The Food Programme

Sheila Dillon and chef Michael Caines meet the three Best Food Producer finalists of 2022, a community farm in Sussex, a business making cultured butter, and processor of wild Scottish venison.Ardgay Game is a family run business which sources the highest quality wild venison from the Highland estates of Scotland. Their team of expert butchers turn this source of sustainable wild meat into a premium product which is exported all over the world.The Edinburgh Butter Co produce cultured butter made with traditional methods to create deep, rich flavours. Nick and Hilary Sinclair started the business from scratch in 2018 out of the desire to make delicious butter made from locally sourced cream, and now their products are used in hospitality, catering and deli shops as well as by artisanal bakers.Tablehurst Farm is a 500 acre community farm and social enterprise founded in the mid-1990s. They produce their own meat, poultry, vegetables, raw milk and arable crops to biodynamic and organic standards. At the core of their ethos is to involve the community at Tablehurst, inspiring others to farm and think about how food is produced.Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

As rising temperatures supercharge the UK wine industry, Jaega Wise finds out what this means for winegrowing at home and abroad, and the mixed blessing climate change presents. She finds out how winegrowers, viticultural scientists and wine trade experts feel about the double-edged sword of climate change, and what the future might look like for the industry both in the UK and further afield. In Sussex, we hear from winemaking duo Dermot Sugrue and Ana Dogic about their estate Sugrue South Downs, and how warmer temperatures have improved the ripening capacity of the grapes used to make their award-winning sparkling wines – putting them on a par with Champagne according to some. Wine critic Jancis Robinson has tasted the benefits of climate change on English and Welsh wine over the course of her career, and believes parts of England now have the climate to produce excellent red wines too. Noble Rot’s Dan Keeling, meanwhile, explains why he’s excited for the future of UK sparkling wine, and why some producers now stand their ground next to world-class Champagnes in blind tastings. Viticulture climatologist Dr Alistair Nesbitt shares the findings of a recent study looking at the next two decades of wine production in the UK. He believes we will begin to see more and more UK still white and red wine on shelves in years to come, and argues that sustainable winemaking plays a crucial role in the industry’s response to climate change. Producer Robbie Armstrong heads to Bordeaux to find out how one of the world’s largest and most famed wine regions is adapting, following a year that saw extreme drought, wildfires and the use of irrigation for the first time in decades. He speaks to a leading researcher at the Institute of Vine and Wine Science about their experimental vineyard, and a winemaker planting grape varieties that are better adapted to rising temperatures. Presented by Jaega Wise. Produced by Robbie Armstrong.

Dan Saladino explore three big ideas that are set to influence the future of food and farming: the reinvention of wheat, supplies of wild meat into hospital kitchens and 'taste education' for children. Each one is a contender in this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards, in the innovation category. Dan heads into a forest to see how the cull of a growing deer population is resulting in better hospital food. He visits a team of crop scientists who are taking wheat back in time and through its evolutionary history to create greater diversity and resilience. And inside a classroom he hears how the charity TasteEd is transforming the relationship children have with food and flavours.Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Welcome to the world of cocktails and the people who make them. As Jaega Wise discovers in this programme, it's a world of extremes. On one hand, in the past decade, bartending has become a respectable, profitable career for some. International awards and competitions have thrust people like Monica Berg of London bar Tayēr + Elementary, and Max Hayward of Cardiff's Lab 22 into the media spotlight. But the other side is darker. Zero hours contracts, long hours, bullying and harassment. And a hospitality industry which is stretched like never before. In this programme, Jaega Wise speaks to bartenders, business owners and writers to make sense of where the professional bartending world is, and where it's heading. Presented by Jaega Wise.Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

As energy bills rise to their new capped level at the start of October, Leyla Kazim shares some inspiring stories of giving that she has heard while on the road with the BBC Food and Farming Awards. Judging is currently underway for the Awards, which will be held for the first time this year in Wales. Given the financial situation the UK is in, with food inflation at its highest rate since 2008, perhaps it's no surprise that many of this years finalists are involved with getting food to people who are finding it harder to afford what they need. From pay what you feel shops, to allotments providing food banks with fresh veg, and cooking for the community, in the face of increasing need, and straight after dealing with the Covid 19 pandemic, our finalists keep stepping forward to support those around them. Organisations and individuals featured include: EMS Ltd in Hull, Big Bocs Bwyd in Barry, Mrs Mair Bowen from Kilgetty (Pembrokeshire), Mr Alun Roberts (Caernarfon). Presented by Leyla Kazim Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

The quality of hospital food around the country remains a very mixed picture, despite various initiatives over the last decades. But now there is real optimism around a major Independent Review of NHS Hospital Food in England, published in 2020. Sheila Dillon looks at the barriers that have been holding back progress, and talks to Prue Leith, an Independent Advisor for the review, about the latest on progress with carrying through its recommendations.Sheila meets catering teams at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, and the Royal Blackburn Teaching hospital, both part of a group of pioneering ‘exemplar’ NHS Trusts that are doing things differently with hospital meals, to find out how they’re building a model that others can follow.Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

The co-op that's saving land, a food culture and villages at risk of being abandoned. In Benevento, Italy, Lentamente is also giving former convicts a future through farms and food.Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Thirty years ago, Dave Myers, a specialist prosthetic make-up artist walked into a pub in Newcastle after scoring a job on a Catherine Cookson TV drama. Beyond the throng of TV crew sipping their white wine spritzers, he spotted the then assistant producer Si King, eating the pub's curry of the day at the pool table. He walked over, introduced himself and said to the landlord, "I'll have what he's having." That was the moment one of the UK's most popular TV double acts was born. The Hairy Bikers' food travelogues, diet and campaigning programmes have been on our screens for more than two decades, and in that time Si and Dave have written 26 books. Self-proclaimed home cooks, their cheerful presenting style and on-screen banter have won them awards and scores of fans around the UK and the world. In this programme Leyla Kazim asks Si and Dave how food and cooking have shaped their lives on and off screen, she hears the secrets to their enduring success, and hears from Stuart Heritage, TV critic for The Guardian, on why they still have much more road to travel together.Presented by Leyla Kazim Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

Sheila Dillon hears the story of one of the most loved and admired chefs in the business, Jeremy Lee, and celebrates the joy of his simple ingredient-led cooking. As chef proprietor at Quo Vadis in London’s Soho, and previously at the Blueprint Café, Jeremy Lee has been creating ever-changing regional, seasonal and historically inspired British cuisine. He learned in the kitchens of some of the key creators of what’s often called the Modern British Cooking movement, the qualities of which he has made distinctively his own.He chats to Sheila Dillon about the influences which have shaped his cooking, from growing up in a food-loving family in 1970s Dundee to the joy of shopping for the very best seasonal produce. Sheila hears about his reverence for his growers and suppliers, how he is inspiring a new generation of chefs, and of course, tastes his famous smoked eel sandwich.Featuring chefs Simon Hopkinson and Charlie Hibbert, food writer Rachel Roddy, and Frances Smith of Appledore Salads.Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

The latest calculations from economists point to an inflation rate for average shopping baskets of just under 12 per cent, but as Dan Saladino hears from has been retailers, analysts and supermarket customers, everyone is expecting that that figure to increase by the time winter arrives. Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.