Opera is viewed as something of an endurance sport in the musical world. Hours spent on stage, in costume, doing a very physical job far away from home comforts can take its toll on the body if it’s not adequately fuelled.

As Ruth Alexander discovers in this programme, diet is of paramount importance to a professional singer.

Sopranos Rachel Nicholls and Lucy Schaufer, and Fred Plotkin - opera and food writer and friend of Luciano Pavarotti – share the secrets of the relationship between singing and sustenance, and what foods can help achieve a star performance.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

The piece of music at the start and end of this programme is If Music be the Food of Love, by Henry Purcell. Performed by Rachel Nicholls.

(Picture: Pavarotti eating from a spoon. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

Working as a chef can be creative and rewarding when people love your food, but it can also be demanding, requiring long and antisocial hours.

In this programme we hear about the highs and lows of working in some of the world’s best kitchens, and why it ultimately isn’t right for everyone.

Ruth Alexander speaks to three chefs who chose to leave the profession. Former head chef Philip Barantini in the UK is now a TV and film director, his film Boiling Point, released in 2021 is about a chef struggling to run a successful restaurant. Genevieve Yam left behind Michelin starred restaurants in New York to become a food writer, she’s currently culinary editor at the website Serious Eats. Riley Redfern was a pastry chef in Michelin starred restaurants in San Francisco and New York, having lost her job in the pandemic, today she has a new career as a software developer.

If you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised in this programme, such as alcohol and drug dependance, you can access support via the BBC Action Line page - https://www.bbc.co.uk/actionline/

Excerpts from Boiling Point used courtesy of Vertigo Releasing.

Presented by Ruth Alexander.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: chef cooking with open flame in frying pan in a professional kitchen. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Why hold on to an old clay pot, a worn-out metal spoon, or a plain glass bowl?

Earlier this year, we made a programme celebrating old and cherished cookware and received a huge response from World Service listeners.

So, in this edition, Ruth Alexander hears your stories of the poignance that can be found in the most unassuming kitchen utensil, and explores a few other tales we’ve uncovered of cooking with love.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

Ukrainian cookbook writer Olia Hercules reflects on why it's important to mark this festive season, and the traditional dishes she’ll be serving at the Christmas table in London this year.

Can you imagine what you would miss if you lost the ability to eat?

Swallowing is something most of us take for granted, but around 8% of the general population are believed to experience some difficulty swallowing – known as dysphagia.

In this programme, Ruth Alexander talks to one of the estimated hundreds of millions of people who have struggled with swallowing food and drink, and to those who are trying to make the condition better understood.

She speaks to California-based Sonia Blue, who lost the ability to swallow after having surgery; chef Niamh Condon, in Cork, Ireland; and Professor Bronwyn Hemsley, head of speech pathology at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Always seek advice from a qualified health care professional with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

(Picture: Pureed apple on a spoon. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

2022 has seen record food prices. Many African countries have been badly hit because they import their staples – wheat, rice and oil. A lack of infrastructure and capacity in some countries means that food grown in Africa is often not processed into packaged food products, instead those items are imported from outside of the continent.

In this programme we speak to two women who run food businesses in Zambia and Ghana, to talk about the impact of rising food costs, and whether this year’s food crisis could be the impetus for Africa to be more self-sufficient. Ruth Alexander is joined by Monica Musonda, founder and CEO of Java Foods, which manufactures fortified noodles and cereal products in Zambia and Yvette Ansah who owns two restaurants, Café Kwae and Kwae Terrace in Accra, Ghana, BBC West Africa business reporter Nkechi Ogbonna joins from Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy by gross domestic product to talk about the impact of rising food costs there.

Presented by Ruth Alexander.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: aerial view of a large ship transporting rice, unloading cargo onto smaller ships. Credit: Getty/BBC)

Eggs – a nutritious and affordable source of protein.

Or they were. The cost of a box of eggs has been rocketing around the world. And in some places, where it’s long been common to start the day on an egg – supplies are under pressure.

In this programme, Ruth Alexander explores the challenges egg producers are facing - including what can be done about the seemingly ever-present threat of avian influenza.

She speaks to Amanda Mdodana, a poultry farmer in Mpumalanga, South Africa; Phillip Crawley, a poultry farmer in Leicestershire, UK; Mark Jacob, poultry and egg economist in Arkansas, US; and Professor Munir Iqbal, head of the Avian Influenza Virus group at the Pirbright Institute, UK.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

(Picture: A chicken standing next to an egg. Credit: Getty/BBC)

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

Samuel Ikua is championing urban farming in his city, Nairobi in Kenya.

Samuel undertook an urban farming course in 2015, run by a local NGO called the Mazingira Institute. Seven years later Samuel is the project coordinator at the institute, training other members of his community in urban farming skills.

In this programme Ruth Alexander hears about the challenges Samuel faces, a lack of space and land, and local attitudes to farming in a big city.

Samuel’s commitment to food security in Nairobi saw him chosen by a panel of international judges as the winner of The Food Chain Global Youth Champion Award 2022.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

Presented by Ruth Alexander.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

Additional reporting by Michael Kaloki in Nairobi.

(Image: Sameul Ikua. Credit: Timothy Ivusah/ BBC)

Food behind bars is not intended to be a Michelin-starred affair. But prison food reformers claim some of it is so bad that it could be hampering the rehabilitation of inmates. Nutritious and tasty meals, they argue, can improve the physical and mental health of those serving prison sentences and therefore cut reoffending rates. And food skills; like cookery, baking and farming, could help in the rehabilitation process too.

In this programme, Ruth Alexander speaks to three people with detailed knowledge of food in prison environments to explore the good, the bad and the ugly of eating in incarceration, and the power of food.

Ruth speaks to Alex Busansky, head of research centre Impact Justice; Lucy Vincent, founder of the charity Food Behind Bars; and ex-offender, now consultant on prison reform, Sophie Barton-Hawkins.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

(Picture: Prisoner harvests a cabbage grown on prison land. Credit: Getty/BBC)

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

How does sound influence the way we eat, drink and taste? We discover our hearing makes a bigger contribution to flavour than we think.

Mike Johnson explores the concept of 'sonic seasoning' - the idea that different sounds can accentuate the sweetness, bitterness or spiciness of food. Chef Jozef Youssef, founder of the multi-sensory dining experience Kitchen Theory, serves up a musical food experiment, and Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University, gives his track recommendations.

From the crunch of a crisp to the background music in a restaurant, we examine the science that links our ears and taste buds with a journey into the brain flavour network.

Plus, how the food and drink industry is cashing in on the selling power of sound - we speak to branding expert Martin Lindstrom about his painstaking work with some of the world's biggest fizzy drink manufacturers.

Also, could the concept of sonic seasoning be used in the battle against diabetes and obesity?

(Photo: Apple and headphones. Credit: LdF, Thinkstock.