Every Bite

If you were to list the world's best bakers working today, Richard Hart's name would have to be near the top. After honing his craft at renowned bakeries in California, he teamed up with the world-famous Noma to open Hart Bageri in Copenhagen. His skills with sourdough are so well-known that he was even namechecked on The Bear. Richard recently published his first book. It's called Richard Hart Br...

What characterises Australian food? We're a nation adept at making first-rate versions of food drawn from all corners of the globe, but our palates are less familiar with the foods of our own backyard. For millennia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have cultivated and enjoyed uniquely Australian foods. So, why are these ingredients still so hard to find on supermarket shelves? Guests:...

Melt some butter in a hot pan, throw in a handful of diced onions and suddenly — even if it's a meal just for you — you are cooking. When you don't have a family to feed or anyone to impress, it's never been easier to buy a single meal from the frozen food section of your supermarket or order one on an app. But what might we deny ourselves by making those choices? In this second episode on solo di...

Cooking and eating are often characterised as communal activities. To some, the idea of cooking or eating alone conjures images of loneliness, isolation — perhaps even wasted time. Whether you've chosen a solitary life, are yet to settle down, or find yourself living alone in later life, our guests today insist that cooking for oneself can be a powerful act of self-care. Guests:  Kate Legge, journ...

An epiphanic encounter with Texas-style barbeque led Kareem "KG" El-Ghayesh to quit his lucrative finance career in Cairo and relocate to Austin to open a food truck. KG BBQ has since become a household name, boasting both Texan authenticity and innovative tweaks inspired by the flavours of his original homeland. So, who better to introduce us to this unique and regionally specific cuisine than a...

In a world rife with conflict, our food systems are experiencing increased insecurity. The impacts on the global economy and supply chains are felt well beyond the front lines. When conflict in Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, access to one-third of the world's fertiliser supply was disrupted. These shocks and stresses affecting our food systems have compounded those already caused by climate cha...

Marcel Proust's epic novel In Search of Lost Time is perhaps best known for its evocation of memory triggered by the senses — particularly in a scene involving a madeleine. The shell-shaped sponge cake whisks the narrator into a detailed recollection of his childhood, and this familiar sensation continues to fascinate philosophers, neuroscientists and other scholars today. So, how does this kind o...

Punctuating the year with food is a point of commonality across so many cultures — foods that connect us to community and tradition. Jewish cuisine includes a vast array of seasonal dishes. From the careful preparation of the Seder during Passover to the abundant honey cakes of Rosh Hashanah, a new book from the Monday Morning Cooking Club celebrates these moments, sharing stories and recipes for...

Recreational beekeeping has experienced an incredible surge in recent years. However, this surge has coincided with the spread of varroa mites — a now-endemic parasite devastating Australian honeybee colonies. Whether beekeeping to harvest honey or to pollinate crops — for love or for profit — how can we mitigate the destructive impact of varroa mites going forward? Guests:  Cedar Anderson, co-fou...

Laurie Woolever had a front-row seat to both triumph and disaster in the lives of two giants of the American food scene: Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali. Celebrity chef Batali faced allegations of sexual harassment at the height of the #MeToo movement and, by 2019, had exited all of his restaurants. Bourdain was a very different character: a celebrated chef at several New York institutions, a be...

Given how often we hear about hospitality's slim margins, transient workforce, and the ever-changing tastes and habits of diners, how does a restaurant stay the course? Marios in Melbourne seems to have cracked the code: this year it marks 40 years in business. Today, we pull up a chair at Marios and meet both new and long-standing members of staff, a regular customer of note, and the eponymous Ma...

Udon noodle making in Japan goes back 1,200 years, so when did Western Australia become one of its top suppliers of noodle wheat? Japanese udon noodles are serious business, with regional varieties of broth, toppings and preparation techniques inspiring fierce local pride. But wherever you are, there's a good chance the wheat comes from Australia. Today, we travel from the WA wheatbelt to the flou...

