Music while you work

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Posted at 4:45PM, 22 February 2010 by Stuart Walton - Food and wine writer

If you're like me, you'll have spent a significant part of this grim winter in the kitchen. There's something hugely therapeutic about filling the place with the aromas of cakes and pies baking, pots of slow-cooked things simmering on the top and, of course, the Sunday roast.

Spending so many hours at the stove has reminded me that, in less busy times, cooking felt like a luxurious retreat from the world out there. You'd shop in the morning and cook all afternoon, and what reinforced that impression of cocooning yourself was playing some music while you worked.

Call me snobby if you will, but I don't want to listen to what everybody else is listening to

I don't know when I stopped putting music on while I cooked, but I'd forgotten how pleasant and helpful it was. Most people have a radio in the kitchen, but - call me snobby if you will - I don't want to listen to what everybody else is listening to, and I mostly can't bear the yammering of the DJs, the interminable phone-ins and spirit-crushing news bulletins on the hour.

No, what I want is my own music, and I'll bet you do too, but what sort of music fits the bill? Nostalgia has to be top of most people's lists. A quick survey of friends reveals that Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald score highly as accompaniments to cooking. The tunes are all viscerally familiar, and dooby-dooing along to them keeps you nice and calm, so when your pastry-dough sticks to the rolling-pin, there's likely to be less effing and blinding than usual.

From the modern era, cool R&B ladies work well. Beyoncé, Rihanna and Jamelia have been regular companions (are you surprised?), whereas their male counterparts (Kanye West, 50 Cent) are too attitudey to suit the context. The less rackety guitar bands can be good. A double-CD set of James gets me through a whole afternoon's baking, but again anything shoutier, like Oasis, feels like it's demanding too much of your attention.

And isn't that the point? Music while you cook isn't just background music. Your favourite tunes lift you into a mental space where you feel supremely content and warm and happy with what you're doing. Whatever's going on outside the kitchen window (rain turning to sleet, then snow, and back to rain again here today) can carry on as it likes. You're in here pounding herbs and garlic, and the closest you're going to get to rain is singing along to 'um-ber-ella'.

That said, I wonder whether different types of music might suit different styles of cooking. A blast of Green Day for tenderising meat with a mallet, or smashing digestive biscuits into cheesecake base? Pavarotti doing Verdi for wrapping up ravioli parcels? Splashes of Debussy piano for delicately tweezering the bones from fish?

I'm making enchiladas tonight. Now where did I put that mariachi band album?

What's your favourite soundtrack to an afternoon in the kitchen?

Comments

Cassandra Amy Rose

23 February 2010, 11:44AM
Cassandra Amy Rose

Yes, there is defiantly something thing soothing about having some music while you cook. If I'm alone in the kitchen (which is a rare occasion nowadays) I try to remember to put some music on. I love Eva Cassidys Songbird. And yet, you defiantly need something different when your bashing up biscuits to when you are gently stirring up some muffins!

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Cassandra Amy Rose

23 February 2010, 11:46AM
Cassandra Amy Rose

P.S When are the comments coming back on the recipes???

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Ellie Reade

23 February 2010, 12:46PM
Ellie Reade

I find music really useful in the kitchen - especially when I need to do something stressful - like icing wedding cakes!! Music soothes the nerves and you just get on with the task to hand.....humming as you go!!

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Jerneja

23 February 2010, 1:00PM
Jerneja

My favourite combination is a dramatic, dark and complicated action movie, or even better a thriller and cooking. Although while watching Julie & Julia I found myself baking two plates of muffins and a little cake... OoopS! :)

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Lushious

23 February 2010, 8:56PM
Lushious

I absolutely cannot and would refuse to cook without some hot, rocking, pumping sounds. The funkier, the more underground the better in my book. Not everybody's cup of tea but its the music I love! and p.s. as well - so missing the comments, when are they back?????

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Nicola

24 February 2010, 8:00AM
Nicola

I always have the radio on in the kitchen. I would far prefer un-interrupted music, but I get annoyed that CDs are so short and need changing, and I have not yet bought myself an MP3 player (other than the one I had 10 years ago which was one of the first ever produced...only held 16 songs!). The type of station depends on my mood rather than what I am making. Sometimes classical, sometimes rock, sometimes cheesy garbage!

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maxine mclean

24 February 2010, 9:41AM
maxine mclean

i have to agree with you,i work in a rather bust kitchen and the only way we all survive is by always having music playing,i prefer the more upbeat music that keeps you mind awake, and even a little bit of the frank when you feeling slightly more chilled...

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James

24 February 2010, 5:06PM
James

Radio Paradise is an internet radio station with no adverts and as it is run by one couple on their own, rarely interupted. Nice and eclectic too. Mark Lamarr or 6 Music's freak zone is good too or Late Junction around midnight - helps to have a computer in the kitchen.....

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drusilla

25 February 2010, 12:31PM
drusilla

Or a digital radio... ;-) Planet Rock's my favourite - specially listening to Rick Wakeman's show on Saturday mornings!

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Victoria

25 February 2010, 6:23PM
Victoria

I have to listen to comedies on BBC radio 7 or on audio cd, nothing like a good laugh while you're cooking!!

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kavi

26 February 2010, 4:18AM
kavi

nice nice

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AnnaG

26 February 2010, 6:15PM
AnnaG

Radio Four for me. Dinner is generally 7.16 pm in our house - just after the Archers! If there isn't anything I want to listen to on Radio Four I do have CDs and sing loudly out of tune to them - this is great as it means the kitchen is all mine!!! Sooooo missing other people's experiences and ideas on the receipes - when oh when will they be back. We've been ever so patient Mr Webmaster man!

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Knickerbocker

27 February 2010, 10:59PM
Knickerbocker

I do like music, but if i like the tune a lot i may start to lose concentration. I once forgot to put the flour in a cake and it went all mushy! ;)

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cookie_sleepless

4 March 2010, 12:08AM
cookie_sleepless

I love to listen to music while cooking, I create playlists for my baking days. They tend to heavily feature big production numbers from the likes of Connie Francis and The Ronettes. Although I have also tried out baking and film watching, Breakfast At Tiffany's is particularly good to make cupcakes to!

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caroline

4 March 2010, 9:18PM
caroline

cant beat RUNRIG for cook to music!

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yukiskitchen

8 March 2010, 9:36AM
yukiskitchen

I love it! yuki@yukiskitchen.com

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Foodie

12 March 2010, 3:51PM
Foodie

I love to listen to THE WHO while I cook.....

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Ann

12 March 2010, 7:50PM
Ann

I love to listen to BBC radio 7 as I cook.

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EAR

16 March 2010, 2:10PM
EAR

When are the comments to the recipes coming back?????? Please, please Good Food, let's have them back. I've just made the Lemon Curd and Blueberry Loaf Cake which looked perfect when going into the oven and appeared to cook nicely in the recommended time - alas, when I cut it - a huge disappointment - it was very sodden and almost indeible. Has anyone else had the same experience? HELP !!!!

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Photocake

21 March 2010, 4:42PM
Photocake

Looks fantastic

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