Cooking up a food podcast

How is it that oysters a delicacy savoured across the globe have been so overlooked by nearly a billion people on the Indian subcontinent Amrita Gupta asks on her website foodradioprojectcom as she takes us into her twopart audio series Oyster Culture which delves into the emerging industry of oyster farming in the country Another series discusses Indias food waste crisis while a more comprehensive threeepisode podcast talks about how climate change in Uttarakhand has manifested rapidly and is predicted to intensify with farreaching impacts on food securityThe 34yearold journalist currently based out of California chooses rather unusual subjects for her food podcast Food is not necessarily about eating or the art of preparing Its a lot more than that I wanted to understand issues from production to consumption how food relates to policy and environment says GuptaThe Food Radio Project which began in 2016 as an offshoot of her thesis when she was completing her degree in Food Studies at New York University has since evolved She now hopes to make it a more exhaustive journalistic exercise that seeks to examine the culture politics economics and environmental impact of the countrys food systemGupta isnt the only one attempting to create new narratives around food While food podcasting is still at a nascent stage here the handful of podcasters running this race are going back to the drawing room to provide fresh material so that what you hear is more than just about chefs their dishes or restauranthoppingFood Podcasters Gauri Devidayal and team at Miss T in Colaba The business of foodIn July last year homegrown platform IVM Podcasts produced The Colaba Cartel which featured five Mumbaibased restaurateurs Gauri Devidayal Jay Yousuf Abhishek Honawar Pankil Shah and Sumit Gambhir In the 10episode podcast the quintet shared their insights on what it takes to build and sustain eateries in the runup to opening their own restaurant Miss T in ColabaLate last year celebrity baker Pooja Dhingra also started her own weekly podcast NoSugarcoat where she interviewed feted Indian and international chefs who talked about their cooking process and how to run restaurants and hustle in the food world Often its the food rather than the making of the restaurant that tends to be publicised says Devidayal But at the end of the day hospitality is a team sport Its about everyone contributing to the best level every single day to make it a great experience adds HonawarPronoti Datta Purva Mehra and Amit Gurbaxani of The PaodcastDevidayal and team decided to talk about their own experience with launching Miss T because they felt that there were a lot of false ideas associated with getting into the restaurant businessThe show has them discuss everything from Miss Ts conceptualisation its investors the architecture and menu We just wanted to share the knowledge of what we had learnt over the years because between the five of us we had a number of years of experienceWe wished we had this when we started out says Devidayal In the hospitality business emotion and expression are most integral Sometimes that is forgotten when you are in the crazy phase of building the restaurant So this podcast was also a therapy session for us says Honawar Dhingra feels that podcasts have the ability to dig deeper and truly get to the heart of the matter In a world where everything is quick and bitesized podcasts are a healthier meal she saysThe struggle is realJournalist Vikram Doctor was the first to attempt the genre with The Real Food Podcast back in 2015 in collaboration with Audiomatic Indias first podcast network The episodes released twice a week delved into diverse topics ranging from the legends associated with various Indian ingredients to communityspecific cuisines At the time because there were no other Indian food podcasts I would refer to the international ones to get an idea he says who worked on the show for twoandahalf yearsAccording to Doctor the most important part about podcasts is the story line You need to capture and sustain peoples attention When people are listening to podcasts they are doing other things as well like commuting or their eyes may be simply wandering Therefore its easy for them to lose interest It became all the more challenging for Doctor given the fact that he had to work around a specific themeInterviews are more loose in structure and you can play around a bit But here the story is integral There were topics that he had to shelve because of the trouble of generating content for it One was about potatoes which although commonplace is strangely something that people dont think about So we could not find anybody who had adequate knowledge on the subject The only people I could find were agricultural scientists who didnt want to talk because of government issues I avoided companies because then it became very corporate He remembers running into copyright issues when it came to music because they couldnt lift Bollywood songs and didnt have the budget to pay for the music In 25 years they ended up using songs only on two occasionsOne podcast would call for several retakes Many of the sessions I would say one or two sentences and he the sound engineer would stitch them together A lot of people think that with podcasts you can just go and talk But thats not the case You have to invest in a good sound engineer and a studio with good sound proofingFor Gupta who was former food and drink editor with a leading magazine in Bengaluru overdone ideas in the food journalism scene compelled her to try out something new for her podcast Having interned with the Heritage Radio Network a nonprofit radio station covering the world of food drink and agriculture Gupta gained handson experience in scripting recording production and editing While she has a basic homestudio setup and enough equipment what she struggles with is funds to produce her show One way to go about it is applying for journalism grants she says This report on Climate Change in Uttarakhand for instance was produced with the support of the Earth Journalism Network and published in February Before that there was a big lull As of now I am still trying to figure how to monetise my content Someone told me that unless it is cricket or Bollywood a podcast like mine wont work so its definitely a challenge she saysThinking out of the boxThe Daily Paos Purva Mehra Pronoti Datta and Amit Gurbaxani who launched The Paodcast a few months after Doctors in December 2015 and are now two seasons old have constantly felt the need to revisit their content which is primarily a weekly lowdown on Mumbais food and culture scene In the initial format each episode was divided into three sections Bombay Binge on food The Scene on culture Metro Station on local news and history Each episode would go on for about 3545 minutes In time we changed the format We reduced the length of each episode The idea being that not everyone has the patience to listen to a 45minute podcast especially since the format is new here says Mehra and teamWhile the Paodcast team found that roundups of neighbourhood food guides or favourite restaurants worked best for them they also ran trend stories and interviews with chefs The team has currently taken a break to figure how best to revise The Paodcast so that it engages more listeners The audience for podcasts is highly niche and its a challenge to sustain the activity says Mehra Devidayal too is planning to focus on homegrown produce and producers for her next show the idea for which is still being worked on Hopefully she says it will help listeners experience food beyond foodCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates