Cooking & Chefs Podcasts

Somewhere between translucent and brown, most cooks lose faith in their onions. In Elsy Dinvil on Spreading Joy Through Haitian Food, someone at The Joy of Cooking Podcast table recalls learning patience while still, they think, in high school. They watched and stirred for a good hour while nothing seemed to happen, then ate the onions straight from the pan. The best cooking shows keep you company through that stretch and tell you what is going on in it.

Home Cooking, from Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway, is call-in help in its 2020 episodes, and it holds up because the problems are ordinary. In White Fra-chili-ty (with Sam Sanders), a caller from Charleston asks what to make for his newly pregnant, nauseous wife, who wants simple, cold, mild food. In Cod Save America (with Wesley Morris and Dr. Sumesh Hirway), a question about safely sharing food with an elderly neighbour goes to Dr. Hirway, who cites J. Kenji López-Alt's guide on Serious Eats. In the same episode, a host admits to measuring hummus "in the quantity of some". The jokes carry the advice without replacing it.

Cooking Issues is for listeners who want the why. In Lick it, Smear it, Make It Moist (feat. Jeremy Umansky and Rich Shih), Dave Arnold's guests discuss koji, the mould behind miso and shoyu. They describe meat with mould grown on it for two days that eats, they say, much like a 30-day dry-aged cut, while conceding "we're not sure exactly what's going on."

Recipe Club, with David Chang and Chris Ying, makes disagreement the method: panellists cook publicly available recipes for an occasion and critique each other's results. In Packed Lunch, one panellist confesses to having been "a fundamentalist" against spaghetti standing in for an Asian noodle, then admits it worked better than expected. A position revised on air teaches more than any verdict.

Good Food, hosted by Samuel Goldsmith, is gentler. In Ranie Saidi on Malaysian cuisine, cooking as grief therapy and the debate over food authenticity, Saidi describes cooking as a way to remember his grandmother, a wedding cook, through happy memories. He also argues that rendang is a method rather than a dish, so no single country can claim it.

On The Go To Food Podcast, hosted by Freddy Clode and Ben Benton, the drinks come out in this conversation. In Michael O'Hare - From Michelin Star To Bankruptcy & Back Again!, a vermouth and tonic appears at a 9am recording while O'Hare argues that much fine dining has lost its identity. For the glass itself, try the Wine, Whiskey & Spirits, and Beer & Brewing pages.

Andrew Talks to Chefs is steadier. Remembering Chef Tom Valenti (uncompleted, previously unaired conversation, circa 2020) is host Andrew Friedman's tribute to a late friend. In it, Valenti admires a fellow chef's tarragon ice cream yet would serve a hot fudge sundae, because "if you can tap into a childhood memory or a taste memory in a dish, you got them." In Tom Colicchio Returns! (to talk about 25 years of Craft & other hot topics), Colicchio warns that growing too quickly means "you start saying yes to things you shouldn't say yes to," and allows that he is probably guilty too.

Barbecue shows sound like rooms full of regulars. Quetorials, with JD and Chef Jordan Jackson, argues in Does SIZE Matter? / Diameter of an offset smoker that a backyard offset builds the same fire-management skills as a commercial pit, with the wood run slightly differently. Near the end, Jordan gets an apology for barely speaking. The BBQ Central Show, Greg Rempe's live program from Cleveland, gives Bone DOES NOT Add Flavor To The Meat? What about This Ham Thing?? to Meathead and the case that bones act as thermal blockers. On Pit Life BBQ, EP. 406 Trey Sanchez of Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q has Sanchez starting carnitas and suadero with Texas-style smoke, then finishing them in regional Mexican style. What's Good Dough? learns in 12 Million A Year And The Epitome Of Pizzerias w/ Esther's Kitchen that the first pizza of the day goes in the trash or to a dishwasher, baked to check the dough.