The Food Programme

Inside one kitchen in Bristol, thirteen strangers from all over Europe gathered to share food and stories about food. The Food Programme was there to capture it all as the cooking got under way. As well as resulting in one of the most diverse menus ever assembled it was an event that explained why cous-cous can spark conversation, how a special Bulgarian dish can help tell your fortune and why a hippy commune in 1970's Exeter was ahead of its time in how we think about food.This unique event was the result of a project run by the Watershed arts centre in Bristol. The thirteen Europeans were taking part in a workshop to learn more about digital technology, food however, was the subject they would use to make this happen. In one day, participants from Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Turkey, France and the UK would come up with a dish that would help them tell their life stories. In Bristol they'd shop, cook, share their food and their stories. The progamme captured this special food event and a restaurant and menu that would exist for one night only.Hear the wonders of Bulgarian Banitsa, the pleasures of a Turkish Karnıyarık and the delights of a two hour meal over Algerian cous-cous.Producers: Dan Saladino and Hannah Briggs.

Charles Campion reports from Normandy in France as he helps judge the world black pudding championships, which features entries from Japanese, Austrian and Irish butchers.Each year the "knights of the black pudding", a long established organisation of food lovers, hold the annual Foire au Boudin. Nearly six hundred butchers from around the world enter the competition to help celebrate the ancient dish.As Charles discovers most of the world's great food cultures have some form of blood sausage and they vary in size, shape, texture and flavour. Although we've been making this dish since the arrival of the Romans, many parts of Britain have fallen out of love with the black pudding. The simple recipe of blood, barley, fat, onions and spices is affordable, delicious and a complete meal, and there are signs of a chef led revival. The competition, and the work on display of some extremely creative butchers provides many delicious reasons why this humble food really is worthy of a revival. Young chef and rising star James Winter based in Gloucestshire, also provides some tips on how to cook black pudding.Producer: Dan Saladino.

There's an army of lorries at work right now, transporting food and other goods all over the country. They keep food on our shelves and without them the UK's economy would collapse within days.But what's it like to work, live - and eat - on the road?Reporter Andrew Webb spends a day at the Orwell Crossing truck stop near the port of Felixstowe, with its 24-hour restaurant. Truck driver Dougie Rankine shares an audio diary of his perspective from high up in his cab, searching for the right meal at all times of day and night. Veteran driver John Eden recalls stopping off for nocturnal breakfasts in a notorious truck stop after negotiating 'suicide alley'.In this edition of The Food Programme, Sheila Dillon reveals a food story on very big wheels.Producer: Rich Ward.

Tim Hayward bites into Britain's growing chilli scene, from growers to expert eaters and those who like their chillies red hot.Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Sheila Dillon meets Madhur Jaffrey, Indian cooking legend, who's just returned from the sub-continent on her latest adventures into its vast food culture.This year the actress, broadcaster and food writer turns eighty. She left Delhi sixty years ago to pursue a career in the west, but still remains the world's most influential and respected exponents of Indian cuisine. With her BBC television series and more than fifteen books she's managed to convey the rich history and flavours of authentic Indian regional cooking. Now, as India becomes one of the most important economies in the world, and a nation increasingly interested in western tastes and modern brands, Sheila meets Madhur to reflect on her early food life in Delhi and to ask her about a rapidly changing India.This is a life story of exquisite family meals in the 1930's that mixed British and Indian traditions, of school lunches where food would be shared between friends from very different food backgrounds and where watching a mushroom dish, "devoured by greedy men" was one of the images that led her to leave India. The programme also includes a fascinating encounter between Madhur and a British food tradition, chips with curry sauce.Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon looks at the practice of fasting - then and now - from a religious and medical perspectiveProducer: Maggie Ayre.

Each January, with the arrival of the seville oranges, hundreds of people across the UK ritually boil and jar batches of marmalade, following family recipes and leaving their kitchens sticky and fragrant with citrus. But who's eating it? For years sales figures have been in decline and the under 25s say it's 'boring'.So Tim Hayward heads out to a little corner of Cumbria to the Dalemain estate where the amber preserve is celebrated at the Marmalade Championships. From 'dark and chunky' to 'any citrus' hundreds of home-made and artisan examples have been entered for judging while enthusiasts dressed in orange accessories browse the presentations.He asks whether marmalade, once commonplace on British breakfast tables, is dying a slow death or becoming the preserve of the wealthy or an enthusiastic elite. He also learns a worrying truth - could foreign marmalade makers now be beating us at making the best?Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Sheila Dillon looks at how our sense of taste develops throughout our lifetimes, and what happens when we lose it, through old age, illness or injury. Two hundred thousand people a year seek medical help over loss of taste, Sheila hears the story of Marlena Spieler, a food writer who lost her sense of taste following a road accident.

Sheila Dillon explores Africa's forest foods, both an emergency larder and source of wonderful flavours.With the support of Comic Relief and funds raised through Red Nose Day work is underway to tap into the potential of this neglected food source.From Shea butter to Maringa, Sheila tastes her way through this story with Tony Hill of the charity Tree Aid, and Malcolm Riley, "the African Chef", whose cooking career started in Zambia. On the menu, prawns stir-fried in an ingredient from the baobab tree, and as Malcolm explains, it's "modern African cuisine".Producer: Dan Saladino.

Hectic lifestyles are increasing the demand for ready-made, 'grab n go' convenient foods. Today's time pressed commuters buy bagels at the station or carry breakfast bars in their briefcase. Retailers have led this change - offering snack size portions and handy grab packs to stave off hunger. Gourmet 'food on the go' has been identified as a key growth sector and sales are increasing. Sheila Dillon asks if, in our hurry, we've forgotten the value of three square meals a day, eaten at a table at set mealtimes.She meets restaurant guide writer Richard Harden who takes her on a whistle-stop tour of the speedy choices on offer including the fashion for "the small plate menu". There's now no distinction between lunch and dinner - if you fancy a steak at 4pm most cities will be able to help. Consequently people seem to be losing track of when and how much they can eat. It's all just one long munchfest.Sheila also hears from staff and children at a Nottinghamshire school where pupils were arriving having had no breakfast and sometimes no dinner. Their response was to offer free breakfasts to those from families on low incomes but their experience offers some revealing insights into the eating habits of children across all incomes.With so many snacks to choose from, do those "on the go" have more nutritious options than simply crisps and a chocolate bar or should we be asking if there is a more serious cost to this new bite-sized way of eating? What is the true cost of speed and convenience?Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.