When the bread baking craze took off during the pandemic, many of us encountered sourdough starter for the first time: a concoction of flour and water playing host to a colony of micro-organisms — most importantly: yeast. Without this single-celled fungus, we would have no leavened bread, no wine, no beer and no spirits. So, what role does it play? And how long have humans partnered with this miraculous organism?

Doctors and scientists around the world are increasingly alarmed by the impact that industrial processing is having on the food we eat and by what that food does to our bodies. Ultra-processed foods may last longer and taste good, but our guests explain, they are designed for overindulgence, and they are linked to health problems like obesity and an increased risk of some cancers.

If you took the sodium chloride out of human history, you would have a very different and strangely flavourless tale to tell. Salt has historically been one of the world's most valuable commodities. Its discovery, extraction and commodification has shaped the story of humanity. So, let's take a trip from the test tube to the kitchen, to salt tolerant plants that could revolutionise agriculture.

This is an episode of Blueprint for Living, originally broadcast on March 24, 2018.

The food we eat at school matters. Some Australian children get too much of the wrong thing, while others get not much of anything at all. In these early years, the food habits of a lifetime are being set, and study after study shows the link between nutrition, attention and learning. If almost every other high-income country in the world is providing free or subsidised lunches for school-aged children, why is Australia an outlier?

Where did the word 'curry' come from? Was the word used in the pre-colonial era? Spoiler: It wasn't. So, if curry is an impostor, overshadowing India's rich culinary history and its diverse range of regional expressions, how did so much of the world come to understand Indian food in such simple terms?

Whether it is Nigella, Stephanie or Yotam on your shelf, there's a good chance that you and I are cooking from the same book. The two best-selling books in Australia in 2024 were both cookbooks — and they were both written by Nagi Maehashi, the founder of the website RecipeTin Eats. Her two books — Dinner and Tonight — have together sold one million copies worldwide. So, what is it about the floury, greasy pages of a cookbook that unite us and shape our conceptions of food?

The cost of living crisis is having a significant impact on the way we eat. Restaurants are struggling, and diners are changing their habits — skipping dessert or opting for water over wine. But it doesn't end there: for many Australians, affording a healthy home-cooked meal is a challenge. Yet, some fine dining restaurants are thriving — so, what's going on?

Onions and their flavourful relatives feature prominently in cuisines across the globe, with a history of cultivation that goes back thousands of years. Onion recipes have even been found on the cuneiform tablets of Ancient Babylonia. So, what is happening under the skin of this many-layered bulb to make it such a versatile and essential ingredient?

You say tomato, I say… bleurgh. How is it that we can have such different experiences of the same foods? Taste and flavour: What are they and how do they work? We meet some of the top flavour scientists working today, including the researcher who discovered that there are 'supertasters' among us.

Is there anything you take more for granted in your kitchen than the cutlery drawer? We hardly give a second thought to the humble tools that carry food from plate to mouth. But maybe we should. There's history here, and stories of changing preferences and assumptions within cultures. Fork or fingers? Cut or tear? They say you are what you eat, but it turns out how you eat matters, too.