Food, Glorious Food

I love food. Yes, yes – food is something that we really can’t live without, so we all need it, but love is an altogether different matter. I love everything about food: shopping for it, planting it, cooking it and of course, eating it. An early writing lesson in kindergarten shows the beginnings of my obsession: “My hobby is eating. I like it very much.”

I’ve spent my entire career working in the food industry in one way or another, and I’ve been fortunate enough to dine in topnotch restaurants and learn cool tricks from chefs of all stripes. I spend most of the fall and winter in the kitchen, cooking up a storm and avoiding the cold.

In The Kitchen

You may have realized by this point that I require a soundtrack for everything, and cooking is no exception. Lucky for me, there are tons of songs about the joys of food and drink, and they are almost all fun and upbeat- perfect for kitchen dancing.  I developed this playlist back in the days of cassette mixtapes, and gave it out to all my home cooking pals. It’s a lot easier to share these days, so here are my favorite food songs for your kitchening pleasure. Pour a glass of wine, drop these tunes on the box, and cook it up, baby!

 

The Tunes

  • Watermelon Man * Mongo Santamaria
  • Grits Ain’t Groceries * Little Milton
  • Soul Food * Albert Collins
  • Spanish Grease * Willie Bobo
  • Rum And Coca-Cola * The Andrews Sisters
  • Polk Salad Annie * Tony Joe White
  • Mashed Potatoes * Nat Kendrick
  • Hot Barbecue * Jack McDuff
  • Everybody Eats When They Come To My House * Cab Calloway
  • Solid Potato Salad * Nat King Cole
  • Green Onions * Booker T. & The MGs
  • Saturday Night Fish Fry * Louis Jordan
  • Smokey Joe’