independent eateries now find themselves caught on a conveyor belt of crises: inflation, labour shortages and high rents. That is without mentioning the post-Covid agoraphobic “hermit consumer", who prefers to hunker down indoors than splash the cash on going out. If the stats are to be believed 60% of...

Step inside the chocolate factory to hear the secrets of what it’s like to invent sweet treats for a living. Find out why chocolatiers think the raw material is like a “needy child”, but can also bring great joy to people’s lives. And hear the family story of the invention of one of the best-known British chocolate bars, with a trip to an archive of hidden stories from the confectionary industry –...

Fasting has been a religious and cultural practice for thousands of years, why do people do it? What happens to your body when you fast? The Food Chain speaks to a British family breaking their fast during Ramadan, a woman in India completing a day long fast for Mahashivratri and explores why the practices around Lent have changed over the years. An expert on intermittent fasting talks us through...

Dumplings feature prominently in cuisines around the world. Some, like the Ghanaian kenkey, or the Irish dumpling, are balls of dough. But in many countries they’re filled with other ingredients. From the Russian pelmeni, to the Japanese gyoza, for centuries we’ve been putting meat, vegetables or cheese in small pouches of pastry, and making delicious snacks. So where did this idea originate? And...

Sweet, sour, salty, bitter and... umami. Have you heard of the fifth taste? Umami, meaning ‘delicious flavour’ in Japanese, was discovered by a chemist in Japan in 1908 but it took nearly 100 years for it to be recognised as a fifth distinct taste. It is described by many as a savoury or meaty taste. In this programme Ruth Alexander learns about the chemist who first discovered umami, and the indu...

Three school chefs tell Ruth Alexander what it’s like serving up canteen food every day. Find out how they manage hundreds of hungry child customers, what pro tips they have for making vegetables seem delicious, and why they all find the job so satisfying. We hear from the USA, Liverpool in the UK and a school chef in the far north of Finland about the challenges of cooking mountains of meatballs,...

Have you heard of ultra processed food? In 2010 a group of Brazilian scientists said we should be focusing less on the nutritional content of food, and more on the form of processing it undergoes. They created the Nova system, a way of categorising foods based on how processed they are. It identifies ultra processed foods as generally industrially manufactured, containing ingredients such as emuls...

What do you and your family chat about at dinner? We eavesdrop on conversations over food all over the world, hearing about poetry, politics, what is on TV and how Morag’s leg is recovering. Whether you gossip or have more philosophical debates find out how integral good communication is while we are eating, often marking the only point in the day or week when a family gathers together. We learn w...

The city of Detroit in the United States has a lot of vacant space – as much as a quarter of residential, commercial and industrial sites lie unused today. In this programme Ruth Alexander meets the people who are growing food in their neighbourhoods, creating urban farms and community gardens where houses once stood. Mark Covington is the founder of Georgia Street Community Collective, and Tyson...

In February 2023, two earthquakes devastated parts of Turkey. The disaster claimed the lives of nearly 60,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria. In this programme Victoria Craig travels to the city of Antakya, part of Hatay Province, close to the border with Syria. It’s a region long famed for its cuisine, and even has special UNESCO recognition for its gastronomy. Since the earthquake...

Chinese food is popular and successful around the world. But is it afforded the respect it deserves? In some countries Chinese food has been seen as something tasty, but ultimately cheap and not very healthy, despite it being a cuisine with a focus on health, seasonality and gastronomic skill for centuries. In this programme Ruth Alexander meets Fuchsia Dunlop, a British food writer who has spent...