Food and music

Special Music for Special Dinners

When we talk about pairings in the kitchen, we usually mean wine.
But pairing is a much broader concept.
You can pair a dish with a book, a wine with a landscape,
a dance with a meal, or a game with a drink.

This time, we’re talking about music — a passion we all share here at Kitchen Wishes.

Music and food.
Or rather: music, food, and wine.

A Symphony of the Senses

How do you combine all these sensory elements to create a complete experience?
We have five senses, and a good dinner usually engages at least three:
taste, smell, and sight.

Touch often joins the mix —
but in cooking, the great absentee is usually hearing.

We’re certainly not the first to talk about it:
plenty of studies explore the connections between sound and flavor —
for instance, how high-pitched notes evoke sweetness,
while low frequencies bring to mind bitterness.

So yes, that probably means Mika’s voice pairs beautifully with tiramisù,
while Mark Lanegan belongs with Venetian-style liver.

Sound and Taste: Perfect Matches

Sacred texts of gastronomy also tell us this:
ethnic food reaches its peak emotional impact when paired with music
from the same place of origin.

And I couldn’t agree more.

To fully enjoy the prized Irish oysters of Galway,
forget the champagne —
grab a pint of Guinness and let yourself be carried away
by the drunken sea shanties of The Pogues’ sublime album
“Rum, Sodomy and the Lash.”
A match made in heaven.

Thinking of ethnic flavors, how could we forget ćevapčići,
that staple of the former Yugoslavia:
spiced lamb and pork sausages served with white onion or red pepper sauce.

What better companion than the wild Balkan folk-punk
of Gogol Bordello?

Beyond Geography

Of course, ethnic pairings are just the most obvious path.

Take Mike Patton, frontman of Faith No More,
who in the late ’90s released “Pranzo Oltranzista” —
an album inspired by the bizarre recipes of the Italian Futurists.

The recipes are inedible,
the music nearly unlistenable —
a perfectly coherent project, if you ask us.

Changing atmosphere, let’s move to something darker.
Risotto al nero di seppia — the blackest of dishes —
once found its culinary soulmate in the lanky Blixa Bargeld,
leader of the brooding Berlin band Einstürzende Neubauten.

With great humor, he turned chef for a short video we highly recommend watching.

Personal Experiments

The possibilities are endless — and deeply subjective.

Just a few nights ago, I paired the dusky voice of Nick Cave
(Push the Sky Away)
with a Re Nero — a 100% Merlot from Gualdo del Re,
a prestigious winery in Suvereto.

Served with quail stuffed with prunes and apples,
the “Ink King’s” deep tones merged with the “Black King’s” bold flavor,
amplifying the pleasure of the hunt.

But enough with the animal proteins.

Vegetarians might appreciate a dish of ricotta, bell peppers, and chocolate
(a Kitchen Wishes recipe first presented at our “Momenti” event),
best paired with the haunting voice of Thom Yorke.

Vegans, meanwhile, will find powerful allies in music —
from Morrissey’s “Meat Is Murder”
to Amanda Palmer of Boston:
here, the pairing can be conceptual rather than purely sensory.

The Playlist Continues…

Too easy — yet inevitable —
to pair Tom Waits’ gravelly voice on “Singapore”
with a box of greasy noodles from some lost downtown eatery
in an Asian megacity,

or imagine a raw meat tartare as the perfect match
for the thunderous riffs of Slayer —
who, by the way, produce their own excellent Californian wine.

But this is only the introduction
to next week’s “Recipe That Doesn’t Exist”,
when I’ll hand the microphone to our resident sound wizard,
DJ Michael Byrne —
a master alchemist of rhythms and atmospheres,
lover of electronic beats, vinyl, and vintage soundscapes.

Together with him —
and our multicolored chef Giulia —
we’ll prepare a full menu
where food and music find their perfect harmony.

Don’t miss it!