The Food Chain

The real Willy Wonkas

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ra...

Fasting and feasting

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 Chai...

Why we love dumplings

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dumplings feature prominently in cuisines around the world. Some, like the Ghanaian kenkey, or the Irish dumpling, are balls of dough. But in many cou...

The fifth taste

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sweet, sour, salty, bitter and... umami. Have you heard of the fifth taste? Umami, meaning ‘delicious flavour’ in Japanese, was discovered by a ch...

The school cooks

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 customer...

Is this ultra processed?

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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, an...

Table talk

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Detroit's urban farmers

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Rebuilding Turkey’s food culture

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In February 2023, two earthquakes devastated parts of Turkey. The disaster claimed the lives of nearly 60,000 people in southern Turkey and northern S...

Is Chinese food the best in the world?

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 s...

How to invent an apple

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever wondered why the apple you bite in to is so crisp and juicy? And why it’s available all year round? Apples originated in the mountain...

The preservers

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Humans have preserved food to make it last longer for thousands of years. In this programme Ruth Alexander learns about different methods of food pres...

Another year away from home

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ruth Alexander talks to two families displaced by the war in Ukraine, as they reflect on their second year away from home. They discuss the difficult...

Festive food stories

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We take a trip around the world with BBC World Service presenters and listeners, finding out which are their favourite foods when a celebration is in ...

Feed your brain

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our brains require 20% of our body’s energy intake, despite making up, on average, only 2% of our body weight. There are nutrients that are needed f...

How to stop cooking killing

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s estimated that more than 2 billion people use polluting stoves - with severe consequences for their health. The World Health Organisation says ...

Pesticide exports

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many countries allow the manufacture and export of pesticides that are banned for use in their own countries. Recently France and Belgium have intro...

Food for new mums

23 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Seaweed soup, aniseed sprinkles on toast, pig trotter soup and fried chicken. In this episode Ruth Alexander learns about what your body needs postpar...

Eco scores on food labels

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The European Union wants to introduce one system for scoring the sustainability of food products. The new requirements are likely to be introduced in ...

How to read a menu

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Pan fried, artisanal, gourmet: there's a fashion for foodie words. Why? In this episode, Ruth Alexander finds out how restaurants use language, psych...

Cooking in extreme places

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Wherever humans go, whatever we do, we need to eat. In this programme, we meet the people cooking at the extremes. We hear about the chefs serving up ...

Why is food so expensive in Ghana?

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ghana’s inflation rate is one of the highest in the world, much of it driven by rising food prices. In this programme Ruth Alexander asks how Ghana ...

The rise of private chefs

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Ruth Alexander is exploring the growing market for professional home cooking and asking whether you’re guaranteed the luxury experience y...

How to feed a city

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

More than half of us globally now live in cities. The United Nations estimates that by 2050, that number will be closer to seven out of ten of us. Ho...

Can you eat your way to 100?

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What if you could reach a great age through your dietary choices? Imagine – that the food you eat has a direct effect on how long you live. An appea...

Bonnie Garmus: My life in five dishes

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bonnie Garmus, author of the bestselling novel Lessons in Chemistry, shares the story of her life through five dishes. Ruth Alexander meets Bonnie in...

What's in a national dish?

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many dishes have become famous national symbols both at home and abroad, for example Italian pizza, or British fish and chips. Whilst such dishes can ...

The taste test

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Consumers have the buying power but how much are they considered when a brand decides to make a change? In this edition of The Food Chain Ruth Alexan...

The art of food diplomacy

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As India welcomes the world’s biggest economies for the G20 meeting this September, we look at the role that food might play in top level discussion...

Feeding baby

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Weaning refers to the process of introducing your baby to solid foods, alongside breast milk or formula. In the UK, the NHS suggests this normally hap...

Stop chewing like that!

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine not being able to sit and eat at the dinner table with your family without feeling furious. The little-known condition of Misophonia, often ...

Banh mi: A sandwich with a story

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The banh mi is a staple street food in Vietnam and increasingly popular around the world. But how did it come to be a global sensation? In this editio...

The Little Italy story

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Italian food is one of the most popular cuisines in the world, but how did it first make its way out of Italy? In this edition of The Food Chain, Ruth...

This kid cooks

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At what age should you start teaching children to cook, and why should you? In this programme, Ruth Alexander meets children and young people who are ...

Immersive dining

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Immersive dining has become something of a culinary craze in recent years. As well as serving food, restaurants are providing multi-sensory experi...

Africa's forgotten foods

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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. ...

What the wedding caterer is really thinking

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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. I...

How I learnt to cook

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

How did salt get so gourmet?

28 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 f...

Can you feed a city from its rooftops?

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Could our office, apartment and public buildings also be farms? In this programme, Ruth Alexander meets the pioneers of rooftop farming, turning concr...

The power of heritage brands

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tabasco sauce, Lea and Perrins, Angostura Bitters. Those are a few of a very select number of sauces, condiments and tipples that have weathered chang...

How did TV cooking competitions get so big?

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Let’s take a lunch break!

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 coup...

Teaching tomorrow's chefs

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 qua...

Is the food you’re eating what you think it is?

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How can you be sure you’re eating what you think you’re eating? In most cases, food fraud won’t make you ill, but you won’t be getting quite w...

Should we farm octopus?

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The world’s first octopus farm is being planned by a Spanish seafood multinational. The intelligent creatures are difficult to rear in captivity, bu...

A dish fit for the King

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The crowning of a British monarch calls for an official dish. In 1953, for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, it was a curry and mayonnaise chicken...

The growth of GM food

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Genetically-modified food has long been a subject of debate. It was first introduced to market in the United States in the mid 90s. Since then, some ...

How AI could design our diets

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every day, humans make multiple choices about what to eat. Some of those decisions will be better for our health than others - but what if we allowed ...

Is this the end of the British caff?

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The British "caff" - slang for café, and home of the breakfast fry up, or "full english" - is under threat. Many have closed, struggling to compete w...

Can small farms feed the world?

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What’s the best way to produce affordable food, that’s good for the planet, and can feed us all? Is it even possible to have all three? In this pr...

Bringing dark kitchens into the light

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dark kitchens are the multi-block commercial units allowing virtual brands and events companies to prepare and deliver food. They’ve got a mysteriou...

What do medics really eat?

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Long days, unsociable hours, a hectic and pressurised workload – the working environment for health care staff is full of challenges. Maintaining a ...

How to photograph food

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anyone who has taken a photo of their plate in a restaurant knows how hard it is to make food look good on camera. An industry is dedicated to advert...

A taste of home

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Facing the trauma of having to abandon your home because of war or climate change, how do you find solace in food that is no longer your own? There ar...

The joy of feeding birds

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Humans have been accidentally feeding wild birds for millennia; any leftover food scraps to be scooped up by opportunistic, feathered friends. The de...

Feeding the VIPs

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do you make Michelin Star-level food, for hundreds of people, in a kitchen you just built in someone’s garden, and with no access to cooking gas...

The growth of food banks in Africa

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Food banks have operated for decades in North America and Europe. They are generally operated as non profits, connecting food businesses that have was...

What's the best pasta shape?

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Spaghetti, penne, farfalle, gnocchi, lasagna – just a few of the 300-plus shapes of pasta in existence. And there are some very strong opinions abou...

What's the big deal about fine dining?

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Noma – considered by some to be the ‘world’s best restaurant’ - has announced it will close in 2024. The news has prompted headlines around th...

Why can’t my child swallow?

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 ma...

The ghost writers

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 t...

The opera singer's diet

12 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 hom...

Chefs who changed course

05 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 thi...

Cooking with love

29 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 c...

A Ukrainian table at Christmas

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Hard to swallow

15 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Why does Africa import a lot of food?

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 inf...

Eggonomics

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 place...

Samuel Ikua: Global Youth Champion 2022

24 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 t...

Food as rehabilitation

17 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Eating With Our Ears: The Sound of Food

12 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 e...

Island diets

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this programme we explore the realities of island diets. Ruth Alexander hears how diets are changing, and what this means for population health. In...

The buffet business

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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,...

Forbidden food: The Jews of Spain

26 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s Sephardic Jewish community has its roots in Spain and Portugal. The Hispanic Jews lived for many centuries in those countries but faced incr...

What do astronauts eat?

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Can farmers influence food prices?

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Inheriting grandma's pan

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 cumbers...

Who owns seeds?

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 see...

Food for mood

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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...

The flavourists

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Meet the flavourists – the people who bring together art and science to create the flavours in our food. Each crisp, soft drink, or toothpaste flavo...

Inside food safety scares

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Food contamination is a serious public health problem around the world. The World Health Organisation estimates that 600 million – almost 1 in 10 pe...

Tomorrow’s food crops

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 perfo...

Running a restaurant with your relatives

24 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Liquid gold: The price of cooking oil

17 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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...

What can we do about drought?

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Water shortages are getting worse with climate change. In the Horn of Africa, long periods without a rainy season have created a dire situation. The W...

The food illustrators

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Meet the artists tasked with creating pictures that look good enough to eat. If it wasn’t for them, you might not have bought that particular tin of...

Fuelling a female footballer

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Good quality nutrition is key to sporting success. But while plenty of research exists on the impact of nutrition on performance, most of it has been ...

Why use food for fuel?

20 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Biofuels are a way to make our cars, lorries and even planes run on renewable fuel. They’re often made from food crops. Globally 7% of cereal crops...

In search of a food champion

14 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From tackling poverty and hunger, to maggot farming, to harnessing the power of seaweed - since 2017, The Food Chain has been celebrating and rewardin...

The fungi kingdom

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s not just fauna and flora, there’s a third, much overlooked kingdom of life – fungi. Fungi are essential for plant and soil health, and the...

Lemn Sissay: My life in five dishes

29 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The internationally acclaimed poet and playwright Lemn Sissay OBE shares the story of his life by recalling five memorable dishes. His is an extraordi...

Menopause and diet

22 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The menopause can cause all sorts of changes in your body – weight gain, hot flushes, sleeplessness and joint pain amongst others. Can what you eat ...

What's up with airline food?

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Aeroplane food doesn’t have the greatest reputation. Though it might be easy to blame an airline for serving lacklustre meals, the problem is more c...

The recipe translators

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Many chefs reach global status, with international demand for their latest book. Spare a thought for the translators, tasked with making their recipes...

Shop like the Queen

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II marks 70 years on the throne, we find out how you get a royal warrant. It’s an official seal of approval granted t...

Feeding the imagination

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What do writers eat to stoke their creative fires? George Orwell is said to have had a penchant for plum pudding, while Agatha Christie was partial t...

How a stoma changed my life

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Thinking about how food passes through your body may not be something that crosses your mind, but for people who have had stoma surgery, they’re awa...

The problem with wheat

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Wheat is one of the most important grains worldwide: you’ll find it in bread, biscuits, pasta, sauces, sweets and more besides. Indeed, take wheat p...

The hot sauce sensations

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hot sauce can inspire fervent passion in its devotees. It’s a global obsession that translates to billions of dollars of sales a year. But with so m...