The Food Programme

Sheila Dillon investigates some of the food stories behind Ireland's economic collapse and asks what role food will play in deciding the Republic's future?

Sheila Dillon investigates the appeal of shellfish - bivalves and molluscs - from the point of view of taste and sustainability and asks why we don't eat them more in Britain. She finds out what has happened to the marine environment in Lyme Bay since a scallop dredging ban was introduced in part of it and about the implications of a proposed mussel farm there. She discovers why whelk fishing is a big export industry with low environmental impact and oysters are ecologically friendly. Chef Mark Hix shows what can be done with the lesser used varieties like whelks and razor clams.Producer: Harry Parker.

Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett prepares a hearty winter's meal for Sheila Dillon using ingredients from the Best Producer category of the 2010 BBC Food and Farming Awards. On the menu was pumpkin soup, spiced up with a spoonful of chutney from finalists The Tracklements Company, and served with a rather superior cheese on toast made with ciabatta from winner and artisan baker Alex Gooch and cheese from finalist Brenda Leddy's Stichill Jersey cows. For the main course (in Monday's programme), there was a roasted loin of rare breed Gloucester Old Spot pork from Richard Lutwyche, winner of the Derek Cooper category, an example of successful conservation of a breed through consumption of its meat. And for dessert, a blow-out of lemon posset made using cream from Stichill Jersey cows, and a crostata combining the Tracklement Company's seasonal medlar jelly, with spiced poached pears. A perfect feast for a cold winter's day.Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Sheila Dillon, with the help of some famous food lovers (including Giorgio Locatelli, Cyrus Todiwala, Fuchsia Dunlop and Bee Wilson) hears about their favourite kitchen gadgets. From a 300 year clockwork roasting spit to a 21st century thermal blender, what are the must-have qualities of these kitchen necessities? And how do you choose from the ever increasing plethora of expensive all-singing-all-dancing gizmos on sale in large kitchenware departments. Producer: Dilly Barlow.

Sheila Dillon traces the legacy of Elizabeth David's more scholarly work and reviews food writing in 2010 with blogger and critic Tim Hayward, photographer Jason Lowe and publisher Anne Dolamore. We hear from Elizabeth David's literary Executor Jill Norman about the shift in her work from recipe-driven writing in her early career to the later, more academic books and debate who has taken on her legacy of more scholarly food writing today. Producer: Elaine Lester.

Panettone and chocolate logs - Sheila Dillon embraces two of the cakes replacing our "traditional" Christmas cakes on our Christmas tables, and ponders what what we mean by traditional when it comes to Christmas cakes. Panettone is a traditional Italian Christmas cake. John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at University College London and author of "Delizia! A History of the Italians and their Food" traces the history of this highly industrialised product from its Milanese origins, and the manufacturing of this "tradition". Reporter Dany Mitzman visits the Corsini Biscotti panettone factory in Tuscany where panettone is made in the traditional artisan style, using a mother yeast, slow proving, and cooling tipped upside down to allow the dome shape to set naturally, without additives. Their panettone is sold in through the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range. But you can make your own - Fred Manson returned from an Andrew Whitley breadmaking course clutching a panettone recipe, and has been making his own ever since. As a teenager Sheila Dillon's Christmas culinary rebellion took the form of baking a bouche de noel, the buttercream sculpted chocolate log believed to originate in France, and still produced by the hundred in smart patisseries today. Yule logs are now a popular range for both patiseries and supermarkets in the UK. This year's BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Award Food Champion, baker Richard Bertinet, baked Sheila his own take on the classic cake, adorned with gold leaf and powdered cabernet grape, and food historian Ivan Day tells its history in the UK. Producer: Rebecca Moore.

