Dan Saladino meets the plant hunters searching for the world's lost and forgotten coffee varieties and Michael Pollan, author of This is Your Mind on Plants, explains how caffeine helped usher in the modern world.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Ainsley Harriott joins Jaega Wise to share his 'Life Through Food' from his kitchen in South London. Ainsley is one of the UK's most recognisable TV chefs; after training at Westminster College he worked at a number of London's hotels and restaurants - including The Long Room at Lords Cricket Ground where he became head chef. In the early 90s he got his first broadcasting gigs - on BBC Radio 5, and shortly afterwards "tv came knocking".

Over the past 25 years he has hosted countless programmes - including Can't Cook Won't Cook and Ready Steady Cook for a decade. He has presented series for US and South African television, been a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, and was awarded an MBE in 2020. His latest TV series, 'Ainsley's Good Mood Food' is all about cooking food to boost your mood.

In this interview, Ainsley takes us back to the early days of family dinner parties, a summer in France, and his journey to TV stardom. He also discusses what it's like to be the subject of many many memes and where he finds his seemingly perpetual energy. Jaega also speaks to school friend and the other half of Ainsley's 90s pop group The Calypso Twins, Paul Boross, and hears from Ainsley superfan, Radio 1 Breakfast DJ Greg James, who's obsession with Ainsley turned him into a viral sensation.

Presented by Jaega Wise

Jaega Wise explores how environmental-impact labels on food and drink products could help lower the carbon footprint of the food industry. Although there’s been an increase in the number of companies using different kinds of carbon and eco labels, they still appear on a small minority of products. There are growing calls for there to be a unified system for calculating the environmental impact of food production – one that not only measures carbon emissions, but also other impacts like water use and biodiversity loss, all using the same internationally agreed method so shoppers can compare products fairly and accurately.

Presented by Jaega Wise and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Dan Saladino goes in search of the history, meaning and spirit of wassails and cider. In Somerset he takes part in a village wassail sung door to door and one sung in an orchard.

Contributors:

Music:

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

In this episode Sheila Dillon is joined by a chef, restaurateur, author and campaigner, Angela Hartnett, for another in the programme’s series of Lives told through Food.

Angela Hartnett is seen as an icon in the food industry - she started out learning on the job in Cambridge - and later rose up working for Gordon Ramsey, first at The Aubergine, and later at the Connaught Hotel, where she earned her first Michelin star.

During that time she started to become a familiar face on British Television, appearing regularly on Hell’s Kitchen and the Great British Menu.

In 2010, Angela bought Ramsay out of the restaurant she still runs today - Murano - where she received another Michelin star.

In January 2022, Angela was awarded an OBE for her services to the hospitality industry, and for the work she did for the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this conversation, Angela reflects on her campaigning, changes in the industry, and family life.

Presented by Sheila Dillon

Dan Saladino explores keto to understand the appeal of this low carb way of eating. Featuring Gary Taubes (book) The Case for Keto), GP Dr David Unwin, Anna Tebbs (The Green Chef), Prof. Mike Lean (Glasgow University), Panagiotis Kottas (KeOntrack) and Prof. Helen Cross (Great Ormond Street Hospital).

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Gabriella D’Cruz, from Goa, wants to improve diets, transform livelihoods and protect the planet using an often-overlooked marine vegetable - seaweed.

Ruth Alexander speaks to the 29-year-old about her big plans for the underwater crop, and her hope that it could bring lasting economic and environmental change to India’s coastal communities.

Gabriella’s passion and her project’s potential saw her chosen by a panel of international judges as the winner of The Food Chain Global Youth Champion Award 2021.

Produced by Simon Tulett originally for The Food Chain on the BBC World Service

Jaega Wise and her co-presenters start the New Year having a go on TikTok after #FoodTok raked in billions of views in 2021. What, if anything, can be learned from the app, which dishes up creator-made videos in three-minute-long bursts? The presenters are joined by TikTok Chef Poppy O'Toole, who posts as PoppyCooks to her two million followers.

From turning ordinary cooks into stars, to setting off trends for kitchen gadgets, viral recipes, and #WhatIeatinaday getting millions of views, people using TikTok are going mad for gastronomy.

However unlike other social media sites where picture-perfect images of food are shared, TikTok takes viewers into ordinary kitchens, and seems to celebrate (mostly) the creation of lavish looking dishes with seemingly very little skill or effort.

Food on TikTok has also become tied in with the ASMR genre (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) where creators deliberately emphasise the sounds and textures involved in cooking.

So could TikTok be the inspiration for a new generation of cooks? And can the more mature cook learn anything new? Or is the so-called Wild West of the web’s version of cookery too unwieldy to properly inform? Will the hype around influencers and their inevitable marketing tie-ins put an end to any ‘authenticity’ on there? And is the site doing enough to protect those with eating disorders?

Presented by Jaega Wise

Leyla Kazim dives into the world of rapid grocery delivery, one of the newest trends to hit the world of food retail. In scarcely more than a year, a wave of new companies like Getir, Weezy, Gorillas, Jiffy, Zapp and Gopuff has arrived in cities across the UK which can deliver products to your door in as little as 10 minutes. It’s a sector that’s raised billions of pounds of investment and wants to disrupt the grocery market – so what impact could it have on the way we buy food?

Key to the ultra-fast delivery speeds are 'dark stores', or hyperlocal fulfilment centres, which have been growing in number since the start of the pandemic – Leyla visits one run by Gorillas, and talks to their UK General Manager Eddie Lee about their plans for expansion. To consider the future of the rapid grocery delivery companies and what impact they are having on the rest of the food retail world, we hear from: Matt Truman, co-founder and CEO of specialist retail and consumer investor, True; Chris Noice, Communications Director at the Association of Convenience Stores; George Nott, Technology Editor at The Grocer; and Professor Annabelle Gower, Director of the Centre of Digital Economy at the University of Surrey.

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Some of the biggest names in the food world join Dan and Sheila with their favourite Christmas dishes, including Claudia Roden, Jeremy Lee and Paula McIntyre. Noble Rot's Dan Keeling selects the wine.

Presented by Dan Saladino and Sheila Dillon.