5 food and cooking podcasts to whet your appetite hosted by food science writers, comedians and more

This week’s round-up is all about enhancing food, whether it’s through appreciation, sharpening your technique, widening your knowledge or throwing in a little MSG magic

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These five podcasts about food and cooking are sure to spark inspiration for your next dinner party or foodie gathering. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:15pm, 23 Aug 2024

Perhaps it’s because I am constantly digging around in the podcast charts that I notice these things but I am sure that there are more Asian podcast hosts in the food category than in any other. Somebody needs to do a PhD on why this might be but could the reasons be related to the fact that despite having friends and family of all stripes on all continents, my real eating buddies have always been Asian?

If that feels like tricky ground, my own experience of being a Korean immigrant in Britain was that preparing and sharing the food of our heritage sometimes felt like the only solid connection not just to “back home” but also to each other. Combine that immigrant tenacity for tradition with the already central role of shared meals in Asian culture and maybe I’m not just imagining it. While I’m at it, I might as well throw in our “banchan” mentality. When you have been raised with meals made up of many shared dishes of different textures and flavours, it still feels quite odd to be stranded on just the one plate of meat and two veg.

We certainly take our food seriously in Hong Kong, so there is every chance that you already have your favourite food pods. Apart from the South China Morning Post’s own Eat Drink Asia, other chart-toppers include riotous celebrity get-togethers such as Dish, with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett, or Table Manners, hosted by English musician Jessie Ware and her mother, Lennie. The excellent Gastropod, which looks at food through the lens of science and history, is always worth a listen, as is The Splendid Table, a long-running exceptionally charming show, now hosted by Francis Lam. It also should not have surprised me to find that one in five of Hong Kong’s top 100 food podcasts are about fine wine.

Recognising the foodie tilt of the readership then, here are five brilliant food podcasts that are still somewhat under the radar here.

1. Home Cooking

The Home Cooking podcast. Photo: Courtesy of Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway

Conceived as a cooking show to help listeners cope with the strictures of lockdown, Home Cooking ceased production at the end of 2022, which is a shame because it was one of the best. The hosts, Samin Nosrat, of bestselling cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat fame, and Hrishikesh Hirway, creator and host of excellent music podcast Song Exploder, are wonderfully matched. Where so many celebrity chef vehicles strain under the weight of egos, the kindness and willingness to “yes, and” here is a delight, as is the sheer number of delicious ideas. The episode featuring Paris-born guest Yo-Yo Ma talking about his boulangerie comfort foods, bounces from chicken butt to lemon posset, confit, kimchi, catering for mixed eaters and my favourite: foods wrapped in other foods.