Food and Music

[Claire]

What kind of music do you like to listen to when you're cooking, when you're eating?

I like lively oldies (I guess I need to specify here -- mid 70s at the very oldest, and only upbeat, happy, bubble-gummy stuff) when I'm cooking, and soft classical or 'Sinatra' -esque stuff when eating. For shopping in my regular grocery I like the same bubble-gum-ish stuff, but used to love to go to Sutton Place, and in my regular gourmet stores here I like classical. Funny how different ..... none of this applies, I might add, when I'm doing a theme dinner. Then I obviously want music to match the food.

 

[Lugaru]

Hmm... 90% of the time I like old timey stuff, be it some nice tango music, flamenco or some Django Reinhart gipsy jazz.

Other times I'll listen to some more contemporary "rock in spanish", trip hop (bjork, tricky, portishead), jazz, blues and proggy metal.

When doing dishes or cooking at high heat I break out the really heavy metal like Extol or Nightrage.

Edit: one more... I dont know it's not music but I'll often listen to the audio comentary of a dvd when cooking without an audience.

 

[Catseye]

I have kind of a Zen approach to music. In the whole arena of foodism, if it has a role at all, it's definitely at the back of the house. I love the thinking about and perusing and selecting and designing the meal, and I prefer to do it in silence. In the supermarket, silence is golden. Don't know if you're familiar with the cartoons of George Booth, but his freaked-out cats and dogs look like I feel when I'm anywhere near elevator music. (Not to mention the nasal and frequent "Attention, Shoppers ... ")

In the early phases of meal prep -- unloading the bags and putting things away, slicing open packages, setting up the tools and the mise en place, all that stuff -- I like upbeat and energetic music from, as you say, mid-70s at the latest: Four Tops, Pink Floyd, lotsa brass and heavy beat. I like to dance to and fro from the refrigerator. But when the serious prep starts, I need silence. A big part of my enjoyment in cooking is the mental and what I will call spiritual involvement in the task, and music becomes an irritant.

During the meal, I like soft jazz, a la Shearing or Brubeck, maybe Monk, people like that, and very low, like an unobtrusive enrichment. If it cuts into my appreciation of my guests and my internal critique of the meal, it's too loud. I need to sort of sense it, rather than actively hear it.

Cleanup right after the guests leave, I again like silence, to process the events just past. Next-day cleanup is once again time for loud and kicky and un-serious.


Cats

 

[pdswife]

Modern Country
or rock from 1975-1985

 

[Michael in FtW]

My son was just here and was reading over my shoulder and cracked up laughing at this question. He said he always knows the mood I'm in and the type of food I'm preparing, if I'm busy in the kitchen banging pot-n-pans when he comes over, by the music even before he smells the aromas.

If I'm listening to music it usually is something to put me in the mood for what I'm cooking. For French food it's French accordian or bistro/cabaret tourch songs, Greek is Greek music, Indian is Indian music, Asian could be Jananeese or Vietnamese, Italian is certainly opera, Moroccan or Middle Eastern is usually Turkish, Irish/UK is usually The Chieftans, etc. I've got music to cover just about anything I'm cooking!

If I'm baking bread it might be the Moody Blues, making a big pot of chili might be ZZ Top, or on a cold rainy day when I'm making a pot of stew it might be Jethro Tull.

I find that not only does the proper musical atmosphere help me to get my mind into a style of cooking the tempo also helps - on days when I need to mellow out it's a slow tempo, on days when I need some inspiration to get into gear it's a fast tempo.

 

[middie]

rock

 

[tweedee]

I'm with you Michael.

 

[buckytom]

i'm like you catseye. i prefer silence.

most of the time the idiot box is on, so it's either spongebob squarepants, jimmy neutron, the history channel, or food tv in the background.

 

[choclatechef]

Soul music from blues to jazz to rhythm & blues relaxes me to cook Soul Food!

Give me some of that good soul music baby, or don't you give me nothing at all.......

 

[Lugaru]

Soul music from blues to jazz to rhythm & blues relaxes me to cook Soul Food!

Give me some of that good soul music baby, or don't you give me nothing at all.......

You know soul music is something I didint grow (too young + too foreign) up with but I find myself really getting into now, mostly due to the Quentin Tarantino, Albert & Allan Hughes and of course the Mario VanPeebles movies that I got to watch when a girl I was dating was taking a film critizism class.

One thing that's completely disapeard from the map is funk though, which is sad. It's one of the biggest american contributions to the world of music but now adays the only people I see play it are a bunch of colege professors who are too worried about "doing it right" and just dont let if flow.

Uhm... end rant.

 

[Claire]

Oh, I love Django Rheinhard and Stephan Grapelli! But to me they are "eating" music, not "cooking" music!!!! I definitely agree with the cultural thing, though. If I'm making dirty rice (which I probably will do in a couple of days), then believe me, there will be some cajun on the CD player!!!

 

[Michael in FtW]

You are SOOOooo right Lugaru - blues, jazz, soul all come from the heart, not from book learning or analysis. But, that's pretty much true for classical music, too. Well, heck, just about any kind of music I guess. If you don't "feel" what your playing it's going to sound pretty flat. If you feel it in your heart and put your soul into it ... it's going to come alive.

 

[Ardge]

rock

middie ROCKS!

I rock out myself in the kitchen. However, when I am making bread, silence is golden.

RJ

 

[JohnL]

Country or Classic Rock!

 

[amber]

Pop or rock, but sometimes watch tv while Im cooking.

 

[norgeskog]

I love most all types of mucis, but am a 'mood listener.' I always have a cd playing when I am on the computer. I love Native American flute music, raggae, classical guitar, country-western, Norwegian folk music, soft jazz, and classical. I have quite a large number of cd's from all around the world of music: Europe, Greece and around the mediterrean, South Africa, Carribean, South America. Love the oldies by Tony Bennett, Sinatra. Josh Brogan is a new favorite, although I have no recordings by him.

 

[LeeAnn]

I don't really mind what's playing when I'm cooking or anything else for that matter. I do get in moods now and then for something more specific though. I'm used to noise around me, even if it's not the noise I want to be hearing. I love most all sounds of music, country being one of my favorites. I will listen to anything BUT rap!

 

[masteraznchefjr]

when i cook and eat i listen to jazz or trance or house tempo music beats. ambient trance