Food Programme

Sheila Dillon investigates the causes and consequences of the current record highs in the price of coffee.

Growing exciting food, while benefitting from, and combatting, climate change: Sheila Dillon visits's Mark Diacono's "climate change farm" in Devon.

Simon Parkes traces the history and influence of food served at royal weddings and feasts.

Artist Sophie Herxheimer collects and draws food stories, and for four months she's been meeting people in Margate to record their food memories.

Borough Market's phenomenal success has brought with it fears that tourists have driven out real food shoppers,and rising rents may price out small food producers. Sheila Dillon visits Britains foremost quality food retail market to find out how success is treating it.

Sheila Dillon investigates the ways in which the mafia has influenced food in Sicily.

Sheila Dillon explores a food story behind the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. In 1861 Italians came together as one nation, but does food reveal a different story? Sheila travels to Sicily where she hears how the island's powerful food culture is seen as evidence by some of disappointment with the creation of a nation state. She meets food historian Mary Taylor Simeti who explains how menus in the 19th century show how Sicilians rejected the temptations of food from the mainland and further afield.

Natural Wine is the latest buzz in the wine world but what is it? Sheila Dillon discusses and samples this chemical and additive-free "new" wine that was in fact quaffed by the Ancient Romans.

Frozen food has been the clear winner of the recession. But couldn't it be a bit more interesting? Simon Parkes looks at the premium French chain Picard, and asks why our own freezer aisles are often rather desolate, bargain driven wastelands.

Food writer Tim Hayward goes in search of British charcuterie - the preserved meat that we tend to think of as Contintental. He meets a couple whose hobby smoking meats has turned into a career; a shopkeeper, a publican and a restaurateur who cure hams and salamis on the premises for customers, and a pig farming family who have taken to curing their own pork. He learns about the British traditions of salting and pickling meats and talks to author Lindy Wildsmith about how we can do it at home - and even has a go at making his own bacon.

Simon Parkes reports from Japan on new ideas being developed for the future of the nation's food supplies.

Sheila Dillon investigates the role malt plays in our drinks and diet. Malt is a natural ingredient in many but many people won't realise how ubiquitous it is as well as it being an important export for the country. Sheila talks to a distiller, a baker and a brewer about malt's remarkable properties and visits a traditional maltster to find out how malt is made.

Food and the coalition. How does the government intend to change the way Britain eats? Sheila Dillon interviews Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.

Filtered, skimmed, standardised, homogenised - Sheila Dillon explores the changing face of milk.

Sheila Dillon explores the past present and future of cooking and food preparation in the school curriculum. She learns how it was introduced in the 1800s to educate girls for domestic service and is now part of the design and technology syllabus. Sheila looks at two approaches to food education in a primary and a secondary school and hears from interested parties the reasons for making cooking compulsory at secondary level.