Exploring how food connects us to our deepest memories

Bitter/Sweet, is a podcast that explores the relationship between food and our deepest memories. In each episode guests share a profound moment in their lives, involving an evocative meal and share why it was so meaningful for them. Guests are invited to take us on a journey into the fusion of flavours and layers of aroma, taste, and texture that embrace that memory. By engaging their senses through food, they experience it more vividly and bring their stories to life. 

The relationship between flavour and memory is a powerful one. In one bite, you can travel back in time or be taken anywhere in the world. Tapping into the senses, food becomes a transformational vehicle that allows us to connect deeply to our memories and each other. 

In series one, we meet restaurateur Jeremy King; creative director Anna Burns; journalist and producer Markus Hippi; fashion critic Tim Banks and Mama J, Natasha’s grandmother.

Come for the food; stay for the memories.

This six part series podcast launched in March 2023.

It has been featured in The Guardian, Pod Bible, The Stylist, Podcast Review and Pocket Cast.

AWARDS

Bitter/Sweet is a winner of the Food Podcast category for the 2024 Guild of Food Writers Awards.

Bitter/Sweet won an award for Best Narrator at the 2023 Audio Production Awards. The podcast was runner up for Moment of Touching Honesty at the 2023 International Women’s Podcast Awards and was also nominated for Moment of Compelling Storytelling and Moment of Raw Emotion categories. The podcast was nominated for the Arts and Culture category for the 2023 Independent Podcast Awards.

I am Natasha Miller, an artist, writer, producer and founder of Miller Libertine, a taste branding consultancy (winner of several Great Taste Awards) that strives to create food experiences that people will remember, long after the dishes have been cleared away. We find the flavours, aromas and textures that tell a story. Brand partners include The National Trust, Liberty, The Big Lottery and UBS Bank.

Bitter/Sweet started out as an exploration of the intricate relationship between memory, emotion and the sensory pleasure of food. Some of the richest connections I have ever experienced, have been centred around food and sharing it. Whether it be family meals or community food projects reducing elderly isolation or empowering children to cook nourishing meals; I have been committed to learning how food can be used as a means to nurture meaningful social and emotional connections. But when I experienced significant personal loss, I worried about forgetting important shared moments. I was reminded that food could be my personal catalyst for remembering.  Series one of this podcast became a love letter to my mum and a way of navigating my way through grief.  

During the process of creating Bitter/Sweet, I have been on a journey discovering and harnessing the powerful link between flavour, memory and emotions.

I have also fallen in love with the intimacy of audio storytelling. It is my desire that through hearing the stories in this podcast, we might deepen our understanding of the healing power of food.

I hope that by sharing Bitter/Sweet, that you will be nourished by hearing something meaningful. I have mixed the ingredients together to create this podcast for you to savour and enjoy!

PODCAST EPISODES

Credits

Executive Producer: Kate McAll

Producers: Natasha Miller and Linda Debrah McSteen

Mixing and Mastering: John Biddle

Music: James Kennaby

Web Copy: John Mallon

GRATITUDE

Mum, Troy, Dad, Tim, Anna, Markus, Jeremy, Kate, Linda, John, Georgie, Taufique, Helen, Neil, Cathy, Matt, Neil, Caitlin, Rachel, Eleanor, Helen, Steve, Lucy.