The Food Chain

To feed a child is fundamental to a parent, it’s instinct. But what if your baby can’t swallow? After receiving lots of emails to a programme we made on dysphagia – or swallowing difficulties – we were asked to explore the condition as it affects children. In this edition, Ruth Alexander speaks to parents Kelly Rose, in the UK, and Melanie and Sean Hoffman in Canada, about how they manage their ch...

Who wrote the cook books on your kitchen shelves? For many celebrity chefs, a cook book, or several, is an obvious way to extend their brand. But if they don’t have the time or the skills to write one, they may hire a ghost writer or co-author to work with them. It’s not just writing, the work can involve project management, recipe testing, meeting deadlines and handling some big egos. Sometimes w...

Opera is viewed as something of an endurance sport in the musical world. Hours spent on stage, in costume, doing a very physical job far away from home comforts can take its toll on the body if it’s not adequately fuelled. As Ruth Alexander discovers in this programme, diet is of paramount importance to a professional singer. Sopranos Rachel Nicholls and Lucy Schaufer, and Fred Plotkin - opera and...

Working as a chef can be creative and rewarding when people love your food, but it can also be demanding, requiring long and antisocial hours. In this programme we hear about the highs and lows of working in some of the world’s best kitchens, and why it ultimately isn’t right for everyone. Ruth Alexander speaks to three chefs who chose to leave the profession. Former head chef Philip Barantini in...

Why hold on to an old clay pot, a worn-out metal spoon, or a plain glass bowl? Earlier this year, we made a programme celebrating old and cherished cookware and received a huge response from World Service listeners. So, in this edition, Ruth Alexander hears your stories of the poignance that can be found in the most unassuming kitchen utensil, and explores a few other tales we’ve uncovered of cook...

Ukrainian cookbook writer Olia Hercules reflects on why it's important to mark this festive season, and the traditional dishes she’ll be serving at the Christmas table in London this year. Ruth Alexander speaks to Olia and her Russian born friend and fellow food writer, Alissa Timoshkina, to discuss how these food traditions have developed and how relatives and friends will be marking Christmas in...

Can you imagine what you would miss if you lost the ability to eat? Swallowing is something most of us take for granted, but around 8% of the general population are believed to experience some difficulty swallowing – known as dysphagia. In this programme, Ruth Alexander talks to one of the estimated hundreds of millions of people who have struggled with swallowing food and drink, and to those who...

2022 has seen record food prices. Many African countries have been badly hit because they import their staples – wheat, rice and oil. A lack of infrastructure and capacity in some countries means that food grown in Africa is often not processed into packaged food products, instead those items are imported from outside of the continent. In this programme we speak to two women who run food businesse...

Eggs – a nutritious and affordable source of protein. Or they were. The cost of a box of eggs has been rocketing around the world. And in some places, where it’s long been common to start the day on an egg – supplies are under pressure. In this programme, Ruth Alexander explores the challenges egg producers are facing - including what can be done about the seemingly ever-present threat of avian in...

Samuel Ikua is championing urban farming in his city, Nairobi in Kenya. Samuel undertook an urban farming course in 2015, run by a local NGO called the Mazingira Institute. Seven years later Samuel is the project coordinator at the institute, training other members of his community in urban farming skills. In this programme Ruth Alexander hears about the challenges Samuel faces, a lack of space an...

Food behind bars is not intended to be a Michelin-starred affair. But prison food reformers claim some of it is so bad that it could be hampering the rehabilitation of inmates. Nutritious and tasty meals, they argue, can improve the physical and mental health of those serving prison sentences and therefore cut reoffending rates. And food skills; like cookery, baking and farming, could help in the...

How does sound influence the way we eat, drink and taste? We discover our hearing makes a bigger contribution to flavour than we think. Mike Johnson explores the concept of 'sonic seasoning' - the idea that different sounds can accentuate the sweetness, bitterness or spiciness of food. Chef Jozef Youssef, founder of the multi-sensory dining experience Kitchen Theory, serves up a musical food exper...

