If your New Year’s resolution is to grow professionally and be more dialed-in, one easy way to do that is to soak up one of these podcasts, which are ideal for budding culinary professionals.
- The Dave Chang Show
If there’s one person in the food industry that makes me want to crawl inside his brain to know what makes him tick, it’s David Chang. The prolific and peripatetic chef/owner’s restaurant empire extends to New York City, Sydney, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Toronto and — with the 2018 openings of Majordōmo and Milk Bar (and Momofuku soon to launch) — Los Angeles. While expanding his restaurant group’s footprint, Chang started dabbling in television in 2012 with “The Mind of a Chef” on PBS, followed by a print magazine (RIP Lucky Peach). He launched his docuseries “Ugly Delicious” on Netflix in 2018, and his latest creative pursuit, Majordōmo Media, produces podcasts, among other things. On “The Dave Chang Show,” the chef intimately discusses dining destinations, culture and travel with a broad range of prominent guests from inside (food writer Helen Rosner, chef Jeremy Fox) and outside (filmmaker Jon Chu, comedian Nick Kroll, American snowboarder Chloe Kim) the culinary arena. His uncensored conversational style is direct (sometimes raw), giving listeners insight into the inner workings of the Momofuku Group, while Chang’s passion for film, music, art and sports are running themes.
Chef David Chang in the kitchen at Ko. Photo courtesy of Momofuku. - Cooking Issues with Dave Arnold
The first place anyone in the industry will send someone looking for a food professionals’ podcast is Heritage Radio Network (HRN). The network, focused solely on the world of food and drink, launched in 2009 and offers 37 audio programs ranging from cocktails to cooking call-in shows. These are broadcast live from two recycled shipping containers in the backyard of the venerable Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. The long-running program, “Cooking Issues” (launched in 2011), is a fast-moving show with host Dave Arnold, founder and president of the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), part-owner of food science development company Booker and Dax, and cookery inventor (Google “The Searzall”). He and co-host Nastassia Lopez answer listener questions on techniques, equipment and ingredients.
- All in the Industry with Shari Bayer
The culinary world is vast and so are the varied roles of the guests on Shari Bayer’s show, “All in the Industry,” also on HRN. Bayer, founder of restaurant and hospitality communications agency Bayer Public Relations, interviews the likes of food photographer Evan Sung, founding editor-in-chief of Food Network Magazine Maile Carpenter, the ultimate restaurateur Danny Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group, and culinary school CEOs like our very own Rick Smilow. Each episode shares an industry leaders’ career path, opening with an inspirational PR tip from Bayer and closing with a restaurant recommendation for solo diners.
Shari Bayer hosts "All in the Industry." Photo by Ken Goodman. - Good Food by Evan Kleiman
Chef, author, radio host and restaurateur Evan Kleiman is a fixture in the Los Angeles food scene. Her enormously successful Angeli Caffe served Angelenos rustic, regional Italian fare for 28 years. The thoughtful and learned host of "Good Food" interviews cookbook authors, farmers, artisans, purveyors, bakers and others to discuss food topics from recipes to operating a restaurant, as well as hot-button issues like food policy and sustainability. For all her contributions to the food world, including her beloved annual pie contest at UCLA, Kleiman was inducted into the James Beard Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America in 2017. Her show has aired on KCRW for more than two decades.
- How I Built This with Guy Raz
Though the subject matter is not squarely focused on food, NPR’s “How I Built This” is about starting a business from the ground up. In each episode, host Guy Raz tracks the journey of entrepreneurs from some of the world’s best-known companies, such as John Mackey of Whole Foods (first called “Safer Way”), Alli Webb of Dry Bar (the blow-out salon with a cult following), and Chicken Salad Chick founder Stacy Brown, who turned her out-of-the-kitchen, door-to-door business into a $75 million company. All of the founders share a passion for and commitment to their ideas, having experienced failure, luck and doubt along the way. The show offers essential and inspirational tales for anyone with the entrepreneurial itch who’s looking to keep the momentum going with plans to launch a food business or restaurant.
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