The Food Programme

Simon Parkes tells the story and legacy of the legendary and maverick chef George Perry-Smith. In 1952 he opened The Hole in the Wall restaurant in Bath. He had no formal training, took inspiration from domestic cook books and changed the British restaurant scene forever.Producer: Dan Saladino.

A special edition with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen looking at the history of kitchen designs and the designers who have influenced the most important space in our homes.Producer: Maggie Ayre.

In a series looking at the people who've changed the way we eat, The Food Programme profiles the campaigner and cheese expert Major Patrick Rance.In the 1950s he set up a shop which offered a rare sight: row after row of British cheeses. By promoting and selling farmhouse cheeses he saved many from extinction.Later in the 1980s he became a prolific writer publishing The Great British Cheese Book in 1982. For the first time home-produced cheeses were documented and explained. He inspired a new generation of farmers, producers and retailers to bring a food culture back from the brink.Chef Richard Corrigan, writer Juliet Harbutt and cheese expert Randolph Hodgson all explain why Patrick Rance's legacy is still alive today.Producer: Dan Saladino.

The Food Programme looks at Scotland's first ever national food policy, introduced by the SNP, to try and join up every aspect of food production and health in the country. Presented by Sheila Dillon. Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Sheila Dillon looks back at the life of Mario Cassandro - the man who helped re-invent the restaurant in Britain.Together with his business partner, Franco Lagattolla, Mario Cassandro helped make dining out in 1960s Britain a far more fun, informal and gastronomically pleasing experience. A former waiter from Naples he created Soho's Terrazza Restaurant. As well as attracting the like of Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and Princess Margaret it was a restaurant that brought together all layers of British society.They were all keen to experience a new look in restaurant design (care of Enzo Appicella, the man who went on to create the look of the early Pizza Express restaurants) as well carefully sourced and authentic ingredients.Mario Cassandro passed away this summer, former Good Food Restaurant Guide editor Tom Jaine described him as one of a small number of people who helped transform the restaurant industry in the UK. Tom joins Sheila to help tell his story.Producer: Dan Saladino.

Yeasts, mysterious members of the fungi kingdom, are an essential part of our food production. They play a critical role in baking, brewing, wine-making and much more.Dr Bill Simpson is the Managing Director of a company in Leatherhead that has hundreds of samples of yeasts, old and new, frozen in liquid nitrogen. By preserving different yeasts from around the world his team are able to recreate ales and lagers from the past.Vincent Talleu stumbled upon baking by chance but is now consumed by a passion for good, tasty, healthy bread. Working with a twenty-year-old Swedish yeast 'starter' in an artisan bakery in London, he believes that 'real bread' must be made as it used to be; slowly. This allows the yeast to work its magic.Andrew Whitley is a food educator who started the Village Bakery with a yeast sample he brought back to the UK from Russia. For Andrew, there is absolutely no reason why natural yeasts cannot be used much more widely in bread-making, so that loaves with no synthetic additives and longer production times can be available to all.John Downes pioneered the Australian sourdough revolution in the seventies, and is now working daily with yeasts, recreating the indigenous loaf of the British Isles: ale-barm bread.Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon follows two schools as they attempt to transform the way their pupils eat.

Sheila Dillon investigates how emergency foods are made for disasters, droughts and wars. Companies developing meals for the crisis in the Horn of Africa explain their latest work.Sheila also visits one of the biggest emergency food hubs in the world, The United Nations' World Food Programme base in Brindisi in Southern Italy. From one warehouse, food for hundreds of thousands of people can be stored and dispatched within a few hours of a crisis call coming in. In Rome teams of nutritionists are looking into the very latest foods that can be sent around the world for populations affected by drought, conflict and earthquakes. Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon investigates the issue of trans-fats in our food, and asks whether a voluntary agreement by the food industry to eliminate them by the end of the year is enough to prevent the kind of health problems associated with a diet heavy in industrial cooking fats.

Ben Weatherall farms rare Blackface sheep and Galloway cattle on his remote hill farm near Dumfries, and aims to rear his animals with as little input as possible. He's one of a number of people working to keep food traditions alive in the Scottish Borders. Following the River Nith downhill, as the animals will be doing later in the year, Sheila Dillon also meets Jim Henderson who has overseen the transformation of this stretch of the river. Formerly polluted and with low fish stocks it is now clean and stocks are thriving. Jim also plays a key part in the ongoing battle with poachers.Ben's brother's farm is home to a rare herd of pedigree indigenous Ayrshire cattle. They're well known for their incredible cream and milk - but the raw (unpasteurised) milk is not allowed to be sold under Scottish law.Robbie Cowan, Tom Brown and Ronnie Clark practice the ancient Norse fishing technique known as Haaf Netting, a practice in harmony with fish stocks. They believe the survival of this method to be essential to preserving local heritage, yet it's not possible to make a living from it now as fish numbers are down.Producer: Rich Ward.