The Food Programme

Sheila Dillon speaks to the writer Michael Pollan on the craft, science and pleasures of cooking. In his new book, Cooked, "a love letter to cooking", Pollan who is one of the world's most popular thinkers on food reflects on the value of being a cook and preparing our own food.From understanding the physics and culture of the barbecue to the art of fermentation, Pollan has spent the last two years researching cooking techniques around the world to help explain how transforming food has influenced our evolution and development over millions of years.Cooking, says Pollan, is "baked into our DNA", we are "the cooking animal". For that reason he examines what we've lost as rates of domestic cooking have declined since the 1960's and what it will take for more of us to make a meaningful return to the kitchen.Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon finds out why the debate about the role of sugar in our lives is hotting up. Recent books and news stories have re-awoken a forty year debate about what makes us fat.Robert H. Lustig is a paediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco. A lecture he gave on sugar has attracted more than three million hits. He makes a case that sugar is problematic, not just because it contains calories, but because the fructose component of sucrose interacts with our bodies in a very specific way. His claim that sugar not only causes obesity but a wide range of other conditions including type 2 diabetes, is disputed, but he's succeeded in capturing public attention. Sheila Dillon speaks to Robert Lustig about his research, and she explores other reasons why sugar is back in the headlines.

Sheila Dillon asks if food and nutrition should have a bigger role in treating cancer. Is the medical profession too reluctant to see food as an essential component in improving the well-being of cancer patientsProducer: Maggie Ayre.

Jancis Robinson remembers the specific bottle of wine which ignited her passion for both drinking wine and writing about it. She began reviewing for the University paper 40 years ago and has grown to become a world renowned author and critic on the subject.Sheila Dillon explores some of the big trends that have taken place during her career, from the growth of English wines, to the rise of supermarkets as the wine sellers to the nation.She talks about those who influenced her in the early years of tasting and writing and what she makes of other reviewers like Robert Parker who can decide the fate of a wine around the world.Produced in Bristol by Dan Saladino.

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.