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The Food Chain

Factual: Food & Drink

Examining what it takes to put food on your plate

The Food Chain examines the business, science and cultural significance of food, and what it takes to put food on your plate.

Lemn Sissay: My life in five dishes

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The Food Chain: Lemn Sissay: My life in five dishes

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30/06/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, Lemn Sissay: My life in five dishes

Writer Lemn Sissay reflects on his life through memories of food

The internationally acclaimed poet and playwright Lemn Sissay OBE shares the story of his life by recalling five memorable dishes. 

His is an extraordinary story of family, and identity, lost and found. 

Born to an Ethiopian mother in the north of England and quickly placed into long-term foster care, Lemn was, for years, deprived of any knowledge of his heritage. His traumatic upbringing and subsequent search for his family and identity have informed much of his award-winning writing. 

In this programme, he tells Ruth Alexander about five memorable dishes that act as “positioning points” in his life to date.  

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk 

(Picture: Lemn Sissay holding a cup of coffee. Credit: BBC) 

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy 

Researcher: Siobhan O’Connell

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