Food Journalists Priya Krishna and Anisha Oommen on Restaurant Reviews and the Future of Food Writing

Behind The By-lines: Priya Krishna (The New York Times), Anisha Rachel Oommen (Goya Journal), and Smitha Menon pull back the curtain on what it means to write about food today.Amuse-Bouche: Food as a lens into caste, class, politics, and identity;  and why the table is still one of the last places we can have hard conversations.Main Course: The blurred lines of PR and journalism, maintaining professional boundaries as a food writer, and what “good taste” means when dining out becomes social currency. Quick Bites: From Indian English prose to plastic tablecloths and dosa definitions, how language and aesthetics shape whose food stories get told.In the Margins: On AI, the future of media, and why being a food journalist is less about hype and more about holding power to account, one story at a time.This episode is fact checked, double spiced, and just the right amount of sweet, which means the Bombay Bhel Chikki by Bombay Sweet Shop was the only sensible pairing, really.– – –Host: Smitha MenonWe’re on YouTube, Spotify, and wherever food memories live. Drop in to say hello at [email protected] or [email protected] is a Maed in India production.Creative Director: Mae Mariyam ThomasProject Manager: Shaun FanthomeProducer: Meghna Gulati Co-Producer: Rachna Sukuru Animation: Alika GuptaVideo Editor: Kaval ChaudharyVideo Guidance: Jishnu GuhaSound Mixing Engineer: Kartik KulkarniOn-Location Sound Engineer: Nihar TemkarProduction Assistant: Natasha VakilArtwork: Jishnu Bandyopadhyay