Let food do the talking
The Food Chain
BBC
4.7 • 545 Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Does food have the power to send messages when words aren’t enough? This week Ruth Alexander finds out how food can sometimes speak much louder than words.
Lecturer in Chinese Cultural Studies Dr Zhaokun Xi explains why gifting a pear in China can quietly suggest separation — and how it still carries weight today. Chef Beejhy Barhany reflects on the role of Ethiopian food in expressing care and welcome through gursha, the act of feeding people with your hands. We find out how food can be used as a signal of protest from historian and food researcher Aylin Oney Tan. From the Janissaries tipping their cauldrons of soup to signal unrest, to black pepper in a wedding dish to symbolise the role of the mother in law. And we learn about the power of food in mourning; Greek food writer Aglaia Kremezi tell us about koliva, a sweet dish served at funerals in Greece — and how it attempts to soften the bitterness of loss.
If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Ruth Alexander Producer: Izzy Greenfield
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about |
| 0:03.3 | You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously, also from the BBC |
| 0:07.8 | and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning, sorry. |
| 0:11.9 | Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or In Our Time, |
| 0:17.2 | your Dead to Me is available first on BBC Sounds, a whole month earlier than anywhere |
| 0:22.2 | else in fact. So if you can't wait another day to hear the very latest in history and loads |
| 0:27.4 | of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. Have you ever stopped to think about what |
| 0:33.0 | someone might be trying to say to you when they're offering you food. What I'm saying is welcome. |
| 0:39.3 | I'm giving you a glimpse and understanding to my rich flavors, history, tradition. |
| 0:47.0 | And what you're saying, if ever, you don't accept. |
| 0:50.1 | It gives a message. |
| 0:52.0 | If you reject the food, by rejecting the food, |
| 0:56.2 | you, how did it express a stand of your ideas? |
| 1:01.0 | In this episode of the food chain from the BBC World Service with me, Ruth Alexander, |
| 1:05.9 | we're exploring what happens when food does the talking. |
| 1:09.4 | If you bring pairs to patients during a hospital visit, that would be offensive. |
| 1:17.0 | How what we cook, share, or refuse to eat can speak volumes. |
| 1:23.8 | We came up with the idea of this programme while making another one. |
| 1:27.3 | Why is saffron so expensive? |
| 1:29.4 | We were talking to the Iranian-American cookbook author, Najmir at Mangalij, |
| 1:33.7 | and she told us this. |
| 1:35.2 | Marriage in Iran is a family affairs, so where the family are involved. |
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