There seems to be a lot of food and music collaborations happening. The Great GoogaMooga Festival was May 19th & 20th where 75 food vendors served food while the Roots, Hall & Oates and others performed in Prospect Park. I recently did an event in Chicago at Jared Van Camp's Nellecote, named after Villa Nellecote where the Rolling Stones recorded Exile on Main Street. The theme was "'Paint it Black' Tie" and I had to create a dish inspired by one of the songs on the album (mine was a duck, foie gras & cherry dish inspired by "Happy"). A couple of years ago Arcade Fire hired me to do their VIP tent after party when they played Randall's Island. And David Chang and Quest Love had a fried chicken competition on Jimmy Fallon.
Chefs that play an instrument are often asked to perform at benefits. Jonathan Waxman on trombone with Michael Lomonaco, Tom Colichio & Marc Vetri on guitar (if you're looking for a bass player, shoot me an email).
We always listen to music in our kitchens. Jeff Gordiner of the New York Times even asked a few chefs, me included, to create a playlist in an article he wrote about what chefs listen to in their kitchen. It gets us psyched up for service or mellowed out while we prep (Music is only played at Telepan is during prep). And in the basement we have the some awesome Ecuadoran love songs belting out daily. Their's always great music in the dining room of Mario Batali's Babbo. And Ken Friedman & April Bloomfield always have cool music playing and lots of musicians eating in their dining rooms.
So it made me think that with a little help from my friends at Spotify I should create a seasonal playlist of music I like to cook to (I do cook seasonally after all).
As a young cook in the early '80's, a lot of great music was coming out. And with the hours associated with being a young cook, I never really had the time to listen to enough new music.
So when I joined Spotify and the Smith's song "How Soon is Now" came on, I was like, "How did I miss this song?"
So click here for my first playlist. It includes the top 10 songs I missed as a young chef:
By the way, for all you Radiohead-heads, here is the May 31st Newark show playlist.
Enjoy,
Bill Telepan