A collection of podcasts about food, eating, gastronomy, food history, food science, food production, nutrition, food and health, and food related subjects.

Non-exhaustive. See 'following' for extensive food podcasts.

Food

Mono culture, mono language, mono taste, mono everything.  This is just one of the concerns that Katrina Lane has when it comes to the changes taking place in the way societies right across the world interract with food. 

Katrina lived in regional Italy for years where she learned the importance of focussing on food regionality - protecting culture and tradition through traditional food production and preparation.

She's a fourth generation Australian farmer, and has been instrumental in spreading the Slow Food message.  It's called the Slow Food Movement and it's made its way from Piedmont in North West Italy to the regional South West of Western Australia. 



Slow food movement - From regional NW Italy to regional SW Australia

In October 2013, in honor of Sydney’s Good Food month, several Australian chefs were asked to create dishes that signified Australian cuisine. The results involved European techniques used to prepare native ingredients, coupled with Asian influences, like black bean sauce, or fish sauce. It seems the country’s proximity to Asia has allowed such cuisine to take root deeper than it has in other places. 

Other multicultural countries can’t seem to offer dishes like Japanese tonkotsu ramen or Malaysian char kway teow with the same level of authenticity as in Australian. An Indonesian restaurant in, say, Sydney, won’t necessarily have an Indonesian chef, yet the food will be as close to home as possible. That’s no surprise, then, given Australia’s long-running history and experience with Asian food overall. 

In recent years, the influx of immigrants from Asian countries has revived the market for good and affordable Asian food, whether Indonesian, Chinese, or Middle Eastern. The rise of one restaurant after another had then bumped up the central business district or CBD of various cities like Perth and Sydney.  As it is today, there are quite a number of cuisines that have found their way to Australian shores.

Chinese cooking is the most common, with Cantonese cuisine being the most widespread. Even when there weren’t a lot of Chinese immigrants, small towns typically had at least one Chinese restaurant. Dim sum, for instance, has since evolved and can be unrecognizable as an Asian dish, having become a truly Australian snack. 

Favorite dim sum dishes – also called dim sim or ‘dimmies’ – can be steamed or fried, as is customary, and may be found in both upscale restaurants and food stalls on the street. Other dishes include crispy duck with either plums or oranges, since some restaurants would change the fruit depending on the season and availability; and stir-fried beef noodles. 

Then, there’s Indonesian, which is an amalgamation of different Asian cuisines in itself. Nasi goreng, or fried rice, is a staple in many a Perth Indonesia restaurant. There’s also godo-godo, which is a salad of boiled vegetables like potatoes and string beans plus meat and perhaps tofu, all in a peanut-based sauce. Another must-try Indonesian dish is martabak – pan-fried pancakes stuffed with minced beef and onions. 

Other favorites for people in Perth, and other Australian cities, include the ubiquitous satay or sate, but these skewers of grilled meat can be found in cuisines other than Indonesian. In any case, they’re best served with some kind of dip or sauce, like peanut sauce. A restaurant may sell them as a main dish, if not a side dish.  

Japanese food has also found a place in Australia. The ever-present sushi and sashimi, in various forms, have stayed distinctly Japanese, compared to dim sim. While technically not a dish, wagyu or Japanese beef is constantly in demand because of its tenderness. This makes it a very good choice for steaks as well as boiled, stir-fried, and noodle dishes (because you don’t want to be chewing rubbery beef).  

The tonkotsu ramen mentioned earlier in the article is another crowd pleaser, with a handful of establishments choosing to prepare the broth in the traditional way.
Speaking of noodle dishes, another favorite is Vietnamese cuisine, again making its way to both street stalls and restaurants. Pho is the equivalent of ramen in this regard, usually made with beef broth plus traditional Vietnamese spices. Other variants are available, like chicken and seafood. Pork rolls, bread rolls filled with barbecued pork and chicken liver pate plus pickled vegetables, are another favorite.  

All told, you’re likely to not run out of dining options should you be in Australia and happen to have a craving for Asian food. Whether you dine at a strictly Perth Indonesia restaurant, or one with a variety of cuisines on the menu, it’s sure to be a gastronomic experience you wouldn’t want to miss.

