News imageThe Food Chain, Leaving home

The Food Chain

Leaving home

13 August 2026

Available for over a year

Moving out of the family home can be a big first step at whatever age you do it. Paying bills, budgeting, shopping, and importantly cooking for yourself.

In this programme Rumella Dasgupta asks what dishes you should be able to cook when you leave home for the first time.

Rumella meets chef and food writer Claire Thomson and her daughter Grace Williamson in their kitchen in Bristol, England. Claire's latest cookbook, 'Dear Grace: Recipes from Your Mother for the Next Chapter in Life', was written when Grace left home for university a year ago.

At Salford Youth Zone, a youth centre in the North of England, Rumella talks to teenagers about how confident they feel in the kitchen.

Shahpar Salim in Bangladesh talks about the challenges of leaving home for a new country when she came to the UK for her studies.

Food writer and editor Yeonjoo Jung explains why young people often live at home throughout their twenties in South Korea.

And mothers in the United States tell us how mealtimes changed once faced with the so-called 'empty nest'.

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

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: a young woman standing in a green open doorway holding a suitcase and looking hopeful. Credit: Getty Images)