The Food Programme

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Salt, Pepper... and Seaweed? May 26, 2015

Show notes

Highly regarded for its health benefits, people living by the shore have been eating seaweed for millennia. In Ireland, it was part of a prehistoric diet, and taken to ward off illness. In New Zealand, seaweed was a Maori delicacy. In Iceland, it was served daily, dried with fish, butter and bread. And seaweeds in many forms continue to be a major part of day to day cooking in China, Japan and Korea.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, the harvesting of seaweed for food is worth upwards of 5 billion US dollars every year.

Yet many of us still associate the greens with Asian food, or experiments in haute cuisine.

But now a new generation of wild food entrepreneurs, are asking us to change our habits, and to rethink seaweed as something that can be enjoyed in every meal, for every occasion.

Sheila Dillon hears stories of finding food from the sea. People harvesting and cooking with seaweed. And as seaweed enters the mainstream, she hears how age old harvesting traditions, could be under threat.

This programme includes the fifth instalment from the Ark of Taste series.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

The Spice Explosion May 17, 2015

Show notes

This is more than a story about chicken tikka masala. The UK's palette is changing with a demand for far more spice and pizzazz in our menus and larders. The UK currently imports almost double what it did in the year 2000. Much of that demand has been attributed to the UK's changing and diverse population - not only in home cooking but introducing recipes and dishes to a wider market. Travellers exploring exotic countries have also returned with a taste for spice blends. However spice is more than a simple ingredient - it can also be part of a story about identity, health, family and life.

Cyrus Todiwala travels to Easton in Bristol for the Spice Festival to meet those for whom spice is part of their lives. For him spices have been used for health as well as to bring flavour to his dishes while cooking in India and opening restaurants in the UK. He meets the man whose family fled Uganda while under the rule of Idi Amin, losing everything but their love and knowledge of spices led his father to source and share ingredients, eventually serving food and is now an 'Aladdin's cave' of exotic spices and ingredients for individuals and restaurants across the South West. He meets the chai wallahs who now sell on street corners of Bristol as well as Bombay and hears about the backpacker whose craving for the Indian snacks he tasted led him to set up his own business with over 300 products and blends.

Get some fire in your belly and hear how spice plays a role in commuity, culture and culinary delights.

Presented by Cyrus Todiwala and Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Jane Grigson - A Tribute: Part One May 11, 2015

Show notes

Jane Grigson was a unique and pioneering voice in food writing; a self-taught cook whose books and journalism changed British food culture. Twenty-five years after her death, Sheila Dillon is joined by three special guests to explore her life, food and legacy.

This is part one of a special two-part edition of The Food Programme, recorded in front of an audience at Bristol Food Connections festival on the 4th of May.

On stage with Sheila is Geraldene Holt, food writer, author of 'Diary of a French Herb Garden' and Chair of the Jane Grigson Trust, the award-winning chef Shaun Hill who has cooked his way through Jane's books and also cooked for her, as well James Beard-nominated author, Telegraph food columnist and cook Diana Henry.

From 'The Fruit Book' to 'Good Things' to 'Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery', to her long running articles for The Observer, Sheila Dillon and her guests explore a voice that, despite gradually becoming less familiar, really does still matter today.

Readings by Kerry Elkins.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon Producer: Rich Ward.

The Legacy of the BBC Food and Farming Awards May 04, 2015

Show notes

Sheila Dillon reports on how 15 years of the BBC Food and Farming Awards have captured the revolution in the streetfood business, witnessed the rise of a new generation of brewers and distillers, chronicled the rise of new types of food markets and marked major changes in the supermarket supply chain. Over the last decade and a half, through receiving thousands of nominations, the judges have been able to spot early on new ideas and changes in the UK's food culture. Sheila talks to judges past and present and former finalists and winners to describe the big shifts as seen through the awards.

Retail analyst and former judge Robert Clark and Policy Director of Sustain, Kath Dalmeny join Sheila to talk about key stories and innovative ideas they've encountered through the awards.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Rich Ward.

Diet and Diabetes May 04, 2015

Show notes

In the UK, there are 3.2 million people who are living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and a further 600,000 who have Type 2 but just don't know it yet. And those numbers continue to rise.

In the first few months of this year, the charity Diabetes UK received over 300 calls from newly diagnosed diabetics asking what they can and can't eat. It seems there's plenty of confusion about what foods need to be eaten to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and a misconception that a diabetes diagnosis means never eating sugar again.

This week, Felicity Evans is discussing some of the issues surrounding diet and diabetes. Her guests in the studio are; G.P, author and broadcaster, Dr Hilary Jones, dietician, Azmina Govindji, Simon O'Neill from Diabetes UK and Saturday Live's J.P Devlin, a Type 1 diabetic for more than 30 years.

They will offer practical tips on some of the best food choices, debunk a few myths and look at how it can change someone's life. Plus what does the latest research say about the type of diet diabetics should be eating.

Presented by Felicity Evans and produced in Bristol by Julia Hayball.

