The Food Chain

Imagine not recognising the food in the shops, markets and restaurants around you. Moving to a new country to live and work can come with some culture shocks and food can be a big part of that.

Ruth Alexander speaks to people who have lived in different countries. Listener Jen Ballantyne in the UK has taught in Japan, Tanzania, Azerbaijan and Brunei. Chinese Canadian chef Kelvin Cheung has lived in Belgium and India and today has a restaurant called Jun's in Dubai. Miwa Kishi is a Japanese cookery teacher living with her family in The Netherlands. We also hear from listener Juanita Ruiz a Colombian chef living and working in a small ski town in British Columbia, Canada.

(Photo: a man wearing a blue shirt pushing a supermarket trolley and looking at the shelves of food in a confused manner. Credit: Getty Images)

If you'd like to contact the programme you can email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Beatrice Pickup and Rumella Dasgupta

Is it more expensive to eat healthily?

You might think the answer is simple: Yes of course, if you buy fruits, vegetables, beans and pulses and cook from scratch.

But is it that easy?

With the help of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, Ruth Alexander finds out where in the world a healthy basket of food costs the most, and why globally, billions of people are priced out of a nutritious and varied diet.

She hears from Frances in Nigeria, struggling to afford healthy basics for her family, and from Aurora in the US state of Arizona, who is out of work and has lost the food benefit known as SNAP. She's being supported by the charity St Vincent de Paul.

And even if you can afford healthy food, is it readily available within easy distance of where you live? Hear from the team running the mobile fruit and veg bus known as The Queen of Greens, tackling so called "food deserts" in Liverpool, North-West England.

Plus your questions answered: How to eat well on any budget, with dietician Grace Derocha.

Produced by Lexy O'Connor, Niamh McDermott and Beatrice Pickup

Sound Engineer: Hal Haines

Image: A woman with brown hair and glasses leans glumly on the handle of a supermarket trolley, contemplating the store's display of fruits and vegetables. (Credit: Getty)

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Ever wondered what the chef is eating? Snacking on the finest produce or surviving on thin air and caffeine?

In this episode Ruth Alexander speaks to three chefs about how they get through the day, and the importance of the ‘family’ or staff meal.

She’s joined by Juliette Feller, a Swiss chef working in London, Marisha Shukla a pastry chef in Bengaluru India, and Sam Grainger, an exec chef and restaurateur in Manchester in England.

You can contact the programme by emailing thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk.

(Image: from left to right, Juliette Feller wearing a pinstripe blazer, Marisha Shukla wearing a white shirt and Sam Grainger wearing a blue denim apron. Credit: Fin Nichols, Victoire Terrade, Sam Grainger)

Do you have a local cafe, restaurant or bar that you go to all the time? Maybe the staff recognise you or know you by name, perhaps you even get special treatment.

In this programme Rumella Dasgupta finds out why people like to return to the same place, and the commercial value to a business of having regular customers.

You can contact the programme by emailing thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk.

Produced by Izzy Greenfield.

(Image: a man sat at a bar chatting to a barman who is wearing an apron and cleaning a glass. Credit: Getty Images)

Moving out of the family home can be a big first step at whatever age you do it. Paying bills, budgeting, shopping, and importantly cooking for yourself.

In this programme Rumella Dasgupta asks what dishes you should be able to cook when you leave home for the first time.

Rumella meets chef and food writer Claire Thomson and her daughter Grace Williamson in their kitchen in Bristol, England. Claire's latest cookbook, 'Dear Grace: Recipes from Your Mother for the Next Chapter in Life', was written when Grace left home for university a year ago.

At Salford Youth Zone, a youth centre in the North of England, Rumella talks to teenagers about how confident they feel in the kitchen.

Shahpar Salim in Bangladesh talks about the challenges of leaving home for a new country when she came to the UK for her studies.

Food writer and editor Yeonjoo Jung explains why young people often live at home throughout their twenties in South Korea.

And mothers in the United States tell us how mealtimes changed once faced with the so-called 'empty nest'.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: a young woman standing in a green open doorway holding a suitcase and looking hopeful. Credit: Getty Images)