Food to your ears

 

From shows dedicated to recipes, ingredients and how-tos, to others exploring the science, history, and fun in eating, there is an exciting world of food-related podcasts. Our friends at Cookstr produce a fantastic weekly podcast featuring a delightful mix of cooking tips from several highly-regarded cookbook authors such as Pati Jinich and Abigail Johnson Dodge. The program also features tips and interviews with emerging and established chefs, bakers, sommeliers, farmers, grocers, and more.

Other chefs, authors, and food-related websites also offer podcasts. No matter what topic you are interested in hearing, you are bound to find a podcast suited to it. Some programs focus on interviews with culinary professionals, others on the science or history (or both!) of different foods, and some are keyed to specific genres including beer brewing and cocktails.

Following is a guide to some of the best audible offerings out there, available on iTunes and online. If you know of any great podcasts that we should be listening to, let us know in the comments, and we can put your suggestions on the EYB World Calendar of Cookbook Events.

USA

Clever Cookstr’s Quick and Dirty Tips: As the Clever Cookstr, Kara Rota serves up the most timely, relevant tips from the world’s best kitchens. You’ll get great advice from chefs, bakers, and other culinary professionals. Get a peek inside the kitchens of the world’s best chefs!

The Splendid Table from American Public Media: Since the program was already a huge radio hit, the progression to podcasts was a seamless transition.  The silky voice of host Lynne Rossetto Kasper is music to the ears, and the guests and cooking insight are both classic.

The Sporkful: The tagline for this podcast is “It’s not for foodies, it’s for eaters.” Dan Pashman brings together fascinating people to discuss interesting things about food. Recently he talked with musician Weird Al Yankovic about his many food-related songs.

Radio Cherry Bombe from Heritage Radio Network: An offshoot of the quarterly magazine of the same name. Host Julia Turshen talks with all of your favorite chefs, photographers, farmers, and TV personalities like Ina Garten.

Spilled Milk from Molly Wizenberg (of the popular blog Orangette, indexed on EYB) and Matthew Amster-Burton: Each week this entertaining duo tackle a single food-related subject. Past topics include pudding, brown butter, and carrots.

Burnt Toast from indexed blog Food52: Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs are frequently joined by guests like authors and bakers, and witty, engaging debate ensues.

Special Sauce with Ed Levine of indexed blog Serious Eats: Recent guests have included writer Roy Blount Jr. and pastry chef Dominique Ansel.

America’s Test Kitchen: Hundreds of episodes on a wide variety of topics. It will be interesting to see where this heads following the departure of Christopher Kimball.

The Feed with Rick Bayless: Chef, Restaurateur and TV Host Rick Bayless joins forces with James Beard Award-winning food journalist Steve Dolinsky, to bring the world of food and drink into your ears and have a little fun in the process.

Go Fork Yourself by Andrew Zimmern: Co-hosted by Molly Mogren, the podcast draws on the duo’s vast knowledge of international food while talking to famous chefs and travel experts.

KCRW’s Good Food with Evan Kleiman: Although this podcast skews toward subjects around Los Angeles, it covers a range of topics that easily appeal to a broader audience.

Gravy from the Southern Foodways Alliance: Winner of the 2016 James Beard Award for Publication of the Year, Gravy examines topics such as mason jars and fried chicken under a cultural lens.

The Menu from Monocle 24: The Menu serves up interviews with the world’s most creative chefs, introduces the makers behind the scenes and the ingredients that will soon be landing on your restaurant table.

The Dinner Party Download: While not a food podcast per se, it is an entertaining, hour-long celebration of culture, food, and conversation.

CANADA

Off Menu from Baconhound: The Baconhound (“because Veggiehound doesn’t have the same ring to it”) has discussions with chefs, reviews restaurants, searches for the best scones, and explores other food topics in and around Alberta.

Sittin’ in the Kitchen: This lively podcast series follows Marion Kane: Food Sleuth® as she speaks with fellow foodies, chefs and just ordinary folk who relish the chance to share personal stories, recipes, tips and – most of all – a consuming passion for food and cooking.

The Food Nerd Podcast by the Victorian Food Blog: Focused on food in and around Victoria, British Columbia.

UK

The Food Programme (BBC): This newsy podcast is billed as “investigating every aspect of the food we eat.”

Eat This Podcast: A broad-ranging programme that explores everything from the history of Irish butter to the evolution of food culture in Mali to eggless mayonnaise.

The Olive Magazine Podcast: Hosted by editor Laura Rowe each week, the olive magazine podcast shares exclusive additional content, behind the scenes gossip, expert advice and fun facts.

Cook the Perfect… (Women’s Hour on Radio 4): Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey are joined by leading chefs and food writers who share their secrets for perfect home-cooked dishes.

The Kitchen Cabinet: Critic Jay Rayner hosts a culinary panel show packed full of tasty titbits that might change the way you think about food, cooking and eating.

The Food Chain: From the BBC World Service, this won the radio category at the 2015 Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards. The podcast discusses “the economics, science and culture behind what we eat and drink” in a no-nonsense manner.

Jamie’s Ministry of Food Recipes: While it is no longer being updated, you can still get a collection of older podcasts from Jamie Oliver.

AUSTRALIA

Kitchen Cabinet with Annabel Crabbe: The program is a mix of politics and cooking, as illustrated by the site’s tagline: “No pantry is safe as Annabel Crabb travels across the country to meet some of the most interesting politicians in Australian parliament.”

Ingredipedia: Hosted by Emily Naismith​ and Ben Birchall, this ‘audio food fight’ goes into the stories, fun facts and recipes about a different ingredient in each episode.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry: An offshoot of Sydney-based Lee Tran Lam’s popular blog of the same name. She was inspired to write her blog by a dinner she had at Bentley restaurant.

Tucker Down Under: Steve Hogwood explores the history of food in this little country on the bottom of the world, called Australia.

The Piecast: In this podcast, hosted by Adelaide native Mark Tripoli, dessert pies and conversation form the premise. Each episode, Mark and his guests talk about pop culture and general life happenings over a slice of something warm and sweet.

NEW ZEALAND

Food, Family and Friends: Vanessa Baxter says MasterChef was a life-changing experience and after the competition ended, there was no point going back to life as it had been before. Vanessa has now combined everything she loves and thrown it together into a package which encompasses bringing people together around food.

Healthy Food Guide: As the name suggests, topics revolve around various healthy eating issues such as lactose intolerance and gluten-free foods.

Kath Irvine’s Edible Backyard: This podcast focuses on fruit and vegetable gardening for those who prefer to grow their own ingredients.