Sheila Dillon

Two British growers, one investing abroad and one looking at an empty field with planning permission for a new greenhouse but unable to start building. These are two of the examples Sheila Dillon and producer Nina Pullman came across in this week's The Food Programme, investigating the future of Britain's fruit and veg. It's a time of growing focus on our health - rising chronic disease and costs to the NHS - food security risks, and climate volatility. All of which points to the need to grow more fruit and veg here, if we can. With this in mind, the government has just started work on its first dedicated Horticulture Sector Plan since the post WW2 period, aiming to help the sector grow. But are UK growers up to it? Or will an increased demand for fruit and veg simply take us further down the route of cheaper imports from places like Senegal, Spain and Portugal, as we heard in Dan Saladino and Jack Thompson's recent programme. That's what we set out to investigate in this week's episode, out now, asking those working on the ground in the sector what they think should, or could, go into the government plan. We put their worries and ideas to the farming minister herself, Dame Angela Eagle, as she spoke to us with the very first details about what her team is working on. And we hear about a nationally run, government funded farming scheme, the Land Stewardship Association, that ran between the 1930s and 80s, supplying almost half of all the UK's salad veg and employing thousands of ex mining families. Does it hold any lessons for today? Enjoy the listen on BBC Sounds now. Produced by @nomadneens .

🧠🫐What are brain boosting foods? This week pupils had lessons @queens.college learning how what we eat shapes how we feel, think and learn with a deep dive into an amazing book called ‘Unprocessed’ by the great Kimberley Wilson @foodandpsych 🧠🫐We listened to Kimberley talk, looked in detail at how her book evidences the role of food and nutrients on the brain and pupils ate tasty brain boosting foods in our state-of-the-art Teaching Kitchen at school. 😋 🧠🫐You can listen to Kimberley talk brain boosting foods when she spoke with the great Dan Saladino @dan.saladino on the excellent BBC Radio 4 The Food Programme @bbcfoodprog . You can listen to the episode here: https://Inkd.in/ d8FeZQB8 or more recently with the lovely Sheila Dillon @dillonthought on The Food Programme when discussing relationships with foods. #brainfoods #brainfood #foodforthought

🙌🏆 Don't miss our highlights of The Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards 🏆🫶 The @fortnums awards are one of the most eagerly awaited dates in the food writing & broadcasting calendar. 🙌🙌 For fourteen years, the awards have championed those who help others to enjoy, explore, experiment, and discover more about food and drink, through their writing, photography, and commentary. ✨️ Congratulations to the winners shown in this reel including 🏆 @roopagul for Best Cookery Book 🏆 @foodbehindbars & @natfmiddleton who won The Impact Award 🏆 Towards the end of this reel you'll see @dillonthought of @bbcfoodprog pick up the final award of the night The Special Award in recognition of her lifetime of work in food journalism ✨️🏆 Follow @women_in_food_industry stories as our co-founder @mecca.ibrahim was at the awards night covering the celebrations for all shortlisted and the overall category winners 🥂✨️She had a fabulous time celebrating with many amazing peopl from the food and drink industry tagged in this reel and wanted to give a special shout out to Fortnums staff including @hattycary @commsfromtheshed @sadiesutherland @rogerpizey @anthony.l.wilson and many more for hosting a wonderful night 🔗🔗 Check out the link in our bio or below for our feature on the shortlist /fortnum-mason-food-drink-awards-2026-shortlist-announced/ #FandMAwards

…And why it matters. At @bbcfoodprog we’ve been making programmes based on food mattering for a long time ….. our premise has always been that food shapes the world & us. Now we have this fascinating new take on that reality from someone whose food roots are in West Bengal. I hope you’ll join us to find out how those roots & Mallika’s experience in the UK have affected her understanding of the food system….& what hopes she has of us all moving on from our processed present. #LDE @mallikabasu_

“I had this naive idea that the US and Europe had a fair system for monitoring and safeguarding food” Sheila Dillon . Sheila Dillon: Food is Political – An interview with BBC Food Programme presenter Sheila Dillon, who has spent four decades establishing food as an important, newsworthy subject and breaking big political stories through the lens of food. Today, she says, investigative food journalism has never been more necessary. LINK IN BIO . thesheiladillon @dillonthought @bbcfoodprog #investigativefoodjournalism #foodjournalism #foodpolitics #sheiladillon #bbcfood

