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BBC World Service


The Food Chain examines the business, science and cultural significance of food, and what it takes to put food on your plate.


The Food Chain

Is it more expensive to eat healthily? 

You might think the answer is simple: Yes of course, if you buy fruits, vegetables, beans and pulses and cook from scratch. 

But is it that easy? 

With the help of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, Ruth Alexander finds out where in the world a healthy basket of food costs the most, and why globally, billions of people are priced out of a nutritious and varied diet. 

She hears from Frances in Nigeria, struggling to afford healthy basics for her family, and from Aurora in the US state of Arizona, who is out of work and has lost the food benefit known as SNAP. She's being supported by the charity St Vincent de Paul.

And even if you can afford healthy food, is it readily available within easy distance of where you live? Hear from the team running the mobile fruit and veg bus known as The Queen of Greens, tackling so called "food deserts" in Liverpool, North-West England. 

Plus your questions answered: How to eat well on any budget, with dietician Grace Derocha. 

Produced by Lexy O'Connor, Niamh McDermott and Beatrice Pickup 

Sound Engineer: Hal Haines 

Image: A woman with brown hair and glasses leans glumly on the handle of a supermarket trolley, contemplating the store's display of fruits and vegetables. (Credit: Getty) 

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

Is a healthy diet more expensive?

Ever wondered what the chef is eating? Snacking on the finest produce or surviving on thin air and caffeine? 

In this episode Ruth Alexander speaks to three chefs about how they get through the day, and the importance of the ‘family’ or staff meal. 

She’s joined by Juliette Feller, a Swiss chef working in London, Marisha Shukla a pastry chef in Bengaluru India, and Sam Grainger, an exec chef and restaurateur in Manchester in England. 

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

(Image: from left to right, Juliette Feller wearing a pinstripe blazer, Marisha Shukla wearing a white shirt and Sam Grainger wearing a blue denim apron. Credit: Fin Nichols, Victoire Terrade, Sam Grainger)

What do chefs eat?

Do you have a local cafe, restaurant or bar that you go to all the time? Maybe the staff recognise you or know you by name, perhaps you even get special treatment. 

In this programme Rumella Dasgupta finds out why people like to return to the same place, and the commercial value to a business of having regular customers. 

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

Produced by Izzy Greenfield. 

(Image: a man sat at a bar chatting to a barman who is wearing an apron and cleaning a glass. Credit: Getty Images)

The regulars

Moving out of the family home can be a big first step at whatever age you do it. Paying bills, budgeting, shopping, and importantly cooking for yourself. 

In this programme Rumella Dasgupta asks what dishes you should be able to cook when you leave home for the first time. 

Rumella meets chef and food writer Claire Thomson and her daughter Grace Williamson in their kitchen in Bristol, England. Claire's latest cookbook, 'Dear Grace: Recipes from Your Mother for the Next Chapter in Life', was written when Grace left home for university a year ago. 

At Salford Youth Zone, a youth centre in the North of England, Rumella talks to teenagers about how confident they feel in the kitchen. 

Shahpar Salim in Bangladesh talks about the challenges of leaving home for a new country when she came to the UK for her studies. 

Food writer and editor Yeonjoo Jung explains why young people often live at home throughout their twenties in South Korea. 

And mothers in the United States tell us how mealtimes changed once faced with the so-called 'empty nest'. 

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

Produced by Beatrice Pickup. 

(Image: a young woman standing in a green open doorway holding a suitcase and looking hopeful. Credit: Getty Images)

Leaving home

What can food reveal about the people who came before us? From ancient meals and family recipes to the chemical traces left behind in bones and teeth, food offers remarkable clues about how people lived, travelled and survived.

In this episode, Ruth Alexander explores how historians, archaeologists and old cookbooks are helping us piece together the story of our past.

Historian Professor Peter Scholliers explains how something as ordinary as the changing price of food can reveal shifts in society, politics and everyday life. In India, author and historian Tarana Khan takes us inside a remarkable collection of two-hundred-year-old cookbooks from Rampur, uncovering forgotten recipes that reveal changing tastes, cultures and identities. And in Scotland, archaeologist Dr Sam Leggett explains how scientific analysis of ancient bones and teeth can reconstruct diets, migrations and even challenge long-held assumptions about the lives of people in the past.

They explore how food can reveal trade routes, social class, cultural exchange, climate change, migration and the choices people made around the dinner table centuries ago.

From old recipe books to archaeological discoveries, we discover how food helps us understand not only where we've come from, but how our relationship with food continues to shape the world today.

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Beatrice Pickup
Sound engineer: Hal Haines
Picture: Getty

What can food tell us about the past?

Have you ever asked yourself: should I do Keto? Is white rice good for me? Am I eating too many carbohydrates? If so, then this episode of The Food Chain is for you. Carbohydrate-rich foods are everywhere and they’re delicious. But are they good for us? Carbs have a reputation for spiking our blood sugar and making us fat. But is that reputation deserved? 

Ruth Alexander talks to Javier Gonzalez, Professor of Nutrition and Metabolism at the University of Bath in England and US-based dietitian Julie Stefanski from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to find out whether we’ve been approaching carbohydrates all wrong. 

Plus: are there some populations who need to think more carefully about carbs than others? Dr Nelum Dharmapriya thinks so. She’s an Australian family doctor with a special interest in metabolic health in South Asian populations. She advises her patients to make some tweaks to the traditional South Asian carbohydrate-rich diet and says it can be done without losing heritage and identity.

