Podcast Kitchen: 10 Food Shows To Listen To While You Cook

Tune in and turn up the heat in the kitchen. These culinary-themed podcasts feature old favourites and new flavours to keep you company while you slice, dice and deep fry. From comedy to travel, history, science and the basics of cooking well, these shows have got you covered.

The Splendid Table

Celebrated food writer Francis Lam hosts this beloved podcast that has been on the air for more than two decades. A former chef with a culinary school degree, Lam is informative and engaging as he chats and shares stories about food, culture and lifestyle with guests from around the world. In a recently rebroadcast episode, food science writer Harold McGee enlightened listeners on the physics, biology and inherent power of scent and flavour. The Splendid Table was inspired by the award-winning cookbook of the same name by Lynne Rossetto Kasper, who was also the show’s original host. What began as a live Saturday-morning call-in show on Minnesota Public Radio has grown to enjoy immense popularity throughout the USA and can also be heard on SIRIUS XM and World Radio Switzerland.

Uncooked Women

Ada and Ore, the hosts of Uncooked Women, ask their listeners: “How do you really know about what’s on your plate?” The show starts with Nigerian food and culture, but veers seamlessly into politics, feminism, history and pop culture. In a recent episode, the hosts recall the #EndSARS protest against police violence, and the important role that small food businesses played by ceasing their normal operating hours to feed thousands of hungry protesters.

Eat Drink Asia

In this podcast, brought to you by the South China Morning Post, hosts Bernice Chan and Alkira Reinfrank chat with chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs about the traditional and international influences on local Hong Kong cuisine. Learn more about the origins of Japanese tempura (hint: it may have been born in Portugal) or how tofu finally made it big in the United States thanks to vegetarian hippies. If you’re into Asian cuisine, or just want to hear about it direct from the source, tune in!

The Sporkful

First launched in 2010, The Sporkful has racked up followers and awards, including The James Beard Award, Webby Award and Saveur Award for Best Food Podcast. The show’s tagline – “It’s not for foodies, it’s for eaters.” – sums up a show that gets to the heart of the dishes and ingredients they discuss, including elaborate debates on how to make a simple peanut butter sandwich, or how to ‘read’ a taco, starting with the tortilla and dissecting its ingredients for a whole history and geography lesson. The show playfully meanders between science, history, culture, race and socioeconomics, all under the umbrella of good and smart eating.

Milk Street Radio

Milk Street is a culinary media empire well worth discovering. First founded by Christopher Kimball as a magazine and cooking school based in Boston, Milk Street disavows the concept of ‘ethnic cuisine’ and instead brings cooks and cultures from all over the world together to talk, share recipes and enable all of us to infuse what we consider ‘our’ cuisine with new ingredients, spices and flavours. Milk Street has since expanded to include a TV broadcast and a podcast starring a host of contributors, including The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik, seasoned TV presenter and cookbook author Sara Moulton, and Dan Pashman, host of the aforementioned The Sporkful. Inspired by world travel and the eye, mind and mouth-opening pleasures to be found in every culture, Milk Street is a delight to watch or listen to.

Home Cooking with Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway

Nosrat is best known for her best-selling book-turned-Netflix-documentary, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. The cook, teacher and New York Times columnist teams up with composer, musician and podcast veteran Hirway, host and creator of  Song Exploder, The West Wing Weekly, and Partners. The two approachable, knowledgeable and hilarious hosts first joined forces to keep listeners company during quarantine – and have never stopped. Home Cooking episodes invite guests from all walks of life (Camila Cabello recently came on air to chat Thanksgiving stuffing), share favourite recipes, discover new ingredients and tell stories.

Radio Cherry Bombe

Ladies first! Cherry Bombe was founded in 2014 with the goal of celebrating and promoting women from all over the world in the food and beverage industry. Members include chefs, writers, product developers, teachers and entrepreneurs. Each week on the podcast, Cherry Bombe founder Kerry Diamond interviews fascinating people from the worldwide culinary and beverage scene for a more in-depth look at where they started, what they’re all about, and their insight on what’s happening now. Personal and empowering, Cherry Bombe is bound to get you inspired in the kitchen and beyond.

Doughboys

Based out of Los Angeles, Doughboys is hosted by comedians Nick Wiger and Mike Mitchell – both of whom are unabashedly in love with fast food and chain restaurants, and can wax poetic (and comic) for hours about the best and worst they’ve tasted recently. Find out more about the new McDonald’s McPlant burger and more than you ever wanted to know about hot dogs. Recent guests included screenwriter and producer Judd Apatow to review Umami Burger (among other things), and ​​comedian and writer Negin Farsad, of Comedy Central’s The Watchlist, for a detailed breakdown of what’s cooking at Capital Grille Insomnia Cookies. Doughboys is great company and a perfect contrast while you’re busy cooking delicious and healthy food from scratch at home.

Gastropod

Food meets science and history in this weekly series. Co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley invite experts to join them as they explore ancient feasts, the secrets of scent and flavour, the microbes present in your favourite wine, and ingredients you never realised were there. A recent episode tracked palm oil: where it comes from, what it does, and where it goes, from Girl Scout Cookies to lipstick.

Start Cooking

It’s never too late. As the title implies, this show is all about the basics. An oldie but goodie, Start Cooking is hosted by Kathy Maister, a Home Economics teacher who took her passion and talent to the next level when budget cuts put her career at risk. She still runs the delightfully retro-looking startcooking.com blog, where she posts a series of how-to videos and written tutorials on everything from egg salad to cooking with beer. Believe it or not, there’s a proper way to wash lettuce!