The Danish chef Rene Redzepi of Noma, the "World's Best Restaurant", forages for food in Lapland and London.He's become one of the most influential chefs in the world because of his use of wild ingredients, foraged from the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.With dishes that revive lost food traditions, that use unfamiliar ingredients like mosses, lichen, spruces as well as native fruits. fish and fungi he has succeeded in putting a part of Europe ignored for its cuisine on the gastronomic map.The idea of chefs and restaurants sourcing ingredients from the wild is not new, some already employ foragers but according to Joe Warwick, food writer, restaurant expert and the programme's reporter, Rene Redzepi has taken that approach to sourcing to whole new level.For anyone sceptical about the abundance of wild foods in Britain suited to the needs of a restaurant Redzepi goes on a foraging trip to north London's Hampstead Heath. There he finds a new ingredient, the service berry. Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon explores the varieties of venison - wild and farmed - we can now find in butchers and supermarkets in the UK. She joins a stalker in Berkshire and talks to the biggest game dealer in the country.Producer Dilly Barlow.

From Caribbean to Thai and Vietnamese - Simon Parkes looks at the latest trends in British street food and takeaway meals. And we hear from some of the finalists in the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards.Producer: Elaine Lester.

A distiller, a brewer and a cider maker - but who will be the first winner of the Food and Farming Awards Best Drinks Producer Award? Oz Clarke joins Sheila Dillon in Birmingham's NEC to reveal all.Food writer and critic Charles Campion and restaurateur and writer Mark Hix were the judges for this category and talk Sheila through the finalists. In this first year of the Best Drinks Producer category the judges were overwhelmed with nominations for innovative entrepreneurs making all manner of juice, perry, teas, and wines. But the three drinks chosen - a cask ale, a spirit and a traditional cider - have been made in these islands throughout our history.Sipsmiths are one of a new generation of artisan distillers riding the coat-tails of pioneer distiller Julian Temperley who battled H M Customs for the right to distil. Simpsmith's were awarded the first London distillers licence in nearly 200 years, and now produce a London gin and a barley vodka from their west London residential neighbourhood distillery. Mike Henney's Herefordshire ciders are the result of a hobby that got out of hand. From airing cupboard tinkering via farmers markets the brand is now sold throughout the country's main supermarkets, making good quality cider accessible to all. Henney's ciders all have protected name status, with apples sourced from within Herefordshire and the cider is made in a traditional way. Wye Valley Brewery is a family business started by Peter Amor and now run by his son Vernon. It brings new meaning to local produce - beers are only sold within 50 miles of the brewery, the majority of hops are grown within 7 miles, and one beer, the Dorothy Goodbody Imperial Stout, even used Herefordshire malting barley.

Sheila Dillon looks at new ideas for using food to save the British pub.With 40 pubs a week closing down and food sales starting to equal those of drinks, the role of food in the future of the public house has never been more important. Sheila Dillon explores how one pub has come up with a groundbreaking solution to keeping business thriving. Producer: Dave Battcock.

Over the past few months Supermarket price wars have halved the cost of one of Britain's best loved fruits - the banana. Even though retailers say they aren't passing cuts down to growers Sheila Dillon asks, whether our appetite for cheap fruit is having an impact on workers at the other end of the supply chain. We travel to Ecuador, one of the world's leading banana exporters, to explore the reaction on a plantation. Elsewhere, in Costa Rica, we hear a disturbing investigation into the lives of pineapple workers who accuse the big exporters of exploitation and union breaking to provide bargain fruit. And on the brighter side of pineapple growing we meet the woman who is working tirelessly to reintroduce farming of the exotic fruit to her island in the Bahamas. Producer: Deiniol Buxton.

Sheila Dillon hears from some of the world's disappearing food tribes and finds out why efforts are underway to preserve indigenous food cultures in north America, Scandinavia and in Scotland's Highlands and Islands. She travels to Turin for Terra Madre, the biannual gathering of food communities, farmers, fishermen and cooks organised by the international Slow Food movement. Among the 6000 delegates who'd travelled from 160 countries are people from indigenous communities like the Sami, nomadic arctic reindeer herders as well as native American rice harvesters, the Ojibwe.Scientists, agriculturalists and nutritionists are now taking more interest in these traditional cultures seeing them as valuable models of sustainable food production and offering fresh insights into human diets. But many of these food cultures are under threat because of disputes over land rights, prejudice and climate change and so work is underway to understand, document and support these communities. Sheila meets the people involved in making this happen.Producer Dan Saladino.