For ten years now, one of the most consistently lauded small restaurants in Australia has been Anchovy. It bills itself as Vietnamese cuisine "naturalised in Australia". Chef and co-owner Thi Le was born to a Vietnamese family in a Malaysian refugee camp and grew up in Sydney's West. She shares her story — and recipes — in Viet Kieu: Recipes remembered from Vietnam. Guest:  Thi Li, chef and co-own...

When discussing dietary fibre, it's easy to stray into awkward conversations about 'the other end' of eating. Thankfully, we have communicators like Dr Joanna McMillan to normalise these conversations about our nutritional health. Her new book, The Fibre Factor, explores how fibre has faded from the modern diet, and how not eating enough can have implications beyond healthy digestion. Guest:  Dr J...

When chef and restaurateur Stephanie Alexander published her Cook's Companion in 1996, she could not have known that it would become Australia's kitchen bible. An A to Z guide to ingredients, from abalone to zucchini, the book includes detailed explanations of varieties and seasons, as well as selection and storage tips, alongside a glossary of techniques and tools — everything a curious cook coul...

What would a birthday or a wedding be without cake? Celebration cakes are a signifier of occasion, sometimes requiring superhuman effort to bake and decorate. We explore the surprisingly recent history of the celebration cake, uncovering the role of the British royal family, The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book, and our evolving relationship with time itself. Guests:  Christ...

The chef behind Denmark's famous Noma restaurant is the latest hospitality figure to be accused of mistreating staff. It seems that many in the food industry too often face overwork, underpayment and intimidation in the workplace. It's a familiar story to Lucy Ridge, author of Fed Up: A Chef's Adventures in Food, Farming & Feminism. Burnt out, Lucy left the chef life behind and, with the help...

For Waleed Aly, refraining from food and drink from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan brings about not only a physical transformation but a spiritual one as well. Fasting is a feature of many different religions, and according to some experts, these and other religious practices can be determinants of health — both physical and mental. Guests: Waleed Aly, author, academic and presenter of Radio Nat...

Who doesn't love a passionfruit sponge, jam roly-poly or nice fluffy scone? Many of these classic recipes have been shared via community cookbooks, compiled by community groups and sold to raise funds for different causes and organisations. These books can become time capsules, revealing much about the social and political fabric of a community at a particular point in time. Guests: Liz Harfull, a...

Do you remember the healthy food pyramid? In the 1980s and 90s, the diagram was used to show which foods to eat most and which to eat least. It was replaced in Australia and the United States by a plate in the 2010s, but now — spurred by RFK Jr and the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement — the pyramid is back. Sort of: it's now upside down. For the first time, the guidelines acknowledge the...

As a trained cellist, food writer and cook Gurdeep Loyal relies on music theory to amplify flavour. While he spends more time in the kitchen than in the string section these days, Gurdeep's first two cookbooks lean heavily on musical ideas, such as the flavour chords and triads that underpin all his recipes. Building on those concepts, his new cookbook, Flavour Heroes, takes fifteen underutilised...

While tasselled lanterns, weaving dragons, dancing lions and firecrackers are a familiar spectacle in Chinatowns right across Australia during Lunar New Year, the season is celebrated by more than just the Chinese community. In this episode, we explore the roots of Chinese New Year festivities in Australia, give the stove god some time off for Tết, Vietnamese New Year, and become older and wiser w...

The fresh air, clear waters and rich soil of regional Australia are encouraging some of the world's top chefs to trade in their chef whites for overalls and swap grand banquet halls for intimate dining rooms — including Analiese Gregory. She trained in Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and now calls southern Tasmania home, where she'll soon be opening a 10-seat eatery on her property. But is...

A chant heard at Sydney's first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was "out of the bars, into the streets!" But bars were not the community's only gathering places: Even revolutionaries have to eat. We don't hear much about queer restaurants and cafes, but often they pre-date the famous nightspots that are now synonymous with queer pride.

After coming to prominence as a finalist on the Great British Bake Off, Ruby Tandoh is now a celebrated food writer, known for astute observations on how we eat and why. Her new book, All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now, is a deep-dive into the food culture of today — an era defined by novelty, abundance, and, paradoxically, scarcity: manufactured queues for trending foodstuffs. For those...