Finding the best food podcast for your specific taste is fun, but not always particularly easy. There are a lot of them out there jostling for elbow room on the various platforms. If we’re being honest, picking only 25 to highlight today feels a bit unfair. There are so many winners — with new shows popping up daily.
The entries below reflect the 25 best food podcasts right now. They offer entertainment, education, and a chance to broaden your culinary horizons. Though drinks podcasts often get categorized under the “food” tab, we kept this list culinary-centric (we’ll circle back for all those whiskey and beer pods later). With the exception of one show on the list, all of the pods featured are currently producing content.
Let’s dive in!
A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich
The Podcast:
This is a fun place to start any food pod journey. Chefs Josh Scherer and Nicole Hendizadeh (from My Mythical Kitchen) come together behind mics to talk about the internet’s biggest food fights and controversies like whether a hot dog is a sandwich (it is). The episodes branch out to more regional beefs like whether In-N-Out is really overrated or whether crunchy peanut butter is better than creamy peanut butter. This is important stuff!
Where To Start:
We’d start with the Peanut Butter debate episode. It’s a great window into the style of the show with slightly lower stakes than whether you ride or die for Chipotle or In-N-Out. A fun and easy way to spend 40 minutes of your next drive.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Recipe Club
The Podcast:
Recipe Club, from The Ringer, is a pretty fresh podcast — the show started last fall. The pod finds hosts chef David Chang and food writer Chris Ying sifting through recipes with a guest to try and find a definitive — and maybe best — version of each dish. It’s a fairly straightforward premise that aims to educate as much as it entertains.
One critique: it often feels rooted exclusively in colonial/migrant American foodways. Case in point, the episode on polenta seems to go out of its way not to acknowledge the Indigenous American roots and recipes of the dish.
Where To Start:
The episode titled, Rice, finds Chang and Ying chatting with James Beard-winning chef JJ Johnson about three ways to make and serve white rice. If you’ve ever struggled with making rice at home, this episode really helps you find ways to do it right, every time.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Green Eggs and Dan
The Podcast:
Comedian Dan Ahdoot hosts this refreshing show that’s more about just liking food and less about being a snob about it. Adhoot generally is joined by another comedian and they shot the shit about food likes, dislikes, and hot takes. It’s a very breezy podcast that focuses the food conversation on the laughs more than anything else.
Where To Start:
Nicole Byer’s episode is one of the funniest and easiest to get you hooked on the show. Byer lays down her love of cheesy potatoes with just as much humor and passion as she lays bare her hate of pickles. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and a great way to spend an hour.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Inside Trader Joe’s
The Podcast:
We’ve always gone back and forth about putting this podcast on the list. On one hand, it’s really just an advertising tool for Trader Joe’s. It’s their official podcast and serves as a Sunday newspaper insert for the modern age, letting you know what’s good to buy right now.
On the other hand, it is very useful if you’re looking to understand the grocery store better and the food they stock.
Where To Start:
While it’d be easy to say “just listen to the latest episode,” there are some really useful shows in the archive. A good place to start is with Trader Joe’s Takes You Inside The Tasting Panel Today. The episode gives you a look into who picks the food TJ’s stocks and how they pick those foods. It’s pretty fascinating on its own.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Radio Cherry Bombe
The Podcast:
Cherry Bombe founder Kerry Diamond hosts this foodie podcast that’ll get you hyped about great food. The show centers around specific topics with special guests from the food world and foodie celebrities that aim to really dive into what makes food so good. The show has a great balance of being light-hearted while actually offering practical and real information about the food highlighted in each episode.
Where To Start:
The podcast started off strong in 2021 with an episode dedicated to Chef Mashama Bailey of The Grey in Savannah. The episode is a deep dive into how chef Bailey and business partner John O. Morisano created a space in an old Greyhound station to highlight Black-Indigenous cuisine while also highlighting the racism of Georgia’s past (and present).
