4.4 • 879 Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2024
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews which all relate to food. First, Dinner for One, the British TV sketch that's become a German New Year’s Eve tradition. Our expert guest is Ingrid Sharp, professor of German cultural and gender history at the University of Leeds. She tells us about some other festive traditions in Northern Europe including Krampus – the horned figure said to punish children who misbehave at Christmas. We also hear about when South Korea and Japan had a diplomatic row over kimchi. Plus, the arrival of instant noodles in India and how they changed people’s cooking habits. Next we find out how the BBC's Masterchef conquered the world of TV cookery. Finally, the first woman to become White House head chef describes what it’s like to cook for five presidents.
Contributors:
Thomas Frankenfeld – son of Peter Frankenfeld who produced Dinner for One.
Ingrid Sharp - professor of German cultural and gender history at the University of Leeds.
Dr Chaelin Park - World Institute of Kimchi.
Sangeeta Talwar – former executive vice president of Nestle India.
Franc Roddam – creator of Masterchef.
Cristeta Comerford – former White House chef.
(Photo: Dinner for One. Credit: Getty Images)
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0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Max Pearson, |
0:09.8 | the past brought to life by those who were there. |
0:12.4 | And this week, we're serving up moments from the past relating to food, including the 1980s |
0:19.0 | noodle fad in India. |
0:20.8 | We cannot give you stock. |
0:22.6 | And they started to chase us. |
0:25.8 | And we had to literally run. |
0:28.9 | We've got the Great Kimchi War of 1996, |
0:32.8 | how the BBC's master chef conquered the world of TV cookery |
0:36.1 | and the first female White House head chef. |
0:39.3 | There were like three news agencies just camp outside of our house trying to get an interview. |
0:45.8 | New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal. And I was like, okay, what is happening? |
0:52.8 | That's all coming later in the podcast. |
0:54.6 | But we begin with a seasonal quirk. |
0:57.2 | Every New Year's Eve, millions of Germans turn on their TVs |
1:00.2 | to re-watch an old favorite, the British sketch, Dinner for One. |
1:06.0 | How it came to be a staple of festive entertainment across northern Europe |
1:09.2 | is an amusing tale in itself, |
1:11.5 | as Vicky Farncom has been finding out. |
1:15.9 | Here we are, I'm with Sophie, a little drop of mulligotony soup. |
1:19.2 | I particularly fond of mulligotony soup. |
1:21.4 | Yes, I know you are. |
... |
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