The Food Chain

The history of smoking foods stretches back many years, but when did what began purely for preservation become a highly sought-after flavour? In this episode of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander explores the origins of smoked foods and finds out why their flavours are so appealing to so many people around the world. She visits a smokehouse run by Michael Price in the port city of Lancaster in north-west England, where he explains the techniques used to flavour a variety of fish, as well as some of the more unusual demands he’s received from chefs. We learn about the science behind smoked flavours from Professor Heather Smyth, a flavour chemist and sensory scientist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. And food historian, Professor Ken Albala, walks us through thousands of years of history via a meal prepared using his own home smoker in Stockton, California. We also investigate the impact of EU legislation with the European Food Safety Authority, following a European ban on several smoke flavour additives, and ask what this might mean for the future of smoked foods.If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email thefoodchain@bbc.co.ukProducers: Sam Clack and Izzy Greenfield Sound engineers: Jack Wilfan and Hal Haines(Image description: racks of fish fillets inside a smoker)

Ruth Alexander meets three people who gave up well-paid, high-flying careers to start all over again in the world of food. Nisha Katona left a career as a child protection barrister behind to start Mowgli, a chain of Indian restaurants in the UK, physically building her first restaurants herself. Judy Joo worked in finance on Wall Street but decided to give it up to go to culinary school. After starting at the bottom in various restaurant kitchens she founded the Korean restaurant chain Seoul Bird, which has outlets in the UK and the US. Duc Ngo was an engineer who felt he lacked purpose and joy. So he left his job to start a sandwich shop in Helsinki. But it wasn’t easy. He took to Tiktok to document its rise, fall and rebirth as a bistro, The Alley. So did they all make the right decision and would they change anything? Ruth finds out... If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk Produced by Lexy O'Connor. Sound Engineer: Annie Gardiner Image: A smiling woman is behind a cafe door. She is turning the “closed” sign to “open”. Credit MoMo Productions/Getty images.

We all have recipes we turn to again and again, perhaps from the stained pages of our favourite cookbooks, or handed down through families. But have you ever wondered about the work that’s gone into writing that set of instructions? In this edition of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander looks at the art and science of recipe writing. How does a cook turn what is often an instinctive and creative process into a list of instructions anyone can follow? How much detail is too much, and what are the essential elements no recipe is complete without? Ruth talks to a well-known cook who describes her love-hate relationship with recipe writing and a cookbook editor reveals how she’s built recipes from chefs’ doodles or even notes scrawled on a napkin. Find out what it’s like to work in the world of recipe testing and how the art of writing recipes has changed over hundreds of years. Producer: Lexy O’Connor Sound engineer: Hal Haines If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Fermented foods are fashionable – kimchi, kefir, kombucha – they're all having a moment, many thousands of years on from where they were first produced. But how much do you know about how they're made? Do you know your SCOBY from your kefir grain? In this episode, fermenting novice Ruth Alexander goes on a quest to find out more about this ancient way of preserving food; how to do it yourself, why you might want to, and what it's doing for our guts.Follow along as she experiments with making her own kefir, and talks to fermentation guru Sandor Katz about how to get started and whether there's anything that can't be fermented. Scientist Professor Gabriel Vinderola explains what's known about the microbes behind it all and how they affect our health while Kheedim Oh and his mum Myung Oh talk about how they've brought the family recipe for kimchi to a US audience via their business, Mama O's Kimchi. (Kimchi on pizza anyone?) And with the help of Adam Goldwater from UK based Loving Foods Fermented, Ruth discovers how kombucha is made, and the alien like SCOBY powering the process. Produced by Lexy O'Connor. The sound engineer was Andrew Mills.If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk. Image: A woman in an apron is holding a jar of brightly coloured fermenting vegetables, with orange carrots and purple cabbage tightly packed in. Credit Getty/Migrogen

The Mediterranean diet is rich in vegetables, pulses and olive oil and traditionally includes small amounts of fish and very little red meat. Thousands of studies back its health benefits. In fact, it's considered to be one of the most widely researched diets in the world. But why has this way of eating come to prominence over others? Marta Guasch-Ferre from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark explains what the Mediterranean diet is and how her Spanish roots have informed her work. Professor Sarah Tracy from the University of Oklahoma tells the story of the diet's roots, popularised by American scientist Ancel Keys in the 1950's. And Ruth asks, if this way of eating isn't familiar in your culture, can you still make use of the Mediterranean diet's principles to improve your health? Singapore based cardiologist Professor Huang Zijuan has been looking at the science behind Asian inspired food swaps that could offer the same health benefits. Plus public health expert Professor Pekka Puska explains how he used the work of Ancel Keys in the 1970's to help transform the life expectancy of Finnish men. He co-led the now world famous North Karelia project, after Keys' research revealed how the region in eastern Finland had the highest rates of blood cholesterol in the world. Produced by Lexy O’Connor The sound engineer was Andrew Mills. If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk Image: A family is eating together. The wooden table is covered in brightly coloured plates of salads, pastas and olives. Hands reach over to take some of the food. (Credit: Getty/Compassionate Eye Foundation/Natasha Alipour Faridani)