School Dinners - A Progress Report Apr 20, 2015

Show notes

Ten years on from 'Jamie's School Dinners', Sheila Dillon is joined by children's food campaigner and former dinner lady Jeanette Orrey and Co-Author of the School Food Plan, Henry Dimbleby to look at the state of school food and discuss how new international relationships could make British school food better.

It's also 10 years since Sheila visited Sweden to see a free school meals system known for nutritious food, where students and teachers dine together. This spring, Tony Mulgrew, Catering manager at Ravenscliffe High School in Halifax and 2014 winner of Best Cook at the BBC Food and Farming Awards, set up an exchange with Lyndon McLeod, school chef in Gislavedin Sweden. Their aim? To bring together school chefs around the world and share ideas on improving school food online.

Our panel also hear from the Copenhagen 'House of Food', an innovative centre that's creating a school food culture in the city where there used to be none.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

The Ark of Taste Apr 14, 2015

Show notes

Dan Saladino meets the people working to save foods and flavours at risk of extinction. A global project called the Ark of Taste is now attempting to catalogue traditional ingredients in more than 100 countries.

It was started in the 1990s when a group of Italian Slow Food campaigners realised the flavour of a traditional street food snack had changed. The reason was that chefs could no longer source a local variety of pepper. It's led to thousands of people all over the world submitting their local traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables, rare breeds of livestock, cheeses and other products into the Ark.

As the leader of the project Serana Milano explains it's not just a list. Once an ingredient is placed in the catalogue work begins to find ways of saving it. An early example was a traditional cheese that was being made by one elderly producer. The Ark project led to a group of young producers learning how to make the cheese and so the recipe and technique has been kept alive.

Slow Food is now working with the European Commission, United Nations and Google to record the stories from the Ark of Taste and support projects to keep food diversity thriving around the world.

As Dan explains earlier examples of this work can be found across the UK going back more than a century. Writers including Florence White (Good Things In England), Dorothy Hartley (Food in England) and F. Marian McNeill (The Scots Kitchen) and researchers such as Minwell Tibbott (Welsh Folk Museum) made records of how we produced food and cooked in earlier times.

Presented and produced by Dan Saladino.

The Joy of Eggs Apr 05, 2015

Show notes

We were once told 'Go to work on an egg' but health warnings later saw us cut the number we eat. As the US Dietary Advisory Committee drops its advice on restricting egg consumption Sheila Dillon asks if we're falling back in love with the egg. Similar limits in the UK were lifted several years ago after evidence suggested their cholesterol did not have a significant effect on our blood cholesterol after all.

The amount we eat in the UK is now continuing to rise and the trend for keeping hens at home or in community projects has seen many people collecting their own too. Sheila Dillon asks if the humble egg is breaking free of a tarnished reputation and proving itself to be a versatile protein provider worth celebrating.

She hears reports from US where yolk-dodgers have demanded white-only 'heart healthy omelettes' and similar concoctions while in Silicon Valley a 'solution' to the egg has been created in a plant protein based alternative which they claim can mimic many of the egg's functions.

But back in the UK she finds a more celebratory atmosphere - a major retailer has begun supplying guaranteed double yolkers, Neil Rankin, founder of 'Bad Egg' Restaurant has kept his supplier in steady business while Genevieve Taylor found her hens laid so many she had to create new recipes to use them all. Has the egg been given too much of a bad rap and is now breaking free and what does the future hold?

Presented by Sheila Dillon and Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sweet Britain Mar 29, 2015

Show notes

The nutritional debate over sugar doesn't seem to be putting off a new generation of sweet makers in this country. Sweets sales seem stable, and new treats are being created and exported all over the world.

Sheila speaks to sweet makers Freya Sykes and Steven Bletsoe who are giving new life to a forgotten sweet and an old family recipe. She looks at the state of the confectionery market today with help from The Grocer magazine, and Jeremy Dee, Managing Director of family sweets firm Swizzels. And sweets historian Tim Richardson shares a bag of sweets with Sheila that cast light on a long history of sweetness in the UK.

Sheila asks what's still driving our love affair with sweeties - young and old, old and new.

Presented by Sheila Dillon Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Food Waste Pioneers Mar 22, 2015

Show notes

Dan Saladino hears three stories of how three very different individuals are reimagining food waste - solving problems, discovering flavours, and changing lives.

Chido Govera grew up in rural Zimbabwe, and was orphaned aged seven. She suffered abuse and struggled to find enough food for herself and her younger brother. But she found a way out of her situation - through the power of mushrooms - becoming an acknowledged specialist in growing edible fungi using food and agri-waste.

Chido is now teaching hundreds of orphans and other vulnerable people in Zimbabwe and beyond how to break the cycle of poverty and abuse, and delicious mushrooms are at the heart of it all.

Isabel Soares, an engineer from Portugal, set up Fruta Feia (or ugly fruit) to deliver perfectly good fruit and veg that were being discarded by the big retailers, to a willing community. Its community co-operative model is now wildly successful in Lisbon.

John Greany Sørensen is a scientist by day, chef by night, who in his lab at the University of Copenhagen stumbled accidentally on a way of creating something truly extraordinary from rejected vegetables - veg crystals.

Presenter: Dan Saladino Producer: Rich Ward.

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