In cooking, too, I take great pleasure in a mindful adherence to process, in crafting something that satisfies my personal taste, and in sharing and savoring the (hopefully) delectable results with others.
Music and cooking are, in my mind, the sweetest alchemies. And in my life, cooking provides welcome mind-clearing relief from the intensity that is par for the course as a performing musician.
In the decade since I worked as a production assistant at Martha Stewart Living Television, I hadn't, until now, felt the urge to share my love of great food and its conscientious preparation with anyone other than friends and family in my own home. (Which I did. And continue to do. A lot.)
Primarily, though, my intent in creating this blog is to use descriptive and thematic elements inherent to the food to share felicitous "musical pairings" with you.
Unfortunately, classical music suffers from the pervasive misconception that if a listener isn't "educated enough," he or she may not "understand" the music.
Personally, I couldn't disagree more. Do I have to be a sommelier to enjoy a glass of good merlot? At the end of the day, enjoyment of both food and music boils down to the satisfaction of personal tastes. Simply put, music and food are both immensely satisfying arts with the profound power to enrich our daily existence.
It goes without saying that I am not trying to equate, say, the masterworks of Beethoven to Ina Garten's lasagna. I am simply using the latter as a vehicle to share the former, with the hope that it will be ever more greatly savored long after the initial sensation of taste has worn off.
So with that, welcome! I hope you'll take as much pleasure in the sweetest alchemies as I do.
