The Food Programme

Nearly every major city in the world has one- a district where Chinese immigrants have settled to live, work and eat. This week Dan Saladino takes you on a tour of Chinatowns around the world. From one of the oldest, in Manila, to one of the newest, in Johannesburg, Chinatowns create a global trail of economic and culinary influence. And the food that they serve reflects not only the tastes of home, but of the adopted countries. In this programme, made in collaboration with BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain, we ask how these urban communities reflect not only the history of Chinese immigration, but the changing role of China as a global power. Including visits to Havana, to look at the legacy of communism in a Chinatown that rarely serves Chinese food, and Shanghai, where the fortune cookie - a westernized version of Chinese cuisine is finding a new market at home. Producers: Kent DePinto & Sarah Stolarz.

Scotch eggs may conjure memories of Summer picnics, school dinners or even Alan Partridge but the humble bar snack has been elevated to a culinary canvas on which chefs can make their own mark and feature on the menus of some of the UK's top restaurants. Food writer Joe Warwick invites you to the madness and mayhem of the Scotch Egg Challenge at which chefs and retailers compete with traditional and unconventional recipes for the glory of the title of winner. But with Thai, Peruvian and vegetarian versions on offer how far can you go before it's no longer a scotch egg? What are the key essentials and when have you gone too far? Joe digs into the history of this bundle of glory, hears from chefs as they prepare for the big night and finds out why a pub can get packed to the rafters by people clamouring to try a piece of scotch egg heaven. Presented by Joe Warwick Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie BullockiPlayer photo by Laurie Fletcher.

Trish Deseine may not be a household name in the UK. But in France, the home of gastronomy, her 12 cookbooks, all written in French, have sold hundreds and thousands of copies, and influenced a generation of chefs, food writers and home cooks. She has won international awards and in 2009, was named one of the 40 most influential women in France by French Vogue magazine.But don't let a surname deceive you. Trish was born and raised in Northern Ireland, and now, after spending more than 25 years in France, she has released her first book on Irish food, and is returning there to live and work. 'Home: Recipes from Ireland' was released at the start of October and is already up for an Irish Book Award. Trish fronts a TV series on BBC Northern Ireland starting this week.In this programme, Trish speaks to Sheila about her life and career, and the people and food that have shaped it. They meet in Paris, Trish's home for most of her time in France, and she shares the food, flavours, and fresh produce which will always remind her of the city. Sheila asks Paris-based chef Stéphane Reynaud and the owner of the largest cookbook shop in the world, Déborah Dupont-Daguet, about the impact that Trish's writing has had in France. And asks why, after all these years, Trish is returning home to Ireland. Presented by Sheila Dillon. Produced by Clare Salisbury.

For many of us, a disappointing experience with an unripe or tasteless pear has coloured our opinion of what was once thought of as a superior fruit: "gold to the apple's silver".Sheila Dillon travels to Kent to meet Dr Joan Morgan, who is just publishing 'The Book of Pears - The Definitive History and Guide to over 500 Varieties', the product of years of research into and fascination with this fruit and all its manifestations.Joan shows Sheila the pear orchard at the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, one of the biggest fruit collections in the world, revealing the secrets of this unique collection - some 500 varieties of pear growing in one place.Domestic production is falling, imports are rising, and just one variety of pear, the conference, dominates the UK market.The once-prized varieties of cooking pear have been almost completely forgtten. Sheila invites cook and writer Nigel Slater to share his passion for what this fruit can do and how to look after it, and visits fruit farmer Clive Baxter who has invested in new technologies around storing and ripening. Dan Saladino tracks down the Gloucestershire-based distiller and cheesemaker Charles Martell, who has become enchanted by the intricacies and joys of the perry pear and the drinks it can make. As Sheila discovers, some people are working hard to restore a sense of enthusiasm around this ancient fruit, its flavours and its possibilities.Presenter: Sheila Dillon Producer: Rich Ward.

When was the last time you drank a simple glass of milk? Perhaps you view it more as an ingredient for cooking or to splash in your tea rather than a product of beauty with its own strengths and qualities? When the retailers slashed milk prices to lure in customers, treating it as a loss leader may have made the consumer also view it as a commodity and devalue it too. Is it simply the 'white stuff'?Dairy UK figures show an 18% decline in the average consumption of milk and milk products over the last 20 years. In the last year while volumes of milk sold on the market have increased slightly the value has declined. This Summer saw many dairy farmers protesting at supermarket depots, taking cows into stores and buying up all the supplies on the shelves in some branches.Meanwhile sales of many milk alternatives are rising despite costing more. Sheila Dillon explores how these milks are made and can be used, what they give us compared to cow's milk and why they've become so popular.Dutch 'milk addict and sommelier' Bas de Groot invites her for a tasting of milks, along with public health nutritionist Dr Helen Crawley and Professor Peter Atkins who's written about the history of milk. They discuss what could make us value the product more highly, what makes a variety distinctive and if it's possible to taste the 'terroir' of your pinta.

