The Food Programme

The Food Programme investigates whether the Great British food renaissance is over. With food prices rising and consumer confidence falling, has the UK's good food bubble burst?Sheila Dillon visits the Real Food Festival at Earls Court in London. It is a showcase for producers of fine food, and so a perfect indicator of how premium food products and sales are faring in the current economic downturn. Sheila meets chefs, farmers, producers and economists to discuss whether the British food renaissance is doomed, or in fact whether it ever even began.Presenter: Sheila Dillon, Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts.

Sheila Dillon reveals the secrets behind some of the world's great vinegars.Traditionally, the home of balsamic vinegar is Modena in Italy. But now there is a new breed of British producers who are turning their hands to making this viscous dark brown condiment, as well as others who are producing a sumptuous array of fruit vinegars.Sheila Dillon hears from the producers, both in Italy and in the UK, discusses the process and the products - and samples the end results with foodwriter and critic, Charles Campion.Producer: Dilly Barlow.

With coffee prices at a 30 year high Sheila Dillon traces the money we pay for a cup along the supply chain and also hears how it raises big questions for Fairtrade.Recently the price for coffee on the world market broke through the important $3.00 barrier. Just a few years ago prices were as low as 60 cents. Speculation from investors is one reason, but other factors like growing demand for coffee in Brazil and China look like creating a long term spike in prices. So what does this mean for growers and what will this mean for us? Will we start to taste the difference as roasters in the UK are forced to source different and cheaper beans?This price spike also raises big questions for the Fairtrade model. Current prices are way above Fairtrade's minimum price, so do coffee growers still need Fairtrade? Producer: Dan Saladino.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat. Presented by Sheila Dillon. Produced by Rebecca Moore.

Simon Parkes explores the connection between Royal wedding banquets and British food. From historic feasts with hundreds of lavish dishes, to present day 'austerity'.A visit to the Tudor kitchens of Hampton Court palace reveals the scale and grandeur of wedding feasts of the past. Power, wealth and their display was all-important, and food was a central part of this. Huge marzipan sculptures, models in food of St Paul's Cathedral, and in the case of James II, a feast with 145 dishes in the first course alone; nothing was too extravagant or beyond the skill of the working-class cooks who invented these dishes. And historically, even beggars on the street got to share the food of the wedding feast, after each layer of the aristocracy had enjoyed its fill.Food historian Ivan Day traces the evolution of buffets, wedding breakfasts, and looks at the influence of 'the first celebrity chef' - Patrick Lamb, master cook to four monarchs, and author of an early aspirational cookery book.And as bunting and trestle tables take their place in streets across the UK, The Food Programme asks whether royal food has left a legacy of public feasting which might enhance 21st century communities.Presenter: Simon Parkes Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

Margate's Food Stories - Pie Days and Holidays.The Food Programme follows Sophie Herxheimer an artist who collects and draws food stories. For four months she has been travelling around the seaside town of Margate in the south east to bring people's food memories to life through art.Her aim is to create an exhibition and a book to celebrate the people of the town and give them an opportunity to share personal stories. Once a thriving holiday destination for Londoners Margate is now trying to find a new identity. The recently opened Turner Contemporary Gallery is one step in that process. Sophie Herxheimer is hoping the food stories, and her drawings will also make a contribution to Margate's future. The project was launched at Christmas in the town's Tudor House and produced a wide range of stories; funny, sad, nostalgic, joyful, eccentric and thought provoking. People were invited to sit down, talk and watch their memories appear as Sophie drew them live. The work has been building up to the Easter bank holiday weekend when all of Sophie's drawings will be unveiled to the public.Producer: Dan Saladino Reporter: Sara Parker.

Borough Market, in south east London has been, and is, a food phenomenon. It took off in the 1990s, riding in the wake of the BSE outbreak that had led to a new interest in the source of our food. As it developed it looked as though a few seedy acres on the south bank of the Thames were going to give us, for the first time in decades, a market as good as the very best in France, Spain or Italy. And Borough's influence stretches beyond London: it served as a model for other local authorities for what a market could be, and how it could regenerate communities and areas. Even supermarkets imitated its ranges as urban wealth reached rural pockets. But the market's success has latterly been overshadowed by criticisms that it has lost its way, catering now for tourists not local cooks, and introducing rising tariffs on traders that some say threaten their businesses. Sheila Dillon charts the rise of the market with some of its founders, and asks the Chair of Trustees for the Borough Market, Peter Wilkinson, has this nationally important market lost its way? Producer Rebecca Moore.

Sheila Dillon looks at the role of food producers and farmers in combating the Sicilian mafia.The Sicilian "Cosa Nostra" emerged around the citrus groves of Palermo in the 19th century as control of farming and food production fell into the hands of estate managers and middle men.From that time the influence of the mafia over food production and distribution on the island has been extensive. In recent decades the work of investigators like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino did much to lessen the power of the mafia but its involvement in the food business continues to this day.Now, a new generation of entrepreneurs and anti-mafia campaigners are using food to send a message around the world that Sicily is breaking away from that past. Producer Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon explores a food story behind the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. In 1861 Italians came together as one nation, but does food reveal a different story? Sheila travels to Sicily where she hears how the island's powerful food culture is seen as evidence by some of disappointment with the creation of a nation state. She meets food historian Mary Taylor Simeti who explains how menus in the 19th century show how Sicilians rejected the temptations of food from the mainland and further afield.Producer: Dan Saladino.

Natural Wine is the latest buzz in the wine world but what is it? Sheila Dillon discusses and samples this chemical and additive-free "new" wine that was in fact quaffed by the Ancient Romans.Producer: Dilly Barlow.