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
The Pitmaster’s Podcast
The Podcast:
BBQ competition pitmasters Rusty Monson and Anthony Lujan host this podcast dedicated to all things smoke. Every episode, Monson and Lujan bring on a guest from the world of barbecue to dig deeper into the vast world that culinary style encompasses across the U.S. The show is a great gateway for anyone looking to really get into the world of backyard BBQ or the competition circuit.
Where To Start:
Jump in with Tina Cannon of Pit Crew BBQ. Cannon dropped in to talk about making BBQ cooking videos and winning Netflix’s American BBQ Showdown. It really is a useful listen if you’re looking to get into BBQ more seriously (as is pretty much every other episode of this show).
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Home Cooking
The Podcast:
This was a mini-series that sadly ended in December of 2020. Still, it’s short, fresh, and deserves a listen. The show is hosted by chef, author, and Netflix star Samin Nosrat and podcaster Hrishikesh Hirway. The show brings on a guest to talk about a food product or ingredient and figure out how to cook with it. It’s an extremely useful podcast that focuses on varied ingredients and culinary techniques while never making you feel overwhelmed.
Where To Start:
Fronds with Benefits (with Jason Mantzoukas) is the perfect episode to start with. Mantzoukas becomes a great audience surrogate who’s a novice in the kitchen. The whole episode is fun, educational, and incredibly easy-going.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
White on Rice
The Podcast:
Chef Yia Vang and foodie David Crabb have teamed up to host a show that looks at where food and culture meet. The episodes always feature a guest to talk about food, beer, kitchens, and even traveling. It’s a pretty free-wheeling conversation podcast that’s always as fun as it is interesting to listen to.
Where To Start:
The recent episode titled, Yia Vang and David Crabb, is a great entry point. Guest Sarah Bonvallet (owner of Dangerous Man Brewing Co.) turns the tables on the hosts and interviews them about the show, their food takes, and more. It’s a great way get a handle on the show right out of the gate.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
The Splendid Table
The Podcast:
The Splendid Table is the progeny of culinary legend Lynne Rossetto Kasper. Kasper’s book of the same name took deep dives into what food is and why we eat certain foods in particular ways. Kasper was instrumental in shining an early light on the brilliance of farmer’s markets and the world of sustainable food. The book turned into a multi-interview radio show, then podcast — following that same ethos of providing information to help home cooks source, prepare, and eat the best food possible.
Where To Start:
This show has been dropping episodes since 1999. As such, we’re blessed with a massive number of episodes on hand. Ep 621: Cheese Girl is a good place to get your toes wet. Kasper talks to Linnea Burnham who travels the world eating cheese — #dreamjob.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
The Kitchen Sisters Presents
The Podcast:
The Kitchen Sisters Presents balances documentary and food very well. Though their episodes that exclusively look at food cultures don’t come up that often, and that’s why they’re important. The Kitchen Sisters have a knack for giving voice to the muted and unknown. Their documentary approach humanizes food history, making it accessible.
Where To Start:
One of the best places to dive in is the “Hidden Kitchens” series of shows. The Kitchen Sisters’ history of Hidden Kitchens of Russia after Stalin’s death is a fascinating look at a foodway most of us have little purchase on. It’s a four-part series that’ll take you somewhere wholly new in the world of food.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Gastropod
The Podcast:
Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley have created a place where exploring food history and food science go hand-in-hand with discovery. Gastropod is nine seasons in and isn’t losing steam (or topics) anytime soon. Graber and Twilley mesh great interview subjects with field trips to various food and drink-related locations in a show that’s always fun and informative.
Where To Start:
Really, you can jump in anywhere as all the seasons are available for free. TV Dinners is a great place to start if you need a pick. The episode looks at how food TV started and how food TV has changed the way we look at food and even how we eat.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Gravy
The Podcast:
The Southern Foodways Alliance started an informative and hunger-inducing podcast called Gravy. It explores the past and present of foodways in the southeastern United States. Gravy takes podcasting straight to the people growing, cooking, and eating food around the South in a way that’s both educational and relatable to everyday life.