As a race, we humans owe a fair amount to the chicken. Throughout time it has been a religious deity, a medicine source as well as being a food. It's travelled the world alongside explorers, inspired scientific revelations and of course been the nub of the world's most famous joke.Today, chicken is the second biggest supply of meat protein in the world, and it's on the rise. More than four times as much chicken is now consumed in the USA than in the 1950s, and as new markets emerge in the Middle East and Asia, our hunger for chicken is only set to grow. To meet demand, the bird has become a valuable commodity, farmed and processed in a factory setting.In this programme Dan Saladino tracks the chicken from its roots in the Asian jungle, to its place on our dinner plates today with help from Andrew Lawler, author of 'Why Did The Chicken Cross The World'. He discovers how a competition in the 1950s had a radical impact on the type of chicken we eat and hears how genetics, cooking and art might have a role to play in preserving some almost forgotten breeds and tastes.Dan asks geneticist Professor Bill Muir where will we take the chicken next?Presented by Dan Saladino Produced by Clare SalisburyNB. Correction. The Buckeye chicken was developed in the 1890s, not the 1820s as stated in the programme.

Dan Saladino hunts down that flavour we call 'bitter', and asks if bitterness is disappearing from our food and drink - and why this matters.Bitter tastes are found all over the planet; wild leaves, fruits, vegetables and more. Bitterness is also charged with cultural and culinary meaning. It can be revered, sought after - but it is also a sign of toxicity, and is, it seems, increasingly being shunned.Dan Saladino talks to Jennifer McLagan, author of the James Beard Award-winning book "Bitter: A Taste of the World's Most Dangerous Flavour", who begun her epic journey into bitter following a conversation about grapefruits. Journalist and science writer Marta Zaraska has been tracking the de-bittering of our food, and reveals her findings, including the 'holy grail' of the assault on bitter. He also seeks out bitterness in the wild with forager and wild food specialist Miles Irving, and discovers the secrets of the bitter gourd (also known as bitter melon or karela) within a food culture that still deeply values bitterness, in the company of food writer and cookery teacher Monisha Bharadwaj.As Dan delves into the world of bitter flavours, he shares a bitter brew with Professor Peter Barham - author of "The Science of Cooking" - and visits the drinks laboratory run by cocktail experts Tony Conigliaro and Max Venning. Tasting bitter leaves, crystals, digestifs and more along the way, Dan asks what we stand to lose if we lose the taste for bitter.Presenter: Dan Saladino Producer: Rich Ward.

The continuing conflict in Syria has caused millions of people to flee the country. Images of men, women and children living in camps, walking vast distances and even risking perilous journeys by boat or stowed away on trucks have been shown around the world. Life in many regions for those who remain is also in turmoil. While seeking safety, many also face a challenge to survive. Dan Saladino asks how those from Syria - the world's biggest producer of both internally displaced people and refugees - manage to eat and feed their families and the cost and long-term effects of both the conflict and displacement.Syria has an ancient food culture and was once a bread basket for the Middle East but conflict has damaged agriculture and food supplies to many areas. The World Food Programme explain how they manage to transport food through territory occupied by so-called 'Islamic State' and also how they feed the thousands in refugee camps in bordering countries like Jordan.Dan hears from one refugee who paid traffickers to get him to Europe after he was threatened by IS and the Assad regime. He explains how he survived and ate when on an extended and dangerous journey. Now in the UK he shows Dan what he buys to cook and eat. Ingredients for Syrian dishes can be hard to come by or out of budget so he shows how he's adjusting to make it work.From daily bread to the loss of an ancient food culture, hear how the the conflict and displacement of Syrians means for the long-term rebuilding of infrastucture and tradition in the place they call home.Music used in programme: Qoum Ya Nadim by Zein Al JundiPresented by Dan Saladino Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

This is a race against time. Earlier this year The Food Programme set out to record stories of foods around the world facing extinction, a project that has provided dramatic accounts from the depths of Anatolian caves to the heights of Indonesian rainforest canopies. In this episode Jamie Oliver, Thomasina Miers and chef Paula McIntyre talk about the tastes, flavours and ingredients which are facing extinction.The gathered stories all come from the Ark of Taste; an ever-growing list of endangered foods from 100 different countries across the world. Created by the International Slow Food movement, the food NGO founded in Italy 30 years ago, the Ark of Taste is backed by the United Nations as well as the European Union. As the biblical reference indicates, this Ark is on a mission to prevent extinction and protect biodiversity.The Food Programme is about to start a new mini series of stories found within the Ark of Taste. Each week - in Monday's edition of The Food Programme - listeners can hear about an ingredient or recipe, find out why it is disappearing and why it is important to save. But before he unveils a new batch of forgotten flavours, Dan Saladino plays out some of his favourite stories from our last series.Produced by Becky Ripley.

Jam. Think sticky apricot and saccharine strawberry? Think again. Our British love affair with jam goes back to the sweet-toothed 17th century. But now our interest seems to be waning. Shop sales of jam are down amid concerns over the amount of sugar we consume. And anyway, who has time for preserving pans and pretty pots?But there is another way. In fact there are many. In this programme, 'queen of preserving' and author of 'Salt Sugar Smoke, how to preserve fruit, vegetables and fish' Diana Henry, meets the people thinking differently about jam. She finds out how to use some of this year's gluts of fruit with Mary Longford, the woman behind Absolute Preserves in Somerset, discovers a beloved but forgotten fruit with gardener and food writer Mark Diacono; And speaks to Fraser Doherty, the man whose healthier jams have made him an international icon with an MBE to boot. With advice from American preserves blogger for 'Food in Jars' Marisa McClellan, Diana hosts a canning (or jamming) party and explores culinary traditions of jam making from Scandinavia, Ukraine and beyond with food writers Olia Hercules and Camilla Plum. Recipes from around Europe which won't require shiny new kit.Diana Henry wants you to rise up, and make jam.Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.