The Food Programme

Since January 2025, thousands of tonnes of common octopus, usually found in the Mediterranean, have been landed by fisherman off the south coast of England.
But it’s still not a regular feature on UK menus. In this episode of the Food Programme, Jaega Wise heads to Brixham fish market to find out more about what’s happening, and visits seafood restaurants taking alternative approaches to the challenge.
Rockfish owner and chef Mitch Tonks talks her through the difficulties of cooking octopus, and marine ecologist Bryce Stewart at Plymouth University explains why the creature could be here to stay. Jaega also explores what puts people off eating octopus - from tentacles to extreme intelligence. And we head to Guernsey to meet a fisherman whose business has been severely impacted, and try some “Octodog”.
Produced by Tory Pope.

Leyla Kazim revisits some of The Food Programme's most memorable stories to ask: what happened next? From 500kg of eels stranded in a holding tank in Gloucestershire and English olive oil being pressed in Lincolnshire, to the future of halloumi in Cyprus following an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease, and the impact of global politics on vegetables grown in Africa for UK consumers. Leyla returns to the people behind these stories to hear what happened after the programmes were broadcast.
Listen to the original programmes:
English Olive Oil
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002f00z
Why Is Africa Feeding Us?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002m1mz
Halloumi and hellim: The story of an island and its cheese
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jsc7
Eels and Elvers
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002lfhd
Consider the Eel: Part 2
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002t2kh
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Soaring cacao prices broke all records and then they crashed. Dan Saladino explores the fallout, the impact on farmers, their communities, industry players and chocolate lovers.
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino

They’re in your chocolate, your gelato, even your coffee - pistachios seem to be everywhere at the moment - bolstered by the craze for Dubai Chocolate. In this episode Leyla Kazim asks what happens when the world seems to fall in love with one ingredient.
She explores how the United States came to overtake traditional producers in the Middle East to become the world's largest pistachio grower, and hears about the nut's long history in countries such as Iran from Iranian-American food writer Anna Ansari. Meanwhile, Honey & Co.'s Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich demonstrate how versatile pistachios can be, creating both sweet and savoury dishes.
Nick Moss, nuts market reporter at Expana, explains what's happening to pistachio prices and why forecasts for this year's harvest are lower than usual.
Leyla also visits Green Lanes in Haringey, home to many Turkish and Middle Eastern businesses, to discover how pistachios have long been central to traditional desserts - and hears how rising prices are changing that. Finally, she meets Charlie Tebbutt, whose south London company Food & Forest imports nuts, including pistachios, from farms that are either avoiding irrigation or using agroforestry methods, as an alternative to the vast monocrops that supply most of the world's pistachios.
Produced by Natalie Donovan for BBC Audio in Bristol

Chef and broadcaster Romy Gill heads to the pavilion to explore cricket's relationship with food. She discovers that the supposedly British institution of the cricket tea was in fact a tradition imported from Australia in the 1880s. She visits Lord's - the Home of Cricket - and is given access to the kitchens to watch tea being prepared as well as receiving a tour of the Lord's museum to look through their culinary archives. She's made to feel welcome by the BBC Test Match Special team and reminisces over her own childhood cricket teas growing up in West Bengal in India.
Romy explores the health of the cricket tea at a club level and heads to Stainland Cricket Club near Halifax in West Yorkshire to meet the inspirational Trish Wood who has helped bring cricket teas back to her club and John Fuller of Cricket Yorkshire who devised a competition to find the best cricket tea in the county.
Robin Markwell reports from Stoke Gifford in South Gloucestershire on a decision by cricket clubs around Bristol who voted to no longer make cricket teas compulsory in their league after the pandemic.
Presented by Romy Gill and produced by Robin Markwell for BBC Audio in Bristol with thanks to the BBC Test Match Special team.