Recommending 15 Food Podcast Series

Pods for your listening pleasure, as recommend by us over the last year or two...

It’s curious –– Russell is the half of us that works a full-time job in radio as a producer and yet it’s the other half of us, Patrick, who tunes in to far more podcasts. Maybe it’s a case of a busman’s holiday or maybe it’s a case of PTSD from our own pod… If you’re looking for podcast recommendations we have a list of 15 different series we’re recommending you check out in this feature.

This master list came about after we decided to compile our podcast recommendations –– and, surprisingly, over the last year or two we have recommended quite a few, believe it or not. In our monthly newsletter rounding up all the things we’ve watched, read, listened to, eaten, drank and where we’ve travelled (totally free to ALL subscribers, and the archive of which is here) we have tended to have a section on audio every other month. Here is where we list the cúpla podcast episodes we’ve been loving listening to lately

Welcome to another long-read on Chip Paper, from Patrick Hanlon and Russell Alford. Chip Paper is our space on Substack where we share long-form food writing features, deep dives, snappy travel guides and recipes, all punctuated by hand-drawn illustrations. We started as bloggers, built our brand on Instagram and are now freelance food and travel writers plus the restaurant critics for The Sunday Times Ireland. We’re also over at gastrogays.com.

We never set out to be a beacon of pod recs but it sort-of came about organically, so in this feature we’re going to compile the most frequent inclusions (and some new ones) to check out and subscribe to.

Best Possible Taste

One of the greatest champions of Irish food there is today, and a close friend of ours, Sharon Noonan has unrivalled stamina and serious staying power. Her Best Possible Taste radio show on West Limerick 102FM (with accompanying podcast) is celebrating ten glorious years on air and Sharon has put beyond a decade of work into this product. To say her archive is vast is a complete understatement and we just love her soothing Northern Irish lilt whenever we hear her. We’ve been honoured to appear a few times on her show, so cheekily including our episode above if you wanted to learn more about us.

Emer & Esther’s Sunday Roast Potatoes (series)

What can we say? This podcast speaks to us on a deep and meaningful level, that level being the visceral need to be sustained near-solely by carvery lunches –– that was listed somewhere on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, wasn't it? (Patrick even wrote a paean to the carvery in the Sunday Times Ireland last year) Emer McLysaght and Esther O’Moore-Donohoe are delightful in their eating escapades and quest to discern the best 'carve’ in all the land. We love the lingo, adore the interjections and sometimes you’re so entranced you forget it’s a podcast about roast dinners. The pair pivoted to Patreon for the most recent series but you can still find much of their eps wherever you get your podcasts.

The Food Chain

We always find something informative, educational and entertaining about this podcast, The Food Chain from the BBC World Service. The topics range from broad to niche with an incredible archive of different episodes and we just adore Ruth Alexander’s soothing voice, especially her in-the-field interviewing style –– something we always tried to apply to our own audio escapades with our podcast Chew The Fat (currently on a sad, sorry, long hiatus!) The Food Chain is a wonderful one to subscribe to as you will regularly be surprised and delighted by the different facets of food the team cover.

Olive

Deputy Editor Janine Ratcliffe presents this podcast spin-off of one of our favourite glossy food magazines, Olive. What’s so clever here is the array of episodes, some almost hour-long, some super bite-sized of three to five minutes and the scope of topics in and around food, from trends, heritage and culture to recipes, entertaining tips and travel. It’s the perfect extension of the magazine.