Asian Tastes And Australian Palates

 Listen to writer Francis Lam talk about home, social justice, food writing, and immigrant cuisines. 

An Interview With Francis Lam

Listen to Jean-Martin Fortier discuss micro-farming, young farmers, and what it takes to successfully operate a market garden. 

A Conversation with Jean-Martin Fortier

Eric Holt-Gimenez is the Executive Director of Food First, an organization out of Oakland, California that seeks to expose the root causes of hunger and inequalities in our current food systems. His work spans from agro ecology to political economy, and provides a valuable lens through which to imagine food systems that haven't just been reformed, but transformed. Listen to Holt-Gimenez discuss the inequities in our current local and global food systems, the food movement's relation to issues of justice, and his vision for more just food systems. 

Food Justice and the Food Movement: An Interview with Eric Holt-Gimenez

Mark Rosati works to integrate a culture of American food hospitality at home and abroad. Hear him talk about how he sources delicious and sustainable food in a growing company that is fit to compete with the fast food monoliths.

A Talk with Shake Shack's Culinary Director, Mark Rosati

Yale College graduate Jack Hedin grows organic vegetables on a 250 acre farm in Minnesota and writes for publications including the New York Times and Bloomberg. Join Hedin as he shares his path from Yale to organic farming and his mission for environmental and financial sustainability. 

A Chat with Organic Farmer Jack Hedin

 Join us for an interview with Jane Owen. Jane is a senior editor at the Financial Times, and has extensively written on gardens, travel, and public spaces. In this interview, she reflects on beauty, and the latent artistry in our landscapes. 

On Public Green Spaces, Horticulture, and Parks.

Guida & Sam, English teachers from Australian, speak about food in TL

 Marydale Debor founded FreshAdvantage after recognizing the urgent need to revolutionize traditional institutional food service. Her most recent project has reformed food service in New Haven's Connecticut Mental Health Center, to great acclaim. Anne Gallagher is a chef and culinary instructor instrumental in creating youth cooking programs in Connecticut. Francine Blinten is a nutritionist with experience addressing a wide range of health conditions through food. Hear Debor, Gallagher, and Blinten explain their operations at the nexus between food and health care. 

Women Addressing Food In Healthcare

 Cherry Bombe is a biannual indie publication celebrating women and food, and has expanded to include an annual conference in New York City called Jubilee, celebrating women in the food industry. Harper's Bazaar alums, dubbed fashion's favorite foodies, Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu will chart their entrepreneurial path from fashion to food, explaining the business of stylish food, and imparting their lessons in journalism. Additionally, Wu and Diamond host Radio Cherry Bombe, a hugely popular show on Heritage Radio Network broadcast from Brooklyn. 

A Conversation With the Founders and Directors of Cherry Bombe Magazine

 From food tech and food trucks to crowdfunding, start-ups and hospitality, Nastassia Lopez has a wealth of experience in businesses aimed at bettering food systems and the environment through culture. Lopez is joint podcast host of Cooking Issues with Dave Arnold, Culinary Board member for the forthcoming Museum of Food and Drink in New York City, and has held leadership positions at inventive cocktail bar Booker and Dax and leading culinary school the International Culinary Center. Lopez will be bringing samples and doing demonstrations, including searzalled sâ€™mores, savory soda and liquid nitrogen marshmallows. Bring your curiosity and appetite! 

Nastassia Lopez On Innovation in the Business of Food

 Trained at Chez Panisse restaurant, Samin Nosrat has since written and cooked extensively, widely credited as the person who taught Michael Pollan to cook. She'll chat about her forthcoming book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: The Four Elements of Good Cooking, gender in the kitchen, and directions for young people interested in food. 

