Food podcasts have become one of my favorite ways to keep my cooking fresh, and to stay entertained in the kitchen during some of those mindless tasks. Looking at you, peeled potatoes.
I’m so glad that the options just keep expanding. You can find pretty much whatever you’re looking for, whether it’s recipe inspiration, food history, advice on intuitive eating, help with feeding kids, and so much more. Here are a few of our favorites to get you started.
Top Image: The Sporkful podcast
Related: 7 of the best new podcasts for kids
Best food podcasts: Proof
Food nerds, this one’s for you. Proof delves into the history, culture, and controversies of the culinary world, from the decline of Jewish delis to the history of eating meat in Japan. Like everything produced by America’s Test Kitchen, it’s smart, well-researched food storytelling for everyone who wants to take a deeper look at what they eat and where it comes from.
Best food podcasts: Home Cooking
I know I’m not the only one who fell in love with Samin Nosrat on her Netflix show, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Who wouldn’t love a woman who cries tears of joy when she eats good parmesan cheese? In this delightful podcast, she’s joined by musician and podcaster Hrishikesh Hirway. The show features listener questions, interviews, and lots and lots of Samin laughter peels.
Best food podcasts: Food Heaven
I know so many of us are on a journey to un-learn some of the toxic messages we learned around food and dieting. So I was happy to discover a whole podcast devoted to just that. Food Heaven is hosted by registered dietitian nutritionists Wendy Lopez and Jessica Jones, and helps listeners learn to eat intuitively while challenging the diet mindset that’s still so prevalent today. With an occasional episode about other non-food topics—dating and doulas—thrown in.
Best food podcasts: Tech Bites
We’re new fans of Tech Bites, a 50-minute podcast that features fascinating interviews and conversations about new tech and food, including start-ups, apps, websites, and more. We love the smart conversations and discovering something new, which makes us feel smarter. Ha!
Related: How to find and listen to podcasts on your iPhone.
Best food podcasts: The Sporkful
In each quick, 20-minute episode, host Dan Pashman covers one topic, like couples who disagree about whether green beans are a finger food, what constitutes school lunches these days, and much more. He’s a fabulous interviewer, whether talking to a celebrity chef about food or a listener who’s come to him with a food conundrum. This podcast definitely lives up to its tagline, “It’s not for foodies, it’s for eaters,” which we think is a good thing.
Best food podcast: Didn’t I Just Feed You
Feeding kids day after day can be a slog. So I’m grateful to have hosts Meghan and Stacie bringing their expertise (and humor!) to bear on the subject in this helpful podcast. Plus, Stacie is the former editor of Cool Mom Eats, so you know she’s awesome. I love that their website lets you look for exactly what you want to hear about, from kitchen tips to school lunch and “food joy.” Because we could all use more of that.
Best food podcasts: Burnt Toast
We love Food52, so it’s no surprise that we’re subscribers of their Burnt Toast podcast, hosted by Kenzi Wilbur. While it can get a little hardcore foodie (like the in-depth look at the James Beard awards), there’s plenty of content with takeaways for parents on most shows, from cooking with kids to what does “healthy” food actually mean.
Best food podcasts: The Splendid Table
For so long we’ve enjoyed The Splendid Table on NPR, so we love that the podcast makes it possible to listen to it whenever you want. And after years of full-on fan-girling over Lynne Rosetto Kasper, I’ve finally accepted that replacement host Frances Lam is pretty awesome too. Like her, he’s full of knowledge, answering listener questions with ease and off-the-cuff recipes.
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Best food podcasts: Special Sauce with Ed Levine
Special Sauce features long-form interviews with some of the food world’s most vibrant personalities, from Michael Pollan to J. Kenji López-Alt and Dorie Greenspan. Each episode is a story about how the chef/baker/writer came to love food and how they pursued their passion to arrive at their current foodie stardom. Special Sauce could be a great encouragement to a kid who aspires to go into the cooking world, or any kid with a dream, really.
Best food podcasts: Eat Your Words
There are too many amazing cookbooks and food manifestos out there to read them all (trust us, we’ve tried). So we love that Cathy Erway, host of Eat Your Words, gives us a taste of the best new books out there through her informative and surprisingly fun author interviews. It’s a great way to try a new cookbook before you buy it or to educate your kids about food ethics—or to just make this summer’s road trip a lot more interesting.
Best food podcasts: Gravy
Think of Gravy as Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations . . . just on the radio. And Southern. Like Bourdain’s show, Gravy uses food as an entry point for exploring different cultures, and in such an entertaining way. Our favorite episode involves a group of Kurdish immigrants connecting with their new Nashville neighbors by sharing their own cuisine (cheesy flatbread, anyone?). Gravy’s a great listen for anyone who loves good stories, and it might even help motivate kids to try a new food. The possibility alone is worth a listen.
