Best Food Podcasts (2026)
Last updated July 2026.
The best food podcasts do more than read out recipes — they keep you company while you cook, settle kitchen arguments, and dig into where your dinner actually comes from. Whether you want practical help with a weeknight meal or a great story about food and the people who make it, these ten shows all deliver, and every one is actively releasing new episodes right now.
Waking up with a podcast on iOS
Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.
What's new for 2026
We've refreshed this guide for 2026 and confirmed every show below is still putting out new episodes. Each pick now comes with its cover art so you can find it fast in your podcast app. Standouts this year: Chewed Up reunited the old Chew crew and was named a Spotify Instant Hit, while Dinner SOS and Home Cooking remain the go-to shows for real cooking help. Want more? See our best podcasts of 2026 round-up for picks across every genre.
1. Home Cooking
Samin Nosrat (author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat) and Song Exploder creator Hrishikesh Hirway answer listener cooking questions with warmth, humour and zero judgement. The show returned in late 2025 with new episodes and somehow manages to be both genuinely helpful and deeply calming. If cooking stresses you out, this is the antidote.
2. The Recipe with Kenji and Deb
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman talk through how great recipes actually get built — the testing, the failures, the "why does this work?" moments. They disagree often enough to keep things interesting, and the practical advice is immediately usable. Two of the most trusted names in home cooking, just talking shop.
3. Dinner SOS
Bon Appétit's food director Chris Morocco takes real cooking emergencies from listeners and offers two solutions per episode. The problems are specific and relatable — "how do I make weeknight chicken not boring?" — and the fixes are things you can actually pull off on a Tuesday. Short episodes, no waffle, genuinely useful.
4. Recipe Club
David Chang and Chris Ying pick a dish or occasion — date night, potluck, late-night snack — and each bring a recipe to test and defend. The debate format keeps it lively, and Chang's strong opinions about food are as entertaining as they are educational. You will end up cooking something from this show within a week of listening.
5. Milk Street Radio
Christopher Kimball's weekly show travels the world to find stories about how food shapes cultures, then brings it all back to your kitchen. One episode you are learning about Chicago-style gyros, the next about Irish soda bread. It is proper food journalism that also makes you a better cook. Episodes drop every week and have done for years.
6. Cooking Issues
Dave Arnold's long-running show is the one for people who want to understand the science behind what happens when you cook. Listeners call in with technical questions and Arnold — a food scientist, author and bar owner — gives deeply nerdy, deeply satisfying answers. Not for beginners, but if you have ever wondered why your emulsion broke, this is your podcast.
7. Chewed Up
Clinton Kelly, Carla Hall and Michael Symon reunited in late 2025 after years apart on The Chew and immediately proved their chemistry never went anywhere. Three episodes a week covering recipes, food trends and unfiltered banter. It was named a Spotify Instant Hit for good reason — it feels like hanging out in a kitchen with friends who actually know what they are doing.
8. Dish
Broadcaster Nick Grimshaw and Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett host a weekly dinner party with a celebrity guest, cooking a meal while the conversation unfolds. The format works brilliantly because the food is real (Hartnett is actually cooking), the chat is unscripted, and guests range from Louis Theroux to Jennifer Garner. A Waitrose production that is far better than it has any right to be.
9. The Food Programme
BBC Radio 4's long-running food show investigates where your food actually comes from and why it matters. Recent episodes have covered everything from UK supermarket supply chains in Senegal to wild mushroom foraging in Derbyshire. It is serious food journalism without being dry — the kind of show that changes how you think about what you buy and eat.
10. Comfort Eating
The Guardian's Grace Dent sits down with guests to talk about life through the lens of food and the meals that shaped them. The format is simple but the conversations go deep — food memories have a way of unlocking stories people would not tell otherwise. Guests have included Graham Norton, Nicola Sturgeon and CMAT, and every episode leaves you wanting to cook something from your own past.
More to listen to
If you are building out a wider rotation, our best podcasts of 2026 guide rounds up the top shows across news, true crime, comedy and more — the perfect follow-on once you have worked through this food list.
Cook with company
Put a food podcast on while you cook and the kitchen stops feeling like a chore. Download Podcast Alarm and have something great playing the moment you start prepping.
Waking up with a podcast on iOS
Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.
