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The Food Programme

Leeds: The Story of a City Through Its Food

The Food Programme

BBC

Food, Arts

4.4977 Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When the Food Programme went to Leeds to cover its growing food and drink scene many areas of the city had recently been flooded. At the time community groups, including Muslims and Sikhs, were taking part in a food operation to feed those forced out of their homes - meeting the fundamental need for food while showing the strength of the community.

Dan Saladino explores the city - which has historic links to supermarket chains, wealth from the textiles industry and 'Leeds Dripping Riots'. The last 2 years have seen a thriving independent food and drink movement, with innovators starting projects which are changing the face of Leeds but also inspiring others around the world.

Adam Smith was working in Australia when he became aware and angered at the scale of edible food being wasted. After being told if he wanted to change the world he needed to change his home town he returned to Leeds, setting up a cafe which intercepted food being thrown away from shops, markets, projects and allotments to 'feed bellies not bins'. The pay as you feel model of the Real Junk Food Project has been replicated across Leeds and around the world with 126 cafes and more in the making. Yet Adam is far from content.

At Trinity Kitchen, a radical new model for a shopping mall food court which has drawn attention from others as far flung as Sweden and China. A 6 week rotation of new traders is no mean feat - with road closures and cranes hoisting food trucks into place.

Dan also meets Northern Monk in Grub and Grog - brewing quirky ales to match a changing, mainly vegan menu while Northern Bloc ice creams are keeping things close to home with flavours like Yorkshire Parkin and Black Treacle but with their eyes on expansion into the London market.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello you've downloaded a podcast of BBC Radio 4's The Food Program.

0:05.0

Welcome to our world, from cooking to culture, politics to pleasure.

0:10.0

We hope you enjoy it.

0:12.0

What can... We hope you enjoy it.

0:18.0

What can you tell about a city through its food? That's the question we'll be asking over the next three weeks.

0:21.0

The answers, I think, are truly revealing. I think what's happening here

0:25.5

is quite remarkable. I'm sure that other cities are doing it to a certain degree, but my

0:30.3

impression is that Leeds is doing it in spade.

0:33.6

In these programs we'll be focusing on the people changing their cities through food.

0:38.4

And in our first destination Leeds, we'll hear from an angry young man who's turning his rage into a force for good.

0:46.0

My name is Adam Smith and I'm the Real Junk Food Project and we are going to really feed the world.

0:50.0

Thank you.

0:52.0

We'll also hear about the role food can play in shaping a city's future, but also finding out

0:58.5

how cities have been shaped by food in the past. The population rioted.

1:05.0

They stormed the guy's house,

1:10.0

they rioted outside the jail and someone was killed.

1:12.8

This is the great Leeds dripping riot.

1:15.2

You heard correctly, Leeds had a dripping riot.

1:18.4

Just one of the stories we'll hear on our travels through the city,

1:22.4

which will follow with similar explorations of Cardiff

1:25.6

and their Newcastle. All our cities experiencing a boom when it comes to food and drink. Each city has become the source of new ideas influencing

1:35.8

not only parts of the UK but also cities around the world. The restaurant

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