From pho to puttanesca, there’s a story in every bowl, and each tale is a treat for the ears. Hosted by Kevin Pang, Proof harmonizes compelling storytelling with a lighthearted approach to heavier topics and the result is a show with wide appeal. It’s just as well that there are ten seasons and counting - we’re already ready for the next course. Instead, Proof combines food with investigative journalism, a formula that’s endlessly bingeable. Here are our picks for the best food podcasts.įrom America’s Test Kitchen comes Proof, a podcast that sounds like the lovechild of Guy Fieri and Reply All. Every show on this list incorporates these elements, successfully overcoming what Bourdain called the “ludicrous artifice” of food media to produce fresh, moreish entertainment. Passionate hosts, engaging descriptions, and a good mixture of relatability and escapism are key to the food podcast format. But the popularity of food and cooking shows prove that the format can matter just as much as the subject. Listening to a host narrate the sensation of tasting a freshly shucked oyster will never be the same as eating one yourself. Wiser people than I have failed to provide an answer.

But regardless of the format - television, books, podcasts - the same question arises: what’s the point of looking at and talking about food if you can’t actually taste it?

The only reason Bourdain signed a television contract was to enable the writing of his aforementioned book, begging the question of whether he might just as easily have pivoted to podcasting if the medium was more popular in 2002. It beats brunch.” This quotation goes a long way toward revealing why so many notable chefs, many of whom are featured in this list, have made the recent transition into media. “Cooking professionally is hard,” Bourdain wrote, while “writing, eating, and making a television show is relatively easy. There he was, employed by his nemesis The Food Network, to shill a travel show about eating and drinking around the globe. In his book A Cook’s Tour, Anthony Bourdain did not hide his disdain for food television.

Top ten spotify podcasts