PODCASTS- LISTEN AT YOUR LEISURE

Best Possible Taste www.sharonnoonan.com Having once been told “no one wants to listen to an accent like yours”, when on work experience at a Northern Irish radio station, Sharon Noonan — from Ballymena — took the scenic route to West Limerick 102FM, where each week she now presents Best Possible Taste, which became a podcast in 2014. The interest in food goes back even further, to “birth really”, and Sharon was a judge at the Great Taste Awards in 2013.

Best Possible Taste is 50 minutes of savvy, informed food and drink chat, with regular contributors including restaurant reviewers, wine experts and nutritionists and a host of other guests — think award-winning producers, Michelin-star chefs and an artist who specialises in painting chefs and kitchen scenes.

Noonan’s passion for her subject and ability to get her guests into the right conversational frame of mind is very much in evidence. Recent episodes include discussions on peat-infused wine and a review of Azur in Limerick. The Food Chain www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p028z2z0 At the more current affairs end of the foodie scale is The Food Chain, which last year won the radio category at the Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards for The Case For and Against Meat. This describes itself as delving into “the economics, science and culture behind what we eat and drink” and does so in an accessible, newsy way, with a mix of commentary, on-the-road investigative reports and studio interviews. Recent highlights include a piece on killing your own food, fertility recipes from the 16th century, training with Kenyan runners and sexual politics in the kitchen.