The Best Food Podcasts to Listen to Right Now

The best food podcasts do something few other shows manage: they make eating feel even more interesting than it already is. Whether you're a curious home cook, a dedicated foodie, or someone who just wants decent background listening, there's a show here for you.

This roundup covers the best food podcasts available right now. You'll find recommendations across food history, nutrition, cooking technique, and culinary culture.

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Hosted by Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, Gastropod looks at food through the lens of history and science. Each episode takes a single ingredient, dish, or eating habit and unpacks its story in ways you genuinely didn't expect. Episodes cover everything from the origin of ketchup to the science of why we crave umami. It's consistently one of the most talked-about food podcasts, and for good reason.

Best for: curious eaters who want to understand why food is the way it is.

Dan Pashman has been exploring "the way we eat and the way we think about what we eat" since 2010, making The Sporkful one of the longest-running food podcasts around. It's witty, unpretentious, and takes food seriously without taking itself too seriously. You'll want to seek out his multi-year quest to invent a new pasta shape, which eventually became "cascatelli" and went into mass production. That episode alone is worth a listen.

Best for: anyone who wants intelligent, warm, funny food conversation.

Comedians Ed Gamble and James Acaster invite guests into their "dream restaurant" to choose their perfect meal, and the results are reliably hilarious. Off Menu has racked up over 120 million downloads and regularly tops UK podcast charts. It's not a cooking show, but it captures something true about how people feel about food; and it's one of the most purely enjoyable listens on this list.

Best for: anyone who wants to laugh and think about food at the same time.

If you're looking for food podcasts because you're interested in diet, health, and nutrition rather than pure cooking culture, these are the ones worth your time.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee is one of the UK's best-known GPs-turned-broadcasters, and Feel Better, Live More is one of the most popular healthy diet podcasts in Britain. Episodes feature conversations with scientists, doctors, and wellness experts, covering everything from gut health to the psychology of eating. It's accessible without being dumbed down, which is a rare combination.

Best for: UK listeners who want evidence-based nutrition content.

The Doctor's Kitchen sits at the intersection of food and medicine. As a practising NHS doctor and trained chef, Dr Rupy Aujla brings a distinctive perspective, talking about how diet affects chronic disease, mental health, and longevity. If you're interested in the relationship between what you eat and how you feel, this is one of the best podcasts about food and health available in the UK.

Best for: anyone exploring healthy eating with a science-backed approach.

Born from the Covid ZOE study, Zoe Science and Nutrition covers nutrition research in plain English. Episodes from Professor Tim Spector and the Zoe team focus on the gut microbiome, metabolic health, food myths, and personalised nutrition. It's one of the most evidence-driven nutrition podcasts currently being produced, and the quality is consistently high.

Best for: nutrition nerds who want the science without the sensationalism.

If any of these podcasts have got you thinking more seriously about nutrition, our guide on becoming a nutritionist in the UK is a good next read. 

You might also find our pieces on mindful eating and how to stop comfort eating useful if you're looking to put some of what you're hearing into practice.

Food has always been tied to culture, trade, and human history, and these podcasts dig into that connection properly. If you want to understand how what we eat got to be the way it is, these are worth adding to your feed.

The Food Programme has been running since 1979, making it one of the longest-standing food podcasts in existence. Sheila Dillon has presented for decades, and episodes cover British food culture, policy, farming, and the stories behind what ends up on our plates. If you're after great British food storytelling with a distinctly UK perspective, this one's essential.

Best for: UK listeners who want intelligent coverage of the British food landscape.

Tasting History with Max Miller recreates historical recipes from ancient Mesopotamia to Tudor England, explaining the cultural context of each dish as he goes. It started as a YouTube series but the podcast version stands on its own. It's genuinely educational and surprisingly entertaining, the kind of content that makes you look at food history with fresh eyes.

Best for: history lovers who want their past served with a side of food.

Food writer and broadcaster Simon Majumdar has spent years travelling the world to understand food culture, and Eat My Globe is the distillation of that experience. Episodes cover specific cuisines, ingredients, and culinary traditions from a historical and cultural angle. For anyone who sees food as a lens through which to understand the world, this is one of the best foodie podcasts going.

Cooking has a way of staying with you — some people find it even follows them into their dreams. If you want to actually get better in the kitchen, these are the podcasts that will help. 

From cookbook author and food journalist Christopher Kimball, Milk Street Radio combines technique-focused cooking content with interviews, taste tests, and listener questions. It's particularly good if you want to improve your cooking and understand why certain techniques work. Practical and well-produced.

Best for: home cooks who want to learn something every episode.

An American institution, The Splendid Table is one of the most celebrated cooking podcasts globally. It blends recipe advice with broader cultural conversations about food, and the presenter's warmth makes it feel like listening to a friend who happens to know everything about cooking. Episodes are well-paced and genuinely enjoyable.

Best for: experienced home cooks who want something that respects their intelligence.

Home Cooking launched during lockdown and became a sensation. Author of Salt Fat Acid Heat, Samin Nosrat, and podcast producer Hrishikesh Hirway took listener calls and helped people cook through challenging circumstances. It's warm, reassuring, and full of genuinely useful advice for beginner and intermediate cooks alike.

Best for: anyone who wants to feel less intimidated in the kitchen.

Some of the best food podcasts aren't really about recipes at all. They're about the people, opinions, and conversations that surround food, and these three do that better than most.

Jessie Ware and her mother Lennie host one of the most beloved food podcasts in the UK. The premise is simple: a celebrity or musician comes over for dinner, they cook together, and talk. What makes it work is the warmth and genuineness of the conversations; it never feels like an interview. Guests have included everyone from Elton John to Nigella Lawson, and Table Manners holds up as one of the best British food podcasts going.

Best for: anyone who loves the overlap between food, music, and conversation.

Restaurant critic Jay Rayner takes a guest out to lunch, and they talk about food, life, and everything in between. As one of the UK's most recognisable food writers, Rayner brings wit and genuine knowledge to every episode. Out to Lunch is conversational, opinionated, and very much in the tradition of great British food writing.

Best for: UK listeners who enjoy food criticism and strong opinions.

Chef and Momofuku founder David Chang has one of the most candid voices in the food world. The Dave Chang Show covers everything from restaurant culture to mental health, food politics, and what it means to cook professionally. It's sometimes provocative and often fascinating, particularly if you're interested in the restaurant industry from the inside.

Best for: anyone who wants a behind-the-scenes look at professional food culture.

The food podcast landscape is rich and varied, and different shows suit different listeners. A few things worth considering when you're looking for your next listen:

If these podcasts have sparked an interest in nutrition, diet, or food science, you might enjoy taking that curiosity further. Centre of Excellence's Diet and Nutritional Advisor Diploma Course covers the fundamentals of nutrition, diet planning, and how food affects health, all in a self-paced online format you can study around your existing schedule. Use the link to access it for just £29.