Where To Start:
Gravy is another podcast where you can really jump in anywhere, depending on what you’re looking to learn about. One of our favorites is an episode about corn and whiskey. The episode takes the time to look at the corn-based agricultural system behind the distillate, offering a new take on an old favorite.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
The Table Underground
The Podcast:
The Table Underground bills itself as being about “Stories of food, radical love & creative social justice.” And that’s exactly what you get. The show offers a platform for the disenfranchised and lesser-known food heroes of the world. Their episodes look at everything from the simple pleasures of American-Jewish baking to food as a social vehicle for good to the rebirth of Indigenous cuisines.
Where To Start:
There are so many great episodes to choose from, really it’s best to browse their list and see what jumps out at you. For us, we recommend starting with episode 25, which is the Table team’s chat with Indigenous chef Sean Sherman, who guides host Tagan Engel through various Indigenous foodways and explains how they’re connected to the future of our food.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Smart Mouth
The Podcast:
Katherine Spiers takes a fun and informative look at food and its place in our lives. Each episode breaks down a particular dish or recipe and why it’s great, terrible, adored, loathed — or all of the above. It’s one of the easiest and most fun listens about food you’ll ever be treated to.
Where To Start:
Episode 56 talks all things fries with comedian Tawny Newsome and it’s one of the best places to jump in as a tester for the podcast. Come on, who among us doesn’t want to listen to people talk about the wonders of fries for about an hour?
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
The Sporkful
The Podcast:
The Sporkful centers on host Dan Pashman’s passion for accessible food, how it’s made, and how we consume it. Pashman invites experts, chefs, and comedians for a chat and the results are the perfect balance of fun and informative — making this one of the best podcast listens around.
Where To Start:
There are a lot of episodes to choose from but we’d suggest starting with Pashman’s new series, in which he tries to invent a pasta shape. There are five episodes of Mission: ImPASTAble available right now — it’s a roller coaster of a listen.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Doughboys
The Podcast:
Comedians gabbing about fast-food and chain restaurants? Count us in. Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger — the titular Doughboys — spend an hour talking about, arguing over, and eating at the country’s most iconic chains. Guests come and go to talk about places they love and hate, all with a comedic bent.
Overall, the show is a delight to listen to and will legitimately give you a great insight into each chain, its history, and the food they do best.
Where To Start:
There are years of episodes to choose from. We’d recommend listening to the most recent episode first to get a taste and then jump around at will with whatever episode title sounds cool. Though, if you can’t live without a recommendation, Five Guys 2 with Andy Daly is a near-perfect example of the show.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Burnt Toast
The Podcast:
Burnt Toast, from the Food52 network, takes fascinating dives into food history, culture, and science. The show, hosted by Michael Harlan Turkell, explores a different aspect of food from bubbles in sourdough starters to cherry pie recipes with Twin Peak’s Kyle MacLachlan.
It’s fun, informative, and always an easy listen.
Where To Start:
There’s a lot to get lost in here. With tons of episodes available for free, we say jump in on the most recent episode and then skip around with whatever piques your interest (like Kyle MacLachlan talking pie). You’ll rarely be disappointed.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Special Sauce
The Podcast:
Special Sauce from Serious Eats is a food show that offers amazing insight into the industry from how and what we eat to why we eat the way we do to how the industry actually operates. There are episodes about starting up food trucks, restaurants, and even food blogs right alongside episodes about labor issues, gender issues, and making it as a chef.
Oh, and there’s plenty of talk about flavors too. It’s comprehensive and enlightening.
Where To Start:
There are lots of free episodes to choose from, with a fair few geared towards how the lockdown has crippled the industry — with more recent episodes getting back into making and talking about food.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
The Food Chain
The Podcast:
The BBC’s The Food Chain offers a great view into the world of food, the culture around it, and how food gets from the farm to your dinner plate. It’s insightful and informative without feeling like a lecture. There is some serious information being relayed about the state of our food chains and what’s being done to better those processes. Don’t let the British accents hold you back, dive in.