Chef Samin Nosrat in Conversation With Austin Bryniarski

 Bernoulli Finance provides financial strategy, planning, and operations services to ecologically-minded ventures including businesses in the sustainable food sector, such as Dandelion Chocolate, Magnolia Brewing, Nuchas, and others across the U.S. Oberoi's other professional affiliations include finance instruction at the Food Craft Institute, a nonprofit imparting traditional food making and business skills to entrepreneurs, and CFO at Fare Resources, a collective of consultant-entrepreneurs that builds strong food communities through consulting, education, and resource development. Oberoi will share her trajectory and the genesis of Bernoulli Finance; what she saw missing in the market and her take on food businesses and the particular challenges they face. 

Anjali Oberoi, Founder and Director of Bernoulli Finance

MIT has a long history with food, from nutrition science to environmental costs, and today food innovation projects at MIT run the gamut. MIT’s newest food initiative, Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab (JWAFS) is bringing together research across disciplines.

Episode transcript: https://bit.ly/2q1Fi6G. 

Learn more about JWAFS and food projects at MIT in the Slice of MIT podcast, Food for Thought. This episode focuses on four things: an Institute-wide food and water security lab; a Media Lab Agriculture Initiative; a chemistry sensor project that can detect spoiling meat; and an alumnus chef that uses science to perfect his recipes. Read more: http://bit.ly/1R3UfMU

This podcast is being released a few days before Thanksgiving 2015, so of course, we needed to address the Thanksgiving meal. Kenji Lopez-Alt ’02, culinary director of Serious Eats—a renowned food blog, offers insight into cooking with science and weighs in on the persistent Thanksgiving turkey question, to brine or not to brine?

Renee Robins ’83, executive director for JWAFS, talks about the growth of food and water projects at MIT and the promising technologies that are coming from interdisciplinary collaborations.

One promising research project is the Open Agriculture Initiative, run by Caleb Harper March ’14 in the Media Lab. Harper discusses his research that uses alternative growing methods, like aeroponics and hydroponics, along with LED lights, and controlled climate—all harnessed by open-source technology. He hopes his work can become the foundation for a new method of agricultural production to help produce food that can be eaten closer to the point of growing and to grow anything, anywhere in the world with similar technology and the right climate recipe.

Jan Schnorr ’12 was working toward completing his PhD in Tim Swager’s lab in the chemistry department when he started C2Sense, a startup that is developing sensors that can detect food spoilage and therefore help reduce food waste. “We had a project around ethaline detection, which is very relevant for fruit freshness,” says Schorr. There are several types of low-cost sensors being developed to monitor fruit and meat ripeness, indicating if the food has gone bad. These sensors could help at all steps in the supply chain—in distribution and storage, in grocery stores, and at home in refrigerators.

Music: "Cover Affair" and "Jarvic 8"
All songs by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Food for Thought: What's New in Food Science?

The best cooks know cooking a meal is all about having a plan (and a back-up plan if things go south); get the cooking out of the way, and then you can enjoy your family and friends -- the most important part. But now try doing it for thousands. 

How can one company be the de facto sous chef for so many? Turns out there's a lot of data science behind it, in everything from procurement to forecasts to logistics: what to cook, what people will like, what ingredients are required, what to produce at scale. In this segment of the a16z Podcast, Gobble's Ooshma Garg suggests that every modern food company is really a tech company (or should be). Is there a science to taste?

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a16z Podcast: The Data Science of Food and Taste

Future Of Food Podcast Episode 1 Food Waste Part 1

Anglicare Australia says Australia's poorest are going without food, sometimes for up to 24 hours. The organisation has launched a report based on a national survey of families receiving its emergency support. 26-year-old Zahra says sometimes her mother goes days without food. 

Mohamed Taha reports on the growing food insecurity epidemic in Australia.

Food insecurity rife in Australian households

In time for New Year’s Eve, Science Friday examines the chemical reactions that transpire in fluted glassware. Ira Flatow and Richard Zare, a chemist at Stanford University, pore over the science of bubbles -- from how to keep that open champagne fizzy (forget the cork) to why beer tastes better from a glass rather than a bottle. 

Get the Most Bang from Your Bubbly

Food writer David Prior, 26, talks about why young people are becoming more involved in fresh food. David was the first Australian to attend Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini's University of Gastronomic Sciences.

Food

George Darroch