Sheila Dillon, with the help of some famous food lovers (including Giorgio Locatelli, Cyrus Todiwala, Fuchsia Dunlop and Bee Wilson) hears about their favourite kitchen gadgets. From a 300 year clockwork roasting spit to a 21st century thermal blender, what are the must-have qualities of these kitchen necessities? And how do you choose from the ever increasing plethora of expensive all-singing-all-dancing gizmos on sale in large kitchenware departments.

Sheila Dillon traces the legacy of Elizabeth David's more scholarly work and reviews food writing in 2010 with blogger and critic Tim Hayward, photographer Jason Lowe and publisher Anne Dolamore.

Producer: Elaine Lester.

Panettone and chocolate logs - Sheila Dillon embraces two of the cakes replacing our "traditional" Christmas cakes on our Christmas tables, and ponders what what we mean by traditional when it comes to Christmas cakes.

Panettone is a traditional Italian Christmas cake. John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at University College London and author of "Delizia! A History of the Italians and their Food" traces the history of this highly industrialised product from its Milanese origins, and the manufacturing of this "tradition". Reporter Dany Mitzman visits the Corsini Biscotti panettone factory in Tuscany where panettone is made in the traditional artisan style, using a mother yeast, slow proving, and cooling tipped upside down to allow the dome shape to set naturally, without additives. Their panettone is sold in through the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range. But you can make your own - Fred Manson returned from an Andrew Whitley breadmaking course clutching a panettone recipe, and has been making his own ever since.

As a teenager Sheila Dillon's Christmas culinary rebellion took the form of baking a bouche de noel, the buttercream sculpted chocolate log believed to originate in France, and still produced by the hundred in smart patisseries today. Yule logs are now a popular range for both patiseries and supermarkets in the UK. This year's BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Award Food Champion, baker Richard Bertinet, baked Sheila his own take on the classic cake, adorned with gold leaf and powdered cabernet grape, and food historian Ivan Day tells its history in the UK.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

The Danish chef Rene Redzepi of Noma, the "World's Best Restaurant", forages for food in Lapland and London.

He's become one of the most influential chefs in the world because of his use of wild ingredients, foraged from the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

With dishes that revive lost food traditions, that use unfamiliar ingredients like mosses, lichen, spruces as well as native fruits. fish and fungi he has succeeded in putting a part of Europe ignored for its cuisine on the gastronomic map.

The idea of chefs and restaurants sourcing ingredients from the wild is not new, some already employ foragers but according to Joe Warwick, food writer, restaurant expert and the programme's reporter, Rene Redzepi has taken that approach to sourcing to whole new level.

For anyone sceptical about the abundance of wild foods in Britain suited to the needs of a restaurant Redzepi goes on a foraging trip to north London's Hampstead Heath. There he finds a new ingredient, the service berry.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon explores the varieties of venison - wild and farmed - we can now find in butchers and supermarkets in the UK. She joins a stalker in Berkshire and talks to the biggest game dealer in the country.

Producer Dilly Barlow.