Music in Cooking
As long as I can remember my cooking has always been linked to music. Although the two hobbies started independently, they managed to merge early on and music maintains itself a s core ingredient to my food. It’s part of the reason why in 2020 incorporating DJDivix into Supper Club and catering the dining soundtrack just made sense.
I found music as a good way to express myself early on. In middle school I played trombone. The last year of which I played in the Connecticut All State Band. We performed Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’- a defining piece that to this day is my favorite piece of composed music. Every time I walk into a thrift store and see it lying among a stack of old records I pony up the 50¢ to buy it, regardless of how many times I have before. I must own at least half a dozen to a dozen copies on vinyl. (None of them as fantastic as when Leonard Bernstein performed the piece with the New York Philharmonic in 1976).
In high school I tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to teach myself guitar, learning about 6 power cords and one Dave Matthews riff. I also sang in the Concert and Jazz choirs in high school (in between football seasons) and held the office of Vice President my senior year. Learning how to read and right music, match pitch and key, ultimately lent itself to DJing. 20 years later, countless mixes and probably 150+ recorded one hour sets in my back catalog, music has become an intimate and inspirational part of my cooking. I ALWAYS have something playing in my kitchen. If you followed me on Snapchat from 2017-2019 you’ve undoubtedly seen #DJDinner videos of step by step cooking with musical support by some of my favorite DJs: John Digweed, Hernan Cattaneo, and Claptone.
I didn’t start learning how to cook until around 2012. At the time I was living in Topsail Beach, NC and most of what I did was Italian or homemade pizza. My goto to impress dates was a chicken milanese with bowtie pasta in a cheating homemade sauce my buddy Jon Shulas, who had studied in some high end resaturates, taught me: a jar of red sauce kicked up with brown sugar, cayenne pepper, fresh basil, and garlic- to make it taste like it wasn’t from a jar.
I had a CD called “Mob Hits” that was all the music from films like Godfather and Goodfellas, the classic Italian tunes by Louis Prima, Dean Martin, ol Blue Eyes and the lot which I played every time I was cooking Italian food.
I’m constantly discovering new music through cooking, by trying to set the mood in the kitchen. Just this week I was making a pork katsu and curry rice dish and told Siri to play “Japanese music” which landed me on a J-pop radio station that what phenomenal for the creative process, and how I discovered Porno Graffitti’s “Apollo”.
In early seatings of Supper Club I would also try and set the mood with menu appropriate musical accompaniment. My favorite to date being the Soviet Russian meal where we enjoyed pickled vegetables, brown bread, paté and caviar with blini among other soviet era recipes to the serenade of the Red Army Choir by candle light under a framed picture of Vladimir Lenin hung on the wall specially for the occasion.
I’m also a huge fan of classical music when cooking. In no small part to Mads Mikkelsen’s performance as Hannibal in the NBC drama. The cooking and dining scenes in that show were phenomenal (even if it was cannibalism). I frequently visit J.S. Bach - “Goldberg Variations: Aria” when prepping and it’s 100% because of this show.
Ultimately in Super Club 2020, the idea is to help create an immersive dining experience and a big part of setting the atmosphere is music. With catered playlists to built from the stages of inspiring what dishes to cook, to helping curate conversations among strangers and friends alike, the music will be an integral part of Supper Club in 2020.