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BBC Radio 4


Investigating every aspect of the food we eat


The Food Programme

Dan Saladino explores stories of food and 'the elements', the theme of this year's Oxford Food Symposium. 

Expect surprising insights on earth, fire, air, water and much more.

For more than forty years the Symposium has celebrated, explored and shared research by scholars, enthusiastic amateurs, writers, and chefs from around the world, all united in the belief that food deserves to be treated as a serious, as well as a joyful, subject. 

Hundreds of 'symposiasts' gather at St Catherine's College each year, to submit papers, deliver presentations, discuss ideas and to dine - all based around a theme. 

Dan talks to some of the presenters about their interpretation of 'food and the elements'. Some took inspiration from the classical world (earth, air, fire and water), others explored food and the periodic table or climate and weather. 

In this 'mix-tape edition', stories range from the use of fire and ashes in food cultures around the world to the Trump administration's plan to remove 'chemical elements' from the diets of Americans. 

For more information about the symposium and this year's papers, go to: https://www.oxfordsymposium.org.uk/ 

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Food and the Elements

Sheila Dillon looks into claims that big food companies wield too much influence over government decisions and public health. The episode follows news from the youth-led campaign group BiteBack2030, which says its billboard campaign has been effectively silenced. The group recently organised a mock inquiry in Parliament, involving MPs, to share concerns about how junk food advertising and sponsorship are affecting the health of children in the UK.

Sheila also hears from a group of protesters who marched to Downing Street this month, shouting the message “Fight Fake Food.” Organiser Rosalind Rathouse, from the Cookery School on Portland Street, says the public needs to know how the food they’re eating is damaging their health. She is calling on everyone to learn to cook this summer. During the march, campaigners delivered a list of wishes to Downing Street, highlighting the changes they’d like to see in food policy.

Also featured are Jennifer Richardson from The BMJ, which has been investigating the impact of commercial influence on children’s health, and Cathy Cliff from the Soil Association, who submitted a Freedom of Information request to uncover the extent of food industry lobbying and its effect on government policy.

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Big Food, Big Power

The adventures of Barbara and Tom Good in Surbiton brought self-sufficiency to the small screens of the nation. Fifty years on from the airing of that first episode of The Good Life, Leyla Kazim is about to embark on her own sustainable living dream as she seeks to live off the land when she moves from London to Portugal. 

So what lessons can she learn from The Goods about food production – whether that’s animal husbandry or growing-your-own? And will she succeed when she can’t even speak the language? 

Leyla visits Groundswell, the Regenerative Agriculture Festival, in urgent search of advice. She speaks to Andy Cato from Wildfarmed, Rob Hopkins of the Transition Network and Helen Browning from the Soil Association. She also explores the forest garden of Martin Crawford in Devon as she plans her own food forest.

Produced by Robin Markwell for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Contains clips of The Good Life from Series 1, Episode 1 "Plough Your Own Furrow", Series 1 Episode 2 "Say Little Hen..." and Series 1 Episode 4 "Pig's Lib"

The New Good Life

Dan Saladino explores new science that's revealing the complexity hidden within our food.

In New York City he meets the team mapping previously unknown edible compounds in fruits and vegetables, many of which are thought to have health benefits. 

Will delving deeper into the 'dark matter' of food make it possible to produce food that's better for both us and the planet? Also in the programme is Franco Fubini, founder of the food businesses and author of In Search of The Perfect Peach, who for 20 years has been in search of ingredients with exceptional flavour. It's through flavour, Fubini believes, that we can create a food system that's better for us and also the planet. 

Dan also meets Dan Kitteridge, who, through the Bio-nutrient Association, is convinced that quality of food, and its nutrient density is dependent on the quality of the soil microbiome it grows in. 

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

The Periodic Table of Food

In this episode, social media chef and queen of potatoes, Poppy O'Toole, explores the world of her favourite ingredient, the Potato. 

Last year, Poppy appeared on Mastermind, choosing the history of the potato as her specialist subject. Let’s just say… it didn’t quite go to plan. So now, she’s joining the team at The Food Programme to fill in the gaps in her knowledge.

Along the way, she meets historian Professor Rebecca Earle from the University of Warwick, who explains how potatoes travelled from the Andes to Europe. She visits Lima, a Peruvian restaurant in London, where she speaks with sous chef William Coz about how potatoes remain central to Peruvian cuisine. Dr Stef de Haan from the International Potato Center shares how Peru continues to cultivate thousands of potato varieties.

In Suffolk, Poppy visits James Foskett’s farm to discover how he grows both organic and conventional potatoes. And she speaks with Dr Jean Beagle Ristaino—known by some as “the Sherlock of Spuds”—about her work investigating the pathogen behind the Irish Potato Famine.

The programme includes archive from Mastermind which is co-produced for BBC 2 by Hindsight and Hat Trick.

Presented by Poppy O'Toole
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Potatoes with Poppy O'Toole

With the price of olive oil soaring in the shops after drought disrupted production in Spain, Leyla Kazim looks into the English farms planting olive groves in the hope of bottling their own oil. She meets a farmer in Essex who explains that English growing conditions are more suitable than you might think and discovers a producer in Cornwall who has already started pressing his own extra virgin olive oil. So will olive oil from Essex or Cornwall become the new English sparkling wine?

Dan Saladino reports from Sicily where hotter conditions due to climate change are presenting new challenges for growers. Food historian Dr Annie Gray debunks some of the myths around olive oil consumption in England and Leyla learns the correct way to approach an oil-tasting from one of the country’s biggest suppliers. 

Produced by Robin Markwell for BBC Audio in Bristol.

English Olive Oil

Dan Saladino meets pioneering thinkers to hear about future food ideas ranging from edible protein sourced from chicken feathers to crops inoculated with fungi capable of tolerating a hotter climate.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino

A Food Revolution in Eight (More) Ideas

In this episode of 'A Life Through Food', Sheila Dillon meets one of the most provocative scientific minds of the last half-century: Professor Michael Crawford. Now in his 90s, Crawford’s pioneering research into the brain and nutrition has reshaped how we understand the essential role of food—especially Omega-3 fatty acids—in human development and health.

Long before Omega-3 became a buzzword on supermarket shelves, Crawford was uncovering its vital connection to brain function. His work, often at odds with mainstream science, has led to over 300 peer-reviewed papers and three books challenging conventional theories of human evolution and nutrition.

The programme also features chef and broadcaster Rick Stein, who reflects on Crawford’s influence and the importance of sustainable seafood. And we hear from Dr Anneli Löfstedt, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and Environment, who is building on Crawford’s legacy by exploring the links between nutrition, sustainability, and the future of food systems.

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced by Natalie Donovan for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Professor Michael Crawford: A Life through Food

The BBC Food & Farming Awards are back for 2025! 

Jaega Wise visits River Cottage HQ to meet returning head judge Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. They talk about what Hugh is looking for in this year's awards, what makes the West Country a special place for food and farming and some of the history of River Cottage. She also visits previous winners Westcombe Dairy who not only have been thriving since winning in their award, they have been something of an incubation hub sharing a site with other artisanal food businesses like Brickell's Ice Cream, Woodshedding brewery and Landrace Bakery. She also talks to Farming Today's Charlotte Smith and Mali Harries who plays Natasha Archer on the Archers about the Farming for the Future Award.

To nominate in this year's awards go to bbc.co.uk/foodawards where you can also find the terms and privacy notice. You have between 6am on 6th June and midday 30th June 2025 to nominate.

Presented by Jaega Wise
Produced in Bristol by Sam Grist

The BBC Food & Farming Awards 2025 Launch

Campaigners are calling for the ingredients of sourdough to be laid out in law. So are there too many loaves on sale that are more sourfaux than sourdough? Leyla Kazim investigates.

This programme features a visit to the Batch event at the Long Table in Stroud to meet baker and author David Wright as well as Chris Young from the Real Bread Campaign. Nutritionist Dr Vanessa Kimbell discusses how sourdough impacts on our gut health and bread historian Professor Steven Kaplan chews over whether more regulation is strictly necessary and questions how it would be enforced.

Cereal scientist Stanley Cauvain shines a light on a huge moment in British baking - the invention of the Chorleywood process - and Jules Chambe from the award-winning Wild Frog Bakehouse in Oxfordshire looks to his native France where the government did act to protect the beloved baguette.

Produced in Bristol by Robin Markwell for BBC Audio
Featuring the "Happy Knocker-Upper" 1960s Mother's Pride television advert featuring Dusty Springfield

Sourfaux

From Confederacy of Dunces to Absolute Beginners and On The Road, Dan Saladino explores cult novels to find out how writers Jack Kerouac, Colin MacInnes and John Kenney Toole used food.

Authors have always used food and drink in their narratives to help develop plots, bring characters to life and give a sense of place but Dan chooses three novels with in which food and drink plays a very specific role.

In Jack Kerouac's On The Road, the "beat life" of the 1940's and 1950's turns out to be one of feast or famine. The book, a disguised autobiographical work based on his travel journals across America, contains some of the most delicious and rich descriptions of food, as well as mournful accounts of hunger and longing.

Colin MacInnes, the author of the novel Absolute Beginners, set in late 1950's London, uses brief food and drink references to reveal the lifestyle and mind-set of a teenage counterculture and early modernist movement. DJ Ed Piller helps explains the surprising significance of a smoke salmon sandwich.

And then there's A Confederacy of Dunces. A comic novel whose main character Ignatius has a legendary appetite for the junk food of New Orleans.

Cult Fiction and Food

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