Where To Start:
There are years of free episodes to listen to right now. Check out The Food That Broke Through The Lockdown. It’s an interesting look at how our relationship with food changed on a personal level over the past year.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Spilled Milk
The Podcast:
Spilled Milk finds comedians and hosts Molly Wizenberg and Matthew Amster-Burton picking a single food topic and riffing on it until they can riff no more. Each episode is fun and full of insight — hitting on a dish or item that’s in the cultural zeitgeist and digging deep into why that food or product means so much to us.
Where To Start:
The Mountain Dew episode will give you a solid taste for the style of the show. From there, it really depends on your own interests.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Milk Street Radio
The Podcast:
Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio is a very informative show about the ups, downs, and ins-and-outs of the food we eat, love, and sometimes hate. The show looks at various aspects of food, how it’s made, how we live with it, and why we do or don’t like it. Guests are often present to offer expertise in any given subject and there’s always something new to be gleaned from each topic.
Where To Start:
There really is no serialization here, so you can jump in at the most recent episode and then decide where to go from there. Although, the episode about bitter spirits and tastes is a fascinating spot to start, giving you a feel for the show and a little bit of education on why we taste what we taste.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Savor Podcast
The Podcast:
Hosts Anney Reese and Lauren Vogelbaum have a knack for looking at a single recipe, food, or dish, and making it accessible. Each episode of How Stuff Works’ Savor takes a deep dive that’ll inspire you to actually try a new recipe or dish at home. There’s an added layer of going deep enough to really understand what’s going with a dish on a flavor level and a scientific one.
Where To Start:
The Sublime Lime Episode is the perfect spot to jump in. Reese and Vogelbaum take a look at the genealogical history and varied uses of the humble lime. The episode is as fun to listen to as it is enlightening.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
A Taste of the Past
The Podcast:
Culinary historian Linda Pelaccio has a great gig and job title (“Culinary historian” just sounds badass). Pelaccio’s podcast, A Taste of the Past, looks at a single dish, food region, or food idea and brings the history and present-era interpretation to life. This is the podcast you go to if you’re curious about where a specific food comes from and where to eat it today.
For food obsessives who love to know the origins of what they eat, it’s essential listening.
Where To Start:
With hundreds of episodes in the vault, this is another podcast that you can dive into almost anywhere and find a satisfying listen. One of our favorites is episode 318, Sustainable Culinary Travel. Pelaccio welcomes Italian cookbook author Elizabeth Minchilli to talk about food tourism, food discovery, and how to find real food experiences when you travel.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
The MeatEater Podcast
The Podcast:
MeatEater is about conservation, hunting and fishing, and the culinary world created through those activities. Host Steve Rinella and guests talk about hunting and fishing through the lens of sustainability, anti-factory farming, health, public land preservation, and using-the-whole-buffalo tactics. More than just a hunting pod, the show is really about conservation, connecting with nature, and finding our place in the natural order while cooking amazing, wild sustainable food.
Where To Start:
We recommend hitting episode 57 first. Rinella sits down with wildlife biologist Bart George and big game hunter Janis Putelis to talk about “hipster” hunters, how politicians pander by pretending to be hunters, and the importance of eating everything you hunt and not wasting a pound. It’s an eye-opening look into wild game, hunting culture, and how it can be contorted by both nefarious interlopers and lazy hunters.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox
Toasted Sister
The Podcast:
Toasted Sister is the podcast to listen to if you’re interested in learning about the Indigenous American foods that have been swept under the rug for far too long. Host Andi Murphy, from the Navajo Nation, welcomes guests to speak about everything from working in a professional kitchen to seed banks to food-focused business summits for Indigenous women.
A comprehensive look at the world of Indigenous food and a podcast that’s vital to the current culinary conversation.
Where To Start:
The best place to start is episode 14 with two-time James Beard Award winner Sean Sherman, aka The Sioux Chef. The episode is an in-depth look at why Indigenous American food was nearly destroyed and takes you to the frontlines to meet the people bringing it back.
Where To Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox