Audio Appetite, Will Food Podcasts Reshape India's Culinary Narrative?

It's 2025, attention spans are counted in seconds, not minutes. If you can’t hook your audience in a single frame, they’ve already scrolled on. Curiosity still exists in many spaces, but it’s only considered useful if the information is effortless to absorb. While short-form media continues to engulf every sphere, an unlikely medium is quietly carving out its own legacy in the digital landscape. Podcasting, once considered the art of long-form audio storytelling and the younger, vibier sibling of radio, has quickly proven itself the next fertile ground to sow audiences. 

At its simplest, a podcast is a digital audio show, usually episodic as well as portable, and personal. Unlike the rapid-fire pace of social media, podcasts offer something today’s audiences crav,e which is efficient, screen-free engagement. In this age, as digital fatigue deepens and attention shifts toward more meaningful content, podcasts have become a powerful counterweight to the endless scroll of visual media.

Smitha Menon of Big Food Energy with Riyaaz Amlani and AD Singh

The Reach Of Podcasts

India's podcasting landscape has experienced significant growth in recent years, and is poised to be the third-largest market after the USA and China, with a projected 200 million listeners in 2025 (as per Grand View Research). What makes podcasting unsuspectingly relevant in the Indian context is its alignment with the country's proclivity for all things convenient which also being accessible to anyone with internet access. 

With podcasts, we’re also able to unintentionally lean back into a past rich in oral storytelling, while also capitalising on the modern yen for flexibility. As Smitha Menon, host of Big Food Energy, which is now celebrating a second successful season, explains, "I've always loved podcasts because you don't have to look at your phone. It's one of those things where you can be doing something else, like either your commute or your workout or whatever. And it's just there in the background, which is great." This multitasking capability has proven crucial in India's urban centres, where long commutes and busy lifestyles create pockets of time perfect for audio consumption. 

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The intimacy of the medium creates a unique bond between hosts and listeners. Menon compares podcasts to wine or whisky. "When you're talking about wine or when you're talking about whiskey, they say a good wine or a good whiskey has a long finish. And I feel like that's what podcasts are. They have a long finish in the sense that they just stay in your head for a while because it's a conversation that's almost like a conversation you've had with someone."

Audio, in particular, means it’s like having a portable expert in your pocket relaying you snippets of foodie goodness. Sadaf Hussain, chef and host of Naan Curry, recalls the personal connections his podcast fostered outside of his usual audience, "I remember people would text me on Instagram or Twitter saying, ‘This particular podcast would become their morning run partner or like a morning walk partner. They would just play this for one hour."

For Gauri Devideyal, a successful restauranteur and seasoned podcast host of Speak Greasy it’s been much the same experience. “"You know what's so funny? A number of random people,  people who have nothing to do with F&B – have come up to me and said, ‘Oh my god, I heard that episode with so-and-so on the podcast,’ or something along those lines. And I love that. It makes me so happy, because it means the show is reaching such a wide range of people,” she says, “And the thing is, we don’t always realize that it's not like being in a restaurant where you know who’s coming in. With a podcast, I have no idea who’s listening, and that’s part of what makes it so great.”

Gauri Devidayal of Speak Greasy with Chef Nooresha Kably

The Formula For Success - What Makes a Food Podcast Tick?

Most food podcasters have discovered that their medium offers something traditional food media cannot - space to breathe. Unlike the food media we’ve usually known, podcasts allow conversations to unfold naturally outside of most normal limitations. “I always felt like there was so much more there that I didn't necessarily have space to fit in anywhere else," says Menon, reflecting on her transition from traditional journalism. "If it didn't fit into a word count or a 20-minute episode on television it didn’t fit anywhere. So I always felt like the conversation kind of had nowhere to go, per se. And with podcasts, you kind of have that room to explore different kinds of aspects of the conversation."

This depth allows for more nuanced storytelling, particularly important in a country where food culture is deeply intertwined with personal and regional identity. As Menon discovered through her first ever episode of Big Food Energy with Jeegar Mota of Mota Chips where she discovered a previously unknown impact it had across countries, "To see how brands like that have touched people's lives has just been so rewarding,” she says, “I remember people saying that they now live in Indonesia, but each time they come back they kind of reserve a suitcase for Mota Chips to take it back home." 

But where does efficiency meet entertainment? Puja Darshan from Taste of India has had a unique experience in space. After over a decade running her recipe blog by the same name, podcasting seemed like the natural next step. She was one of the first to the podcast game, long before it became a fad, but she had to really hone in on how to balance her approach to appeal to a wider audience and also provide the same expertise in recipes which has become her brand. "We wanted to make it more interesting. So, if someone isn’t really into recipes and is more drawn to something inspirational, like mythological stories, for example, they can listen to that part of the podcast instead. And if not, they can just skip it and jump straight into the recipe section."

This freedom has also enabled podcasters to dig deeper into subjects that traditional media often treats superficially and increases the scope of the audience unbound by borders. Hussain's approach exemplifies this depth. "We started talking about economics. We started talking about policy and history, of course. There were cultural references not just from India, but how this is connected to somewhere in the global world as well."

Sadaf Hussain and Archit Puri of Naan Curry

The Interplay Of Media: Navigating The Multi-Platform Landscape

Food podcasters in India operate within a complex media ecosystem where social media, traditional journalism, and long-form audio content intersect and complement each other. Rather than viewing these platforms as competitors, podcasters have learned to leverage their unique strengths.

Rather than opposing media, Menon views social media and podcasts as serving different purposes, but having a common end result. " I don't think that there are different audiences; it's just that sometimes you're in the mood for something a bit more meaty, or sometimes you just want to scroll through a bunch of reels on Instagram." She strategically uses video podcasts to bridge these worlds, "Video, I feel, is a great way to get someone's attention and then direct them to kind of like a snack. You throw them in with a little bit of a snack, and then you get them to eat a whole meal."

The multi-platform approach has practical benefits. Darshan and her husband Dilip Kumar (host of Podcasting University) have successfully channelled traffic between their podcast and blog, "We've been able to channel a lot of traffic from our podcast to our blog... So we leave links to every recipe in every podcast. And we also get people to visit our website, The Taste of India, because there they can print the recipe card."

However, this multi-platform reality has also changed audience expectations. As Hussain notes, the shift from audio-first to video-inclusive podcasting has altered the medium, "The downside of that is the current phenomenon we’re seeing so much of. From an audio-first medium to now a remix of it. People have realised that why just throw in audio when we can have video as well."

The Tastes Of India Podcast with Puja Darshan

Marketing Move Or Pure Platform?

So, with the medium of podcasting on the rise, where is the divide between shows that are educational or rooted in storytelling, and those that are designed as a strategic marketing tool for brands or individual creators? The question is a tricky one because at the end of the day, even organic podcasts need to be promoted, and by extension, focus on content worth promoting, but there is still a distinction to be made between the intent with which people are interacting with the medium.

Gauri Devidayal for example, acknowledges the marketing potential whilst emphasising content integrity citing her personal approach to curating the guest line up on Speak Greasy. "I think if your show starts becoming too sort of market-y it’s not going to appeal to the same audience." She personally maintains strict boundaries to achieve this adding, "I would make it very, very clear that ‘I'm not here to promote a brand. The idea is not to say come and talk about a product that you've just launched or like tell me about the product, it's more about their experience as entrepreneurs."

Hussain is more critical of the trend, citing it as one reason he hit pause on his podcast, "Everyone loves a podcast. It's an easy, no-brainer kind of addition for many. But what's happening right now is everybody, as of today, I think, absolutely, the boring guy starts a podcast because they realised it becomes easy money." He distinguishes between authentic content and lazy cash grabs not being prevalent in the F&B space saying, "Most of the people are using this as a medium for marketing. But they haven't come to food as yet, unfortunately. Maybe because with food, people don't put in money."

The key distinction appears to be intent and execution. Successful food podcasters emphasise storytelling, education, and genuine curiosity over promotional content. Menon's approach reflects this philosophy, "As long as there is a genuine intent to tell stories that matter, stories that have impacted people's lives in different ways, I think it's completely fine. As long as obviously you're not diluting the truth or changing anything or misrepresenting someone."

The most successful podcasters seem to have found a middle ground, using commercial partnerships to sustain their work whilst maintaining editorial independence and focusing on genuine value for their audiences.

What Lies Ahead 

The future of food podcasting in India appears simultaneously promising and challenging. The medium's growth potential is significant, but several factors will shape its trajectory.

What distinguishes Indian food podcasts from their international counterparts is their deep cultural context. The country's linguistic diversity also creates opportunities for regional content, as demonstrated by podcasts that embrace bilingual formats to reach broader audiences.  This suggests audiences are becoming more selective, choosing shorter formats for casual listening whilst still investing in longer content when the subject matter or host merits deeper engagement.

The regional language opportunity remains largely untapped. Smitha Menon sees enormous potential adding, "I think it only helps the entire scene when more people start talking about their local regional food cultures in their own languages." She points to successful examples in other domains, such as a Tamil Nadu series on music from Tamil Nadu which is hyper local but standing out for its niche content in a local language

However, sustainability remains a concern. The high dropout rate among food podcasters suggests that passion alone isn't sufficient. Technical demands, time commitment, and the need for consistent quality content create barriers for many potential creators.

The future belongs to those who understand that in an attention-deficit world, the real luxury is time. Time to listen, to learn, and to savour the stories that make us who we are. In the realm of food podcasting, that time is finally being taken, one episode at a time.