“I suppose if I’m proud of anything, it’s standing up in times past when there was a push for us to be part of the whole food as entertainment business” Sheila Dillon . Sheila Dillon: Food is Political – An interview with BBC Food Programme presenter Sheila Dillon, who has spent four decades establishing food as an important, newsworthy subject and breaking big political stories through the lens of food. Today, she says, investigative food journalism has never been more necessary. LINK IN BIO . thesheiladillon @dillonthought @bbcfoodprog #investigativefoodjournalism #foodjournalism #foodpolitics #sheiladillon #bbcfood

In February i went to @leonrestaurants development kitchen to watch the remarkable Chantal Symons work on some new dishes for the chain’s relaunch: fresh ingredients, good sourcing, no #upf, dishes that must be able to hold for a couple of hours & be put together by a kitchen team who are not trained chefs. Plus…. Price constraints: Leon IS a fast-food chain, just one with unusual standards. The dishes I tasted that day for our @bbcfoodprog on Chef Creativity were honestly delicious—all of them got my thumbs up—but they were works in progress. Some, said the team, were too costly, some not enough herbs, some, said founder John Vincent (the tall guy) who’s just bought back the chain & is masterminding the relaunch, were not ‘bright’ enough. Back & forth they all went—tweaking, improving, ‘balancing’ . Today, for my own interest (& with my own money) with 40 minutes between appointments I went to a Leon’s in Westminster for lunch. £8.99 Paprika Chicken, the most expensive dish on the menu, I think. And it was SO good—fresh, zingy, moreish (how did Chantal get that brown rice to taste like that? I can’t do it) A triumph of Creativity….& a lot more. Listen to the episode on @bbcsounds

Today @dillonthought explores the creativity of chefs, and asks how it’s being affected by the ongoing cost of living crisis. Creativity in cooking is one of the pleasures we often take for granted when we go out to eat, and we marvel at the alchemy chefs work with raw ingredients. But the hospitality industry is grappling with very difficult economic conditions - increased national insurance, business rates, energy bills, rent, cost of ingredients coupled with fewer customers with less money to spend, all mean that many restaurants are struggling to survive. What happens to that creativity when the industry is under so much pressure? In the programme chefs talk to Sheila about what creativity looks like in their kitchens at the moment, as the cost crisis leads to more restrictions on how and what they cook. We also hear how chefs of the future are being trained to work creatively in this tough environment. Thanks so much to @samjlomas , Head Chef at Briar in Somerset; @owen_morgan_44 co-founder and owner of The Forty-Four group; Charlie Buchanan-Smith, co-founder of @thefreecompanysco near Edinburgh; @niallmckenna owner of James St and Waterman House in Belfast; Frank Fiore, Catering Manager at @mkhospital_ ; @chantal.symons Lead Development Chef at @leonrestaurants ; and chef-lecturers Steve Oram and Ian Sutton and students at @capitalcitycollege at Westminster.

🐝🍯 The sticky business of international honey fraud is the focus of this week's Food Programme. When we import most of our honey as we make so little of our own (just 14% of what we consume comes from Britain) and much of that comes from China - how can we be certain our pure honey is 100 per cent pure? What does the phrase on the label 'a blend of non-EU honeys' actually mean? At the world's largest beekeeping convention in Copenhagen @apimondiabees , @markwellrobin hears stories of honey adulteration using cheaper sugars and syrups which beekeepers around the world say is lowering the price of honey and driving them out of business. We hear from Gino Jabbar of @simplyhoneyco , Lynne Ingram of @wesley_cottage_bees , Mauricio Rosales of @miskimieldecampo in Ecuador and Federico Berron from Mexico to better understand the global picture. Back home - @dillonthought speaks with Prof Chris Elliott of @qubelfast for a broader overview of how honey is tested here. She also talks to the UK's top two honey packers @rowsehoneyuk and @hilltop_honey about honey provenance and supply chains. She samples some too with Sarah Wyndham Lewis aka @honeysommelierlondon who has her own honey library(!) at @bstreetbees in Essex. Catch up on @bbcsounds 🐝🍯📻