In these hard economic times does a Private Members Bill introducing new standards for the food sourced by public bodies stand a chance of becoming law? Simon Parkes visits Nottinghamshire, where some hospital meals and all school dinners are procured this way, to look at what such a change might mean in practice. The Nottingham City Hospital has been sourcing sustainably for 7 years, buying its meat and vegetables from local farmers. Food is fresher, higher quality, and no more expensive, and now over half the money the hospital spends on food goes into the local economy, benefitting local suppliers like dairy wholesalers Transfresh, and butchers Owen Taylor.Also 7 years ago Nottinghamshire County Council began its process of sourcing its school meals food sustainably, and has now achieved Silver Standard under the Soil Association Food for Life Partnership scheme. Donna Baines, School Food Development Manager, met Simon in Maloney's butchers, which now supplies all their meat, with Alison Maloney and Jeanette Orrey, school meals campaigner, to discuss the impact of these changes on the food, their finances, and the threats posed by the current spending review. The service is currently being "market tested" with a view to potential privisation. Conservative Councillor Andy Stewart explains what that might mean.In the studio to discuss the Bill are Labour MP Joan Walley (Stoke on Trent North) who tabled the Private Members Bill; Tony Cooke Government Relations Director of catering service provider Sodexo; and Kath Dalmeny, Policy Director of Sustain, which runs the Good Food for Our Money campaign. Producer: Rebecca Moore.

What food do students have access to, what do they eat? Sheila Dillon investigates the catering provided for students across the country in these financially straightened times. She talks to industry expert Chris Druce about the big catering companies and their expansion into higher education. She visits a food co-op at the School of Oriental and African Studies; Dan Saladino visits Plymouth University on the day it hosts its first farmers market and talks to stall holders, students, and Slow Food UK about its efforts to enrol students in its philosophy and approach to food. And Professor Warren Belasco from the University of Maryland describes how there's nothing new about student activism around food - think 60s, the University of California at Berkeley, the counter culture.Producer: Lucinda Montefiore.

Sheila Dillon hears from the people attempting to revolutionise the sandwich. We're now seeing the rise of food businesses specialising in just one type of sandwich using authentic recipes from around the world. The food entrepreneurs are making everything from the Vietnamese Bahn Mi through to the Argentinean Lomito, all are sandwiches which rely on the makers finding authentic bread to match the original recipe. This development is being watched closely by the large sandwich manufacturers supplying the supermarkets. The prepared sandwich business is with £3bn a year and is based on developing new ideas. Dan Saladino follows some sandwiches through the supply chain. Sheila is also joined by the food writer Bee Wilson, the author of Sandwich: A Global History. Producer: Dan Saladino.

Scagglethorpe Queening, Ribston Pippin, the Wass - Simon Parkes meets those restoring the orcharding tradition of the north, from the walled community garden at Helmsley to the orchard village of Husthwaite, and samples some of the commercial fruits of these orchards including a new cider brandy from the orchards of Ampleforth Abbey. Dr Joan Morgan, apple expert and author of the seminal New Book of Apples, outlined many of the great northern varieties at the RHS London Autumn Harvest Show. Michael Jack, President of the National Fruit Show, and a BBC Food & Farming Awards judge, samples some of the orchard drinks: Cheshire Apple Juice from Eddisbury Fruit Farm, Husthwaite's cider, and Ampleforth's cider brandy. Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Sheila Dillon looks at some of the latest developments in airline food. The supply chain is beginning to open up and innovative producers from the north east of Britain have succeeded in winning contracts to supply leading airlines. One of these suppliers - 'Look What We Found' - has led the way in technology to deliver quality ambient food in a bag. They've converted this to a tray of food that can be heated and eaten during a flight. Gate Gourmet, one of the largest providers of airline catering in the world, has had its difficulties in recent years - strike action and radical restructuring. Now back on its feet it has just opened a new £10m production kitchen. Sheila Dillon visits the new facilities and sees for herself the challenges of feeding and pleasing millions of people a year consuming meals 30,000 feet up in the sky. producer: Lucinda Montefiore.

