The Food Programme

Thirty years ago, Dave Myers, a specialist prosthetic make-up artist walked into a pub in Newcastle after scoring a job on a Catherine Cookson TV drama. Beyond the throng of TV crew sipping their white wine spritzers, he spotted the then assistant producer Si King, eating the pub's curry of the day at the pool table. He walked over, introduced himself and said to the landlord, "I'll have what he's...

Sheila Dillon hears the story of one of the most loved and admired chefs in the business, Jeremy Lee, and celebrates the joy of his simple ingredient-led cooking. As chef proprietor at Quo Vadis in London’s Soho, and previously at the Blueprint Café, Jeremy Lee has been creating ever-changing regional, seasonal and historically inspired British cuisine. He learned in the kitchens of some of the ke...

The latest calculations from economists point to an inflation rate for average shopping baskets of just under 12 per cent, but as Dan Saladino hears from has been retailers, analysts and supermarket customers, everyone is expecting that that figure to increase by the time winter arrives. Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Meet the chef who ran away with the circus. Ols Halas is one of the longest-serving cast members at much-loved Gifford's Circus. As well as being head chef in Gifford's travelling restaurant 'Circus Sauce', he also drives the lorries, helps put up the big top, he's even performed. He lives and breathes the circus life. Sheila Dillon meets Ols on tour in Gloucestershire on an August morning as the...

Since the American Civil War to the present day, fried chicken has been used to create negative stereotypes of black people. These stereotypes and this history has seeped into today’s consciousness which has established a complicated relationship between chef and author Melissa Thompson and the food item. It’s a relationship which she wrote about and she joins Jaega Wise to explore her feelings an...

In the UK poor diet is a worrying public health issue, and we rank one of the worst in Europe for levels of obesity, particularly among children. Reformulating the most unhealthy foods to reduce sugar, salt and fat is the food industry’s main strategy to turn things around, and this is echoed by the government. Reformulation has been going on for decades, and there has been some real progress rece...

Protein supplements have been around for a long time but recently it feels like they made the jump from a niche product for gym enthusiasts to something much more mainstream. We are seeing protein being added to all kinds of food products for example, from chocolate bars to cereal. Jaega Wise wants to find out more about these products. Do we need them? What are they made of? How much protein shou...

Dan Saladino talks with Sandor Katz about the diversity of fermentation around the world. Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

The award winning and inspirational chef tells his food story to Dan Saladino. One of his mentors, Raymond Blanc, explains why Michael is one of the best chefs of his generation. Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

In a world where our attention spans are getting shorter, where we are rewarded not for the attention we pay to others but the attention we receive – is it time we re-evaluated the value of attentive growing and farming, and mindful eating? 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...

What difference would it make if more people rejected cheap bread made using the Chorleywood Process, and moved to eating 'better' bread, i.e bread with fewer ingredients? In this episode Sheila Dillon explores why some scientists, campaigners and academics believe we ought to be eating more 'proper' bread, and puts her body to the test to see what difference it could make. Professor of Genetic Ep...

Dan Saladino and Sheila Dillon dig deep into the details of the newly published Government Food Strategy. Produced by Dan Saladino.

The city of Birmingham is about to launch its own ambitious Food System Strategy. It’s vision is to create a bold, fair, sustainable and prosperous food system and economy, where food choices are nutritious and affordable. The strategy faces many challenges – Birmingham has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the country, and worrying levels of food poverty with 6.8 % of residents rep...

Dan Saladino meets people saving endangered foods and bringing diversity back to our diets. 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 (...

Sheila Dillon and judges Asma Khan and Michael Caines open nominations for the 2022 BBC Food & Farming Awards, which celebrate people across the UK who've changed lives for the better, through food and drink. To mark the ceremony being held in Wales for the first time, there will be a special new category this year - the BBC Cymru Wales Food Hero award. Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced...

Falafels are a widely celebrated and much loved food that have become an everyday part of street food culture in many cities across Europe, the United States and the Middle East. Falafel is known for being cheap, easily available, and accessible - no matter what a person's class, background, religious belief or dietary requirements. There have long been debates about whether falafel belongs or is...

Dan Saladino and blacksmith Alex Pole explain how our food has been influenced by metals.

40 years ago the BBC broadcast a new TV cooking series called "Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking". It was a first, and showed audiences that Indian food did not rely on curry powder, and that dishes were different depending on what region of India they originated. But that's not all, the series and Madhur Jaffrey's subsequent books (she has written more than 30) had another effect; it made her a mod...

In our world of globalised food, there are few things that have remained true local specialities, and the Staffordshire oatcake is one of them. This oatmeal, yeasted pancake is an institution in Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding area, but still hardly anyone beyond the Midlands seems to have heard of them. The oatcake has a history stretching back hundreds of years as a staple food for workers of the...

No other tinned meat has had the worldwide cultural impact of SPAM. Though often denigrated in this country, it is celebrated across the world particularly in the Asia-Pacific where it became integrated into food cultures after The Second World War. 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 (...

Jack Monroe, the food writer and poverty campaigner sits down in her living room in Southend-on-Sea to share her 'Life Through Food' with Leyla Kazim. It has been almost a decade since Jack first made a name for herself as a blogger and food writer - documenting life as an unemployed single mum. Her blog, A Girl Called Jack (now Cooking on a Bootstrap) first focussed on local politics, but became...

Dan Saladino hears from cooks in Palermo, Marseille and Kyiv about Easter food traditions. Produced and presented by Dan Saladino

Dan Saladino speaks to food suppliers and farmers in Ukraine about the impact of war. Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

A few months ago, Sheila Dillon opened a glass jar of chickpeas in her kitchen. Their taste was so different from those she had been eating for years from cans, she took to social media to find out why. The story that unfolded in the comments led back to the Spanish, and their way of eating beans and other legumes. In this programme we meet the people who grow, select, process and trade beans, and...

In the first of two programmes all about beans, Sheila Dillon asks if they could be the answer to our issues with health and global warming. 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...