Foraging for wild mushrooms is culturally important and enjoyed by many in eastern Europe, Spain and Italy, but in the UK...? Not so much. We don't know what to look for, and we're more likely to be scared off than filling baskets for dinner. But could this ignorance be leading to poor quality dried or fresh wild mushrooms ending up for sale in the UK, because we simply can't spot a good one? In this week's episode, available now on BBC Sounds, @dillonthought goes foraging in the Peak District with Deb and Bengt of @getfunghi to learn the basics, and to find out how good quality compares to the woody, marmitey dried mushrooms you often find in supermarket packs. To find out more, she talks to academic and mycologist @mauromycota , whose study looked at the contents and quality of porcini sold in the UK. Spoiler: it wasn't all porcini! Next, she hears from mushroom trader Ola Hultman, from one of Sweden's biggest mushroom companies @wermlandsskogsforrad about who controls the underground world of mushroom foraging. And Pal Karlsen who went round the world meeting the foragers on the 'fringes of society' explains how China now has a grip on global supply. From Will at @mushroomman.co.uk , producer Nina hears how he buys from all over the world for London's top restaurants. And after some simple cooking tips from @ecjokeefe , Sheila and producer @nomadneens sit down for a wild mushroom lunch with Deb and Bengt to enjoy their own fruits of foraging. #mushroom #wildfood #foraging #foragers #porcini

Who’s been feasting on territorials this festive season? We want to know your go-to favourites! In the latest issue of Wedge, Sheila Dillon @dillonthought , presenter of The Food Programme on BBC Radio Four, tells you why the recent campaign to revive interest in Britain’s great territorials is a cause so close to her heart. Read ‘Final thought ‘ in Wedge | Issue 01 Available worldwide now, give the gift of a subscription and receive four seasonal issues in 2026. Follow the link in our bio to join us in the world of cheese. Words: @dillonthought Pictures: @mike_lane_eats #wedgemagazine #amagazineaboutcheese #independentmagazine #indiemags #cheese

My books of the year ( with Dorothy) on @bbcfoodprog . I was only supposed to have one ‘makes you think’ & one cookbook but managed to squeeze in 4 —actually all 4 make you think, it’s just that Kevin Morgan hasn’t included any recipes ( c’mon Kevin!) He’s such a good writer—it’s a page-turner, not just for specialists but for everyone who wants to understand the health/environmental/high-cost mess we’re in—& how we can work our way out of it. How, in fact, some people, organisations are already showing us the way. Analytical AND hopeful! Abundance by @mark_diacono is as @dianahenryfood says on the cover “His best book yet..”. And that’s a high bar. Mark writes one of the very best Substacks on food—& that’s what this is: a collection of daily jottings & mullings & serious thoughts, with recipes & techniques. Just as fresh between covers as it was when he wrote it & we read it, on the wing. I’ve admired @roopagul for almost as long as I’ve been reporting on food. Bee Wilson calls Indian Kitchens “Roopa’s masterpiece”. And it is. Home cooking in every region of India & in many different kinds of homes. Roopa has been there. Her deep knowledge, warmth & enthusiasm live on the page. And she really really knows how to write recipes that work. It’s a state of the nation book. A far better story than the one we hear about in the news. Which is the link to @alissatimoshkina . Kapusta: Vegetable Forward Recipes from Eastern Europe is also a book about the state of the nation, but plural. Alissa was born in Siberia and in this book she had intended to include recipes from Western Russia, but after Russia’s invasion of #Ukraine she says she could no longer do that. It’s a collection of recipes from the rest of the region marvellously organised in separate chapters on: CABBAGE, BEETROOT, POTATO, DUMPLINGS, CARROT, MUSHROOMS, PICKLES & FERMENTS. @ottolenghi says of the book ‘Come for the food & stay for the stories..” Yes. But those recipes are a treasure trove. Utter deliciousness.