6 essential podcasts every foodie needs to listen to
Being a foodie means more than knowing where to find the best dim sum or mastering perfect knife skills. It’s about understanding that every dish carries history and every meal connects us to something larger than ourselves.
The most compelling food conversations happen when we move past simple “what's for dinner” territory into the messy, beautiful complexity of how culture, tradition and identity intersect on our plates.
Whether you’re searching “foodies near me” for your next bite or exploring a foodie market on holiday, these culinary podcasts offer thoughtful explorations that will keep you coming back for seconds.
‘Sabai Talk Podcast’
Pailin Chongchitnant and Hong Thaimee, two of today’s most influential Thai chefs, use their podcast to set the record straight on Thai cuisine.
In an episode about The White Lotus and its portrayal of Thai culture in season three, they dissect everything from dining rituals to social customs, exploring how entertainment can influence the perception of different cultures. They also tackle common misconceptions like the global fixation on Thai peanut sauce, which isn't nearly as central to Thai cooking as most people assume.
Chongchitnant is an award-winning cookbook author whose YouTube channel, Pailin’s Kitchen, has over two million subscribers, while Thaimee brings extensive restaurant experience and Harvard-certified wellness expertise.
Whether or not you're drawn to Thai food, this podcast offers a masterclass in how to think critically about any cuisine.
Read more: Central Thai cuisine: all the flavours of a kingdom on one table
‘Recipe Club’
David Chang brings his Momofuku empire credentials and Ugly Delicious media savvy to this competition-style podcast. Co-hosted by Chris Ying, the co-founder of the groundbreaking food magazine Lucky Peach, this programme follows an engaging format that goes beyond typical top chefs podcast territory.
The show is delightfully brutal: every episode, Recipe Club members bring their own take on a theme and debate whose recipe reigns supreme. Listeners get a front-row seat to high-level culinary creativity—and the occasional kitchen catastrophe.
For anyone who’s ever argued with a friend over the best way to fry an egg, this podcast is like a peek inside your most passionate foodie group chat.
Read more: Now streaming: 10 food and cooking shows you need to watch in 2024
‘The Recipe with Kenji and Deb’
This podcast gives foodies the knowledge and freedom to riff on recipes and make dishes their own.
Far from offering simple, easy recipes, this podcast helps you understand the why behind cooking so you can adapt, improvise and create with confidence.
J Kenji Lopez-Alt and Deb Perelman excel at demystifying kitchen science for home cooks. Lopez-Alt’s James Beard award-winning approach and former Serious Eats role establish him as a premier cooking communicator. Perelman, who has built a devoted following through her Smitten Kitchen blog, is an expert at translating complex techniques for home cooks.
Their episodes on stir-frying, roasting or even boiling water dive into the mechanics of everyday cooking, while their mailbag segments solve listeners’s kitchen problems with practical cooking tips. This approach transforms casual foodies into intuitive cooks, giving them the knowledge and freedom to riff on recipes and make dishes their own.
Read more: What chefs read: Go-to cookbooks according to culinary professionals
‘The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters’
This podcast treats food as a gateway to understanding not just flavours but cultures—and under Francis Lam’s stewardship, it’s become essential listening for anyone interested in how cuisine shapes identity. Lam brought a fresh perspective to this established programme when he took over hosting duties in 2018, drawing on hisNew York Times Magazine andTop Chef Masters experience.
Popular episodes include conversations with Indian American author Khushbu Shah about diaspora cooking, with Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Bill Addison about the intricacies of food criticism and with Yossy Arefi about finding freedom and joy in baking.
For those seeking programmes for food lovers or interviews with chefs, The Splendid Table is a long-standing favourite in the best foodie podcasts landscape.
‘The Sporkful’
A three-time James Beard awardee, Dan Pashman “obsesses about food to learn more about people”. He can spend hours debating whether a hot dog is a sandwich or dissecting pasta shapes and sizes. This passion led him to invent a new pasta shape called cascatelli, a curved half-tube with wavy ruffles designed to deliver a more satisfying experience.
Pashman finds profound stories in everyday dining. His interview with Crying in H Mart author Michelle Zauner explored how Korean food helped her grieve her mother’s death and rediscover her cultural identity. Another episode examined why recipes that seem straightforward on paper become frustratingly complicated in practice. Meanwhile, a profile of street vendor Dan Rossi, who sleeps in his van to protect his coveted spot outside the Met, reveals the brutal realities behind New York’s street foodie scene.
‘Your Mama's Kitchen’
This soulful foodie podcast taps into childhood memories in the kitchen to explore identity, heritage and belonging.
“Tell me about your mama's kitchen”—this podcast’s opening salvo transports guests (and listeners) to a specific time and place, evoking memories of sights, sounds and smells that shaped their identity. Michele Norris, former NPR All Things Considered host andWashington Post columnist, understands this power and uses it to create something genuinely moving.
Produced by the Obamas’s Higher Ground media company, this podcast explores how those early kitchen experiences—recipes passed down, traditions upheld or abandoned, moments of connection over shared meals—fundamentally influenced guests’s worldviews.
When Michelle Obama, Kevin Kwan or John Legend open up about their childhood food memories, Norris’s seasoned interviewing skills draw out the deeper connections between nourishment, identity and belonging in ways that transcend typical celebrity conversations.
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The food podcasts we can’t stop listening to