How I learnt to cook

Out of necessity, in adversity, or for the fun of it - how, and why did you learn to cook? Ruth Alexander hears the stories behind people’s kitchen skills - the highs, the lows, the challenges overcome, and the connections made – and discovers there’s often more than just dinner at stake. Growing up in Germany to Japanese parents, chef Nina Matsunaga remembers having to step up to the stove when her mother was taken ill; the eldest of three boys in Cameroon, Timah Julius Nyambod made breakfast and dinner for his brothers while his mother worked as a food vendor; Janet Pollock describes teaching herself to cook as a young child inspired by cookery shows in Nashville, USA; and Rahul Raina is holding on to his Kashmiri heritage in Oxford, England, thanks to the recipes and know-how of his mother and grandmother. You can contact the programme by emailing – thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk Presented by Ruth Alexander Produced by Beatrice Pickup and Rumella Dasgupta (Image: Rahul Raina cooking chicken yakhni, a Kashmiri dish, with his mother Sunanda Dhar. Credit: BBC)