Sheila Dillon looks behind the scenes of the world's largest and smallest pasta factories. It's a difficult time as wheat prices are high and so competition for grain is fierce. Fires, droughts and speculation in the wheat market together with poor harvests of durum wheat is creating a rise in prices. Pasta producers all over the world compete for the best quality semolina, produced from the milled, high protein and low yielding durum crop.John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at University College London, outlines the rise and rise of pasta making in Italy dating back to the Middle Ages. Sicily had a large scale pasta export business dating back at least 1000 years but it wasn't until Italy's economic boom of the 1960's that pasta became a truly national dish.Reporter Dany Mintzman follows five tonnes of spaghetti as it travels along the production line of the world's largest pasta factory, owned by Barilla, a family owned business started in the 1870s.Farmers in the UK used to grow durum wheat when it was an EU subsidised crop. Although it is best suited to hot and dry weather conditions a lot of it was then used by British companies producing dried pasta for the supermarkets. That is no longer the case and the last factory selling mass market pasta stopped production in 2001, unable to compete with the vast scale of the Italian producers.However in Cornwall, one farmer, Charlie Watson-Smyth has spent the last two years trying to grow durum wheat and then turn it into pasta to sell in his farm shop. As reporter Dilly Barlow discovers it's been such a success that he's now supplying The Eden Project and restaurants around Padstow. Produced by Dan Saladino.

Northern Ireland's new Focus on Food policy, published earlier this summer, aims to put food at the heart of economic growth, and encourage value added, and quality, food production. While in the South the food revolution of the past 30 years created a plethora of innovative, quality food businesses to feed a burgeoning tourism sector, in the North the food and farming industries have been more commodity focused, and have lagged behind on the quality front. The Focus on Food strategy aims to provide expertise and support to stimulate the food and farming sectors, which, after the public sector, are the single biggest employers in the region. Sheila Dillon visits two new value-added businesses, the sorts of enterprise Focus on Food is designed to encourage: Mash Direct, selling a range of mashes and vegetable dishes fresh through the retailers and providing an economic future for the family, and Glastry Farm whose dairy herd provide the milk for their premium ice creams based around regional produce like Armagh Bramleys, and strawberries. She also talks to established artisan baker Robert Ditty. Is the government strategy enough to kick start quality food entrepreneurism in Northern Ireland? And in the era of public-sector cuts will the financial back-up be available?

Ice Cream : Everyone seems to like ice cream and with the market worth an incredible one billion pounds a year, it would seem to be recession-proof. This programme explores the market and the marketing. There has been an explosion in the number of artisan producers so how do they all compete? And what keeps the big players at the top of their game? What is real ice cream anyway? And, what is the difference between ice cream and gelato?Sheila Dillon presents the programme from one of the UK's best loved ice cream parlours and is joined by expert Robin Weir who has spent the last twelve years updating his book, "Ice Cream, Sorbets and Gelati" - co-authored with wife, Caroline, - and widely recognised as the definitive guide to ice cream.

Chef Mark Hix travels to Transylvania to help revive a disappearing food culture. From cheese making shepherds to pickle producers, he meets the people improving food in Romania. Producer: Dan Saladino.

Richard Johnson is on a mission to revive the fortunes of the British kebab.A life long lover of the world famous street food he's convinced that a more authentic kebab culture can flourish in Britain. On his travels he finds out how and why it became so popular here and where most of the UK's kebabs are made. Then, in order to understand the authentic techniques used in Turkish kebab making Richard travels to Istanbul and Bursa home of the Iskender kebab, a form of doner. Will the family run business share its secret recipes and methods and help revive the kebab's reputation in Britain? Produced by Dan Saladino.