Restaurant podcasts make it easy to get inspired and stay informed on the go.
As a restaurant owner, staying up to date on the latest industry news is critical to your long-term success. But long hours and fast-paced days leave little room for reading.
Fortunately, listening to restaurant podcasts is a great way to stay informed, learn from experts, and connect with peers in the community. Most importantly, podcasts are perfect for multitasking. You can listen while commuting, taking a walk, closing shop, heading to the bank, and any other tedious tasks.
In this article, we've compiled a list of the best restaurant podcasts to listen to in 2022. Whether you're interested in hearing advice from top restaurant leaders or tips on succeeding in restaurant marketing, tech, and hospitality, these podcasts have it all!
1. Digital Hospitality
If you're familiar with Otter, you know that we're big fans of Shawn P. Walchef and the Cali BBQ Media crew.
Shawn is a veteran Otter partner who we've gotten to know and love over the past few years. We've chatted with him about Digital Hospitality, and we celebrated National BBQ Month with a story on his BBQ journey this year.
As a self-made entrepreneur and restaurateur with a passion for marketing, Shawn is a great source of inspiration for any restaurant person.
Digital Hospitality is an interview series that digs into how successful restaurateurs have used the internet and social media to their advantage.
Some of our favorite episodes include: Prioritizing People in the Restaurant Industry featuring James McGehee of Dave's Hot Chicken and Morgan Harris of RESTAURANT365, and Reinvesting In Your Family Business with Melvin and Davin Atallah of BBQ House OB.
You can listen to Shawn P. Walchef's Digital Hospitality on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible.
2. Restaurant Unstoppable
Podcast host Eric Cacciatore created Restaurant Unstoppable with one simple question in mind: What do the most successful restaurateurs know that you don't? In each episode, we hear answers from today's top chefs, restaurant professionals, and entrepreneurs.
Overall, the show lives up to its title as the #1 restaurant business podcast. Not only is Eric Cacciatore a masterful interviewer, but its clear he truly wants to help independent restaurants succeed.
You can listen to Restaurant Unstoppable on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and the Restaurant Unstoppable website.
3. Copper & Heat
Former Chef de Partie, Katy Osuna, created the Copper & Heat podcast to explore the unspoken rules and traditions of restaurant kitchens through the stories of people that work in them.
Winner of the James Beard award in 2019, Copper & Heat digs into the issues that underpin and enable exclusion in the restaurant industry. The show challenges inequitable systems that cooks and chefs have experienced for generations. Season one, entitled Be A Girl, focuses on gender-based issues; Season two, Overhead, focuses on the economics of restaurant labor; and Season three: Pre-Shift, focuses on everyday issues made worse by the pandemic. Get to know the people who face these issues in the kitchen every day through the Copper & Heat podcast.
You can listen to Copper & Heat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
4. The Restaurant Growth Podcast by 7 Shifts
Each episode of The Restaurant Growth Podcast is a quick fifteen to twenty minutes, but it'll leave you with a lasting impression.
The Restaurant Growth Podcast brings together today's restaurant leaders from all corners of the industry: quick-service to full-service, enterprise to SMB to share advice, insights, and tips on how you can grow your restaurant business.
Some of their most listened-to episodes include: "How to beat the labor shortage" with Dan Simpson, CEO of Taziki's, and Danny Meyer on his career, hiring the right people, the state of the restaurant industry, and more with 7shifts' CEO Jordan Boesch.
You can listen to The Restaurant Growth Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Amazon Music, and iHeart.
5. All in the Industry with Shari Bayer
Shari Bayer is a restaurant industry veteran with thirty years of restaurant experience.
From working the floor at Charlie Trotter's restaurant to becoming president of the New York Women's Culinary Alliance to founding her own agency Bayer Public Relations, Shari Bayer has seen it all.
In effect, she brings wisdom and a well-rounded point of view to her podcast: All in the Industry.
All in the Industry focuses on restaurant professionals who work in more behind the scenes (or counter) roles. Each episode digs into stories and expertise of experienced restaurant and hospitality professionals, PR tips, current events, and more.
You can listen to All In the Industry on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher or browse the show page here.
6. How I Built This: Shake Shack: Danny Meyer
We know, we know, this is an episode, not a podcast series, but it's worth breaking our own rules for.
How I Built This is one of the original entrepreneurship podcasts. Host and NPR journalist Guy Raz talks shop with innovators and entrepreneurs about, you guessed it, how they built their businesses!
And the podcast has no shortage of great guests. From Ben & Jerry to Sarah Blakely of Spanx, each guest has a fascinating story. However, it's no surprise that our favorite episode features an interview with Danny Meyer of Shake Shack. Since this is a plug for an episode, not a series, we won't give too much away but trust us, it's worth a listen.
You can listen to How I Built This: Shake Shack: Danny Meyer on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Wondery.
7. Afros & Knives
Winner of the 12th Annual Taste Awards, Afros & Knives is an interview series featuring Black women working and leading in food and beverage, food media, food science and technology, food education, food justice, agriculture, and hospitality.
Hosted by chef and head of Set the Table Media, Tiffani Rozier, Afros & Knives creates an inclusive space where Black women and femmes in food can share their stories working in the industry.
Afros & Knives provides a diverse, thoughtful, and intersectional point of view on food and entrepreneurship. That said, it's a great listen for anyone looking to hear fresh perspectives and boost their entrepreneurial skills. Our favorite episodes include: Call Me Chef with Rhonda McCullar, and A conversation with Chef India Johnson.
You can listen to Afros & Knives on Apple Podcasts, Youtube, and Spotify.
8. The Restaurant Coach Podcast
Donald Burns is an industry expert with over forty years of experience in hospitality – he's been a restaurant owner, consultant, and executive chef for Wolfgang Puck.
Today, he runs Off The Range Ventures, LLC, a behavioral strength-based company that works exclusively in the hospitality industry. Passionate about helping restaurateurs run their restaurants without letting their restaurants run them, Burns takes on a coaching role in his podcast. His interview-style podcast features leading restaurant owners, technologists, marketers, and more. Listen for techniques, tips, and straight talk to help take your business to the next level.
You can listen to The Restaurant Coach Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
9. Special Sauce with Ed Levine
A beloved food blog, Serious Eats, has provided seven million + readers with recipes, cooking techniques, equipment reviews, and personal stories related to food since 2006.
Serious Eats was created by Ed Levine: a New-York based food writer and James Beards Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America inductee. You don't want to miss out on his expertise, especially now that the blog has expanded into the podcast space!
The Special Sauce podcast was created to let food lovers everywhere eavesdrop on intimate conversations about food and life between Ed and his well-known/famous friends and acquaintances both in and out of food culture.
You can listen to the Special Sauce Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.
10. A Deeper Dive with Restaurant Business Magazine
Restaurant Business Magazine is renowned for providing restaurateurs and food lovers with important industry news.
Their weekly podcast, A Deeper Dive, goes in-depth on the most pressing challenges and opportunities restaurant operators face today. Released every Wednesday, A Deeper Dive chats with industry leaders about hot topics, from delivery to discounting and marketing to menus. Listening to A Deeper Dive is a great way to keep up with the latest restaurant trends and tips.
You can listen to A Deeper Dive on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and the Restaurant Business website.
Whether you're looking for a fun way to stay updated on the food and beverage industry or want to activate your entrepreneurial spirit by learning from the best, these podcasts are for you – and this list barely scratches the surface of the millions of podcasts that exist! Once you get into podcasts, you'll never go back. Happy listening!
