The Food Programme

Dan Saladino meets this year's collection of musicians from around the world who are cooking as they perform at the WOMAD festival.
What do their dishes reveal about global food history?
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

There are many ways to age a cheese so how best to refine its flavours over time? Welcome to the art of affinage - a French term that translates as "refining" a cheese - and a practice that is starting to take off in the UK. Sheila Dillon attends a competition to find the Affineur of the Year and discovers that the way you age a cheese can dramatically change its taste and texture. A cheddar can become more like a comté by changing the temperature, humidity and length of the ripening process. She hears from practitioners who regularly wash and turn their cheeses. Some have buried cheeses in coal holes, encased them in clay pots or even played them music to find new ways of making traditional cheeses taste differently. Experimentation with these techniques has led to new cheeses entering the market. In this programme the dark arts of affinage will be revealed.
Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Robin Markwell

Since January 2025, thousands of tonnes of common octopus, usually found in the Mediterranean, have been landed by fisherman off the south coast of England.
But it’s still not a regular feature on UK menus. In this episode of the Food Programme, Jaega Wise heads to Brixham fish market to find out more about what’s happening, and visits seafood restaurants taking alternative approaches to the challenge.
Rockfish owner and chef Mitch Tonks talks her through the difficulties of cooking octopus, and marine ecologist Bryce Stewart at Plymouth University explains why the creature could be here to stay. Jaega also explores what puts people off eating octopus - from tentacles to extreme intelligence. And we head to Guernsey to meet a fisherman whose business has been severely impacted, and try some “Octodog”.
Produced by Tory Pope.

Leyla Kazim revisits some of The Food Programme's most memorable stories to ask: what happened next? From 500kg of eels stranded in a holding tank in Gloucestershire and English olive oil being pressed in Lincolnshire, to the future of halloumi in Cyprus following an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease, and the impact of global politics on vegetables grown in Africa for UK consumers. Leyla returns to the people behind these stories to hear what happened after the programmes were broadcast.
Listen to the original programmes:
English Olive Oil
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002f00z
Why Is Africa Feeding Us?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002m1mz
Halloumi and hellim: The story of an island and its cheese
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jsc7
Eels and Elvers
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002lfhd
Consider the Eel: Part 2
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002t2kh
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Cacao prices broke all records and then crashed, Dan Saladino explores the fallout for farmers and the chocolate industry with Jack Thompson reporting from the Ivory Coast.
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino