Food will always be one of the keys to our heart. So why not indulge in this week’s food-themed podcast list?
1. Dish
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms
Genre: Food
Volunteered for vegetable duty for Christmas dinner this year? Play the Dish from Waitrose podcast as a distraction and you’ll be surrounded by a pile of peelings in no time.
Spider-Man actor Tom Holland joins Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett and broadcaster Nick Grimshaw for cookery and conversation and proves to be a charming dinner guest.
Holland’s no stranger to a kitchen – and confesses he likes to tidy as he cooks, thanks to one of his brothers being a professional chef.
He relishes the chance to pick Hartnett’s brain, including her advice on where the Hollywood star has been going wrong with his roast potatoes.
The beauty of the Dish podcast is you can tune in for either the celebrity guest or the food advice and be equally satisfied.
Find out which staple British pudding Holland has never eaten and which dessert Hartnett recommends giving a fruity twist by adding tinned pears – it’s the same answer for both.
(By Amy Crowther)
2. Table Manners with Jessie & Lennie Ware
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms
Genre: Food
Jessie Ware and her mother Lennie Ware were very excited that Welsh actress and comedian Ruth Jones and English actor and comedian James Corden – also known as Smithy and Nessa and the creators of beloved comedy Gavin and Stacey – joined them for dinner in the latest episode of Table Manners with Jessie & Lennie Ware.
It’s where Jessie talks about food, family and everything in between from her very own dining table. With a little bit of help from her chef extraordinaire mum Lennie, each week guests from the worlds of music, culture and politics drop by for a bite and a bit of a natter. Oversharing guaranteed.
Jessie asked her mum to make a dish she was confident with and found easy, so on the menu is Lebanese lamb with warm aubergine and spinach salad, paired with smashed crunchy new potatoes Jessie made with whipped feta, yogurt, capers and lemon.
For dessert, Lennie made a sticky toffee pudding using dates following a recipe by Nigella Lawson, which to her surprise, she really enjoyed making.
Jones and Corden get straight to the heart of the matter about the upcoming Christmas special and final-ever episode of Gavin and Stacey – showing on BBC One on Christmas Day at 9pm – boiling eggs in kettles when travelling, how Jones was hypnotised to hate chocolate and so much more.
(By Yolanthe Fawehinmi)
3. The Go-To Food Podcast
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms
Genre: Food
Sometimes it’s wise to avoid asking exactly what’s been added to a stew if you’re squeamish. The same could be said for the UK restaurant industry as a whole, with some notable chefs earning reputations for exquisite plates crafted in psychologically punishing kitchens.
However, for those who love a seat at the chef’s table – or an episode of The Bear – The Go-To Food Podcast could serve up all the amuse-bouche they hunger for.
Chef and food writer Ben Benton and podcast host Freddy Clode invite a celebrity foodie to reveal their culinary go-tos, from hangover remedies to secret lunch spots, yet the real meat comes from guests who share how brutal the industry can be.
In the most recent episode Gizzi Erskine, known for her Cook Yourself Thin TV series, details the frustrations of her failed Love Cafe project in Margate, but also the dizzy adrenaline highs a kitchen service can generate for a passionate chef.
The hosts dish up food for their guest, but for me, eating starts with the eyes and no matter how much they smack their lips, it’s a thin meal if you can’t see, smell and taste.
(By Amy Crowther)
4. Comfort Eating with Grace Dent
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms
Genre: Food
The Guardian’s Comfort Eating with Grace Dent is the podcast that pays homage to the lesser celebrated foods in life.
Even as a restaurant critic, Dent believes the food that matters most is often that snack you eat when you are sinking into the sofa.
So each week, she asks her guests to lift the lid on what comfort foods have seen them through their lives because according to Dent, you can tell a lot about a person from what they eat behind closed doors.
In this week’s helping of festive Comfort Eating, Dent is joined by one-third of Bros – one of the biggest boy bands of the 20th century – Matt Goss. She talks to him about the Britishness of Christmas, the snack under his tea towel that makes him at home, how it needs to be prepared, earliest Christmas memories and headlining a sell-out Wembley.
Comfort Eating with Grace Dent is a beautiful reminder of the role food plays in our lives, which got me thinking about what gravitated to as a child. But just as a trigger warning, this episode discusses suicide.
(By Yolanthe Fawehinmi)
Spotlight on…
5. The Sporkful
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms
Genre: Food
It’s time for The Sporkful salad spinner year in review! In the latest episode of this Stitcher Production food podcast, host Dan Pashman – who’s also the inventor of the new pasta shape cascatelli – discusses the strangest and most surprising food stories from the past year with Joe Yonan from The Washington Post and Nikita Richardson from The New York Times.
In true The Sporkful fashion, as the trio obsess about food, listeners begin to learn more about people and why they eat what they eat. They start with cookies and how they are starting to get a little bit too salty, Richardson’s newsletter Where to Eat: New York City and Yonan’s cookbook, Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking: Vegan Recipes, Tips, and Techniques.
They then look into why restaurants are turning into vending machines with chairs, scanning a QR code to read the menu, and the biggest way technology has affected their eating out experience – TikTok reviews and recommendations were mentioned here.
But what I really found interesting was when they spoke about the cons of ordering any fried food to go, having to wait for your full party to arrive at a restaurant before being seated and the “no seed oil people”.
The Sporkful isn’t for foodies, it’s for eaters. So it was an enjoyable listen that I could really relate to.
(By Yolanthe Fawehinmi)
