Barbara Sweeney has made a great career out of her appetite. She’s been regional editor for the Sydney Good Food Guide, oversaw Cheap Eats for nine years, spends Saturdays as a ‘talking cookbook’ and even has been a honey judge.

In this podcast, she also chats about her fascinating assignments – from interviewing wasabi farmers to rating vinegar. (Also, did you know that ‘hen caravans’ existed?). There’s also a time trip to the oddball retro dishes that she remembers from decades past and plus, it’s hard not give your jealousy a workout when Barbara describes the staff meals she experienced when working at a hotel in Umbria.

Barbara also chats about Food & Words, the festival that she has run for several years. She runs through this year’s program – which will include writer Anthony Huckstepp interviewing Martin Benn and Vicki Wild about their Sepia cookbook (pictured), a hummus tasting by Michael Rantissi (Kepos Street Kitchen, Kepos & Co), colonial gastronomer Jacqui Newling, and yep, even me. It takes place on September 19 at The Mint in Sydney and you can find out more and grab tickets from foodandwords.com.au.

You can listen to this episode on iTunes or download it via RSS or directly. And huge thanks to everyone who has said really lovely things about the podcast, including Toby Wilson, who recently binge-listened to the whole archives, and Felicia Zotalis, who got in touch to say she’s been using it as a soundtrack to her engineering thesis. And if you also like what you hear, please feel free to leave a nice review in the iTunes store, or tell your friends!