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

Produced by Lexy O'Connor and Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: A woman stares over her sunglasses as she slurps pasta from a fork in a sunlit garden.Credit: Getty images/BBC)

Should I cut down on carbs?

When should you eat your evening meal? Is it really better to eat earlier, or does it depend on when you go to bed? And if you do have to eat late, is there anything you can do to reduce the impact on your health?

In this episode of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander explores what science says about the timing of dinner. From our internal body clocks to the food on our plates, we examine how the evening meal affects our metabolism, digestion and overall health, and separate the evidence from the myths.

Circadian rhythm researcher Dr Emily Manoogian, from the Salk Institute in California, explains what happens inside the body as the day progresses, why eating close to bedtime can affect the way we process food, and whether biology cares more about the clock or our own sleep schedule.

Nutrition scientist Professor Sarah Berry from King's College London shares practical advice on what a healthy evening meal should look like. 

Around the world, however, people eat dinner at vastly different times. Food historian Professor Jeffrey Pilcher from the University of Toronto explains why meal times vary so much between cultures, how work, family life and history have shaped the evening meal, and why there has never been one universal way to organise dinner.

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Izzy Greenfield
Sound engineer: Hal Haines
Picture: Getty (plate of food indicating the time)

When should I eat my evening meal?

Listener Melanie wrote into The Food Chain to ask us to make a programme about the rising numbers of people who eat alone. She told us she often dines solo and sometimes finds the experience daunting. So today Ruth Alexander hears from Melanie and from other solo diners – some who find peace and joy in a table for one, and others who would much rather not be alone.

With the help of Sociologist Professor Eric Klinenberg from New York University, Ruth looks at what’s behind the global rise in single-person households.

And she hears how another Food Chain listener, Malvina from California, brought her friends together around the table, over a video call and how Nishi Singh, determined to enjoy a solo dining experience in Delhi, has turned it into a social media phenomenon.

(Photo: A woman holds a spoon up to her mouth as she eats from a bowl. She is sitting at a sunlit table next to a window, with large, leafy indoor plants behind her. She has long brown hair and wears a blue, ribbed, jumper and a silver necklace. Credit: Getty Images)

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

Producer: Lexy O'Connor 
Sound engineer: Andrew Mills

The rise of eating alone

Elite footballers are among the world's most finely tuned athletes. Every meal is carefully planned to fuel training, maximise recovery and prepare for the next match. But it wasn't always this way.

In this episode of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander explores how football's relationship with food has changed, from the days of steak and beef before a game to today's highly personalised nutrition plans.

Sports historian Professor Matthew Taylor traces the evolution of football's food culture, explaining why clubs once left players to fend for themselves and how attitudes began to shift.

Former Denmark international goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel reflects on how nutrition changed during his own career, and what modern players understand about food that previous generations didn't.

Mona Nemmer, former Head of Nutrition at Liverpool FC and a nutritionist with the German national team, explains what elite footballers actually eat before, during and after matches, how meals are tailored to individual players, and why feeding a squad is about far more than calories alone.

At major tournaments, those carefully designed nutrition plans have to work on the move. Giulio Caccamo, who was chef for the US Men's National Team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, takes us behind the scenes of feeding an international squad. From planning menus months in advance to serving players in hotels, training grounds and on flights, he reveals the logistical operation behind every meal, and why food can be as important for morale as it is for performance.

From pre-match pasta to post-match burgers, from sports science to supply chains, this episode explores what it really takes to feed footballers at the highest level.

(Photo: Erling Haaland looks up as eats a snack. His blonde hair is tied back. Credit: Getty Images)

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Izzy Greenfield
Sound engineer: Jack Wilfan

What do World Cup footballers eat?

With dining out becoming an increasingly expensive luxury, we find out how to order the perfect restaurant meal with top tips from a panel of seasoned pros. 

The Irish Times food critic, Corinna Hardgrave, veteran server and podcast host Brittany Felton and chef and hospitality advisor James Knight-Pacheco join Ruth Alexander to discuss how to make the most of a well-deserved meal from your hard-earned money. They cover everything from sharing dishes, whether to trust a waiter’s recommendations and if it’s best to stick to what you know – or try something more adventurous when visiting a restaurant with friends or family. 

We get the inside track from the diner’s table to the wait staff and of course the kitchen. Brittany Felton explains how her 15-year career as a server means she can quickly assess a table’s needs, even to the extent of working out what kind of meal and evening the diners would like to have. 

Corinna Hardgrave shares advice from her 20-plus years as a professional restaurant critic, including how to stay in control if you experience pushy or impatient wait staff when eating out. 

And chef James Knight-Pacheco shares his insight on when is the best time to order the special – and when to avoid certain dishes on a menu. 

Producer: Sam Clack and Niamh McDermott
Sound engineer: Hal Haines

(Image: Waitress taking the order of a group of friends eating at a restaurant - stock photo. Credit: Getty Images)

How to order a restaurant meal like a pro

In some corners of the world tipping a waiter or waitress would be considered an insult. In other countries, the exact opposite is true. So why did these dramatically different cultures of gratuity evolve, and how difficult is it to change them? 

We speak to two restaurant owners on opposite sides of the world struggling to reverse tipping norms – one restaurateur in New York explains why he eventually had to abandon a ban on gratuity, and another in Shanghai describes how difficult it is to convince Chinese customers that they should pay extra.

But is there any relationship between tips and service quality anyway? One academic who’s spent his life studying the custom has found it to be almost non-existent. So why do customers continue to tip? Apparently, it’s all down to guilt.

(Picture: A waitress refusing a tip. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

The tipping point

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