In this programme we explore the realities of island diets. Ruth Alexander hears how diets are changing, and what this means for population health. Indigenous diets were limited to what grew in the native soil or could be raised or caught in the limited space available. Today imported, often processed foods are becoming increasingly popular. We start in the Faroe Islands, in the North Atlantic Oce...

All-you-can-eat restaurants are popular, as are high-end buffets at big weddings and posh hotels. But what’s the trick to making money out of them, and what happens to the leftovers? Ruth Alexander finds out the tricks of the trade with John Wood of catering software company Kitchen Cut, Sandeep Sreedharan of Goa, and Michael Brown of Cosmo, in Manchester, UK. If you would like to get in touch wit...

Today’s Sephardic Jewish community has its roots in Spain and Portugal. The Hispanic Jews lived for many centuries in those countries but faced increasing persecution in the 13th and 15th Centuries. Many were forced to convert to Christianity, but some secretly continued their Jewish faith and practices. In 1478, the Spanish Christian royalty created the Inquisition, a series of trials aimed at id...

What are the nutritional challenges, and the highs and lows of food in space? As NASA looks at creating a lunar habitat, and even launching a mission to Mars, how can the right food be prepared and transported to keep astronauts both healthy, and happy? Marie Keyworth speaks to veteran astronaut Nicole Stott, and NASA’s top nutrition expert Scott Smith, who leads the Nutritional Biochemistry Labor...

Global food prices reached record highs this year due to a combination of factors including the war in Ukraine, rising energy prices and poor harvests. Prices are now falling, but remain higher than last year. In this programme Ruth Alexander talks to three farmers on three different continents, to discuss if they’re profiting from these higher prices, the impact of higher costs, and whether farme...

We may be living in a disposable age, but many of us probably own at least one hand-me-down pot, pan or kitchen utensil. They can be heavy and cumbersome to use but promise quality and reliability - a steadfast companion in the kitchen. They hold sentimental value too: memories of home, of loved ones who have passed, and ancestral traditions. In this programme, Ruth Alexander explores the history...

Today’s seed industry is dominated by a handful of companies. Approximately 60% of the market is controlled by just four companies. Many of the seeds planted by farmers are controlled by international property rights or patents, that limit how they can be used. Court cases have centred around whether farmers have the right to save and reuse seeds for future harvests. In this programme we’ll chart...

Mental health is a hugely complex issue with many causes. There’s no simple answer, then, when it comes to therapies for conditions like anxiety and depression. But a growing body of research is now supporting a connection between nutrition and mental health - that what you eat can have a role to play in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. It’s an emerging field, but dietary recommendatio...

Meet the flavourists – the people who bring together art and science to create the flavours in our food. Each crisp, soft drink, or toothpaste flavour has been concocted by someone in a lab who has spent years studying why things taste good. In this programme, Ruth Alexander visits the International Flavour Research Centre at the University of Nottingham in the UK, where flavour chemist Professor...

Food contamination is a serious public health problem around the world. The World Health Organisation estimates that 600 million – almost 1 in 10 people in the world – fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420,000 die every year. In this episode, Ruth Alexander speaks to some of the people whose lives have been shaped by serious food safety breaches and how they are working to ensure food sa...

Climate change means that, in many parts of the world, the way we farm is no longer working. We need a larger, more diverse range of crops that perform even when the rains don’t come or, as can also be the case, when too much rain comes. Currently, just 15 crops make up 90% of our energy intake, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. In this programme, we’re meeting pe...

Running a restaurant is hard enough, but what if there’s family involved? In this episode, Felicity Hannah explores the highs and the lows of family-run eateries; their history, food culture, family dynamics and how they deal with the cut and thrust of business. She heads to Liverpool in the UK, to Europe’s oldest Chinatown, where she meets Terry and Theresa Lim, the owners of the city’s oldest Ch...

Vegetable oil is one of many foods that has seen big price rises in the last year. Not only is it used for cooking and frying, but it’s also in many processed foods such as ready meals, sauces and even desserts. Ukraine and Russia represent the majority of the world’s sunflower oil production, whilst unpredictable weather, poor harvests and lack of labour have led to higher prices in palm, soybean...