The Food Chain

Latest Episodes:

Immersive dining Jul 26, 2023

Show notes

Immersive dining has become something of a culinary craze in recent years. As well as serving food, restaurants are providing multi-sensory experiences for customers; transforming their dining spaces into places where people can escape. In this edition of The Food Chain, we take a look at immersive dining establishments around the world, exploring why customers are increasingly choosing to be entertained while they eat, and asking – is this dining trend a bit of a fad, or is it the future of eating out?

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: Diners eating at tables surrounded by flowing water, at Labassin Waterfall restaurant in the Philippines)

Presenter: Izzy Greenfield Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

Africa's forgotten foods Jul 19, 2023

Show notes

The African continent is seeing one of the fastest rates of urbanisation in the world.

As people move to cities, and lifestyles change, so do diets. Many indigenous ingredients and dishes become hard to source and prepare. Others become associated with rural or village ways of life and are no longer seen as sufficiently aspirational.

In this programme, Michael Kaloki finds out about traditional dishes at risk of being forgotten. He cooks with his Aunty Naomi to learn about dishes from his own Kamba tribe in Kenya. He also visits Dr Kathleen Anangwe, Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Social Work and African Women Studies at the University of Nairobi, as she prepares a traditional dish from her own tribe, the Luhya in Western Kenya. He speaks to chef Selassie Atadika, who is showcasing indigenous ingredients and methods of cooking in her pop-up nomadic dinners in Accra, Ghana.

If you'd like to contact the programme email - thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Presented by Michael Kaloki.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: women transporting millet in baskets on their head. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

What the wedding caterer is really thinking Jul 12, 2023

Show notes

Going to a wedding this year?

Spare a thought for the caterers - expected to put on ever-more elaborate feasts in ever-more challenging conditions.

In this episode, three wedding caterers - in India, the US and the UK - share anecdotes about demanding guests, make-shift hillside kitchens and emergency trips to hospital.

Warning: if you’re a bride- or groom-to-be, this programme might just give you a case of the jitters.

You can share your tales of wedding banquet triumphs and disasters by emailing thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: Bride and groom blowing out a candle on a cake. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Presenter: Ruth Alexander Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

How I learnt to cook Jul 05, 2023

Show notes

Out of necessity, in adversity, or for the fun of it - how, and why did you learn to cook?

Ruth Alexander hears the stories behind people’s kitchen skills - the highs, the lows, the challenges overcome, and the connections made – and discovers there’s often more than just dinner at stake.

Growing up in Germany to Japanese parents, chef Nina Matsunaga remembers having to step up to the stove when her mother was taken ill; the eldest of three boys in Cameroon, Timah Julius Nyambod made breakfast and dinner for his brothers while his mother worked as a food vendor; Janet Pollock describes teaching herself to cook as a young child inspired by cookery shows in Nashville, USA; and Rahul Raina is holding on to his Kashmiri heritage in Oxford, England, thanks to the recipes and know-how of his mother and grandmother.

You can contact the programme by emailing – thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Presented by Ruth Alexander

Produced by Beatrice Pickup and Rumella Dasgupta

(Image: Rahul Raina cooking chicken yakhni, a Kashmiri dish, with his mother Sunanda Dhar. Credit: BBC)

How did salt get so gourmet? Jun 28, 2023

Show notes

Salt has been a staple ingredient in cooking and preserving food for thousands of years.

It adds flavour to food, preserves it, and keeps our bodies functioning.

In recent years, gourmet brands have emerged and some consumers have been willing to pay higher prices for rock and sea salts.

Ruth Alexander finds out how this trend started and asks whether there’s anything special about speciality salts.

She speaks to Jess Lea-Wilson, Ronan Burns and Rob Jardine about how Halen Mon seasalt is made in Anglesey, Wales; Craig Cormack, ‘The Salt Chef’, about the salt tasting sessions he runs in South Africa; and Rajesh Shah of Vikas Center for Development about how technology is improving conditions and profits for salt workers in the Indian state of Gujarat.

If you would like to get in touch with the programme, email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk.

Presented by Ruth Alexander.

Produced by Julia Paul.

(Image: a spoonful of salt. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Can you feed a city from its rooftops? Jun 21, 2023

Show notes

Could our office, apartment and public buildings also be farms?

In this programme, Ruth Alexander meets the pioneers of rooftop farming, turning concrete into green spaces where fruit and vegetables are grown.

We find out about the logistics, the challenges, and whether it has the potential to feed city populations.

In Barcelona, Spain, she meets Joan Carulla, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday. Joan has been tending his private rooftop vegetable garden for fifty years with the help of his son, Toni. They’re joined by friend and fellow rooftop gardener, Robert Strauss.

Ruth speaks to Kotchakorn Voraakhom, a landscape architect in Bangkok, Thailand. She designed a farm on the roof of a university in 2019, the largest in Asia at that time.

And Mohamed Hage, co-founder and CEO of Lufa Farms in Montreal, Canada explains how they are farming rooftops on a commercial scale. To date the company has four rooftop greenhouses and an indoor farm, which produces enough food to feed about 2 per cent of the city’s population.

Presented by Ruth Alexander.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: Joan Carulla sat on a bench in his rooftop garden in Barcelona, Spain. Credit: BBC)

The power of heritage brands Jun 14, 2023

Show notes

Tabasco sauce, Lea and Perrins, Angostura Bitters. Those are a few of a very select number of sauces, condiments and tipples that have weathered changing tastes and trends over the years, even outliving their founders.

How do some brands manage to survive for 100, 150 or 200 years?

In this programme, David Reid lifts the lid on some of these store cupboard stalwarts to reveal the secrets of their longevity, heritage appeal, and what happens when a company tries to ‘tweak’ a winning recipe.

If you’d like to contact the programme you can email – thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: Tabasco sauce bottles)

Presented and produced by David Reid

How did TV cooking competitions get so big? Jun 07, 2023

Show notes

Television cookery competitions are big business – drawing audiences in their millions over multiple series. How did they become such a successful format?

In this programme we go behind the scenes with competitors and judges. Ruth Alexander speaks to chef Simon Wood, who won the BBC’s 'Masterchef' in 2015 and today runs two restaurants of his own in the United Kingdom; New York based chef Marcus Samuelsson, who has both competed in and appeared as a judge in multiple different shows including 'Top Chef', 'Iron Chef' and 'Chopped'; and food writer Gail Simmons, judge on 'Top Chef' in the United States for all twenty seasons to date.

Tasha Oren is Associate Professor and Director of the Film and Media Studies Programe at Tufts University in Massachusetts, United States. She describes how food television has evolved over decades.

And Ruth speaks to World Service listeners Mutinkhe Kaunda in Zambia and Andrew Laverghetta in the US about what they look for in a TV cooking competition.

Clips from 'Iron Chef Japan' used courtesy of Fuji Television Network, Inc.

If you’d like to contact the programme you can email – thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Presented by Ruth Alexander.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: a hand holding up a trophy. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Let’s take a lunch break! May 31, 2023

Show notes

A lunch break can tell you quite a lot about a country’s work culture; ranging from two-hour, luxuriant pauses in some parts of the world, to a couple of minutes, snack-in-hand at a desk, in others.

For decades, people have built up camaraderie by meeting informally and in person, but technology and the pandemic have changed that.

In this programme, Ruth Alexander goes in search of the meaning and purpose of the lunch break; from power lunches in the heady world of international finance, to a simple snack and a chat with a colleague, and asks, what do we stand to lose if we don’t take a proper break?

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: Two female colleagues, laughing over a meal. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

Teaching tomorrow's chefs May 24, 2023

Show notes

Why go to culinary school when you could learn on the job?

Three trained chefs-turned teachers make the case for learning the basics and getting a qualification that could open doors in a competitive world.

In this programme Ruth Alexander hears what it takes to be a great culinary teacher. She speaks to Gary Maclean, Executive Chef at City of Glasgow College in the UK, he’s Scotland’s national chef and won the BBC’s Masterchef the Professionals in 2016; Suzanne Storms, Assistant Professor at the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong where she manages the culinary arts and management degree; and Alexandra Didier, Chef Instructor at Le Cordon Bleu Paris.

If you’d like to contact the programme you can email us – thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Presented by Ruth Alexander.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: a chef instructs a student in a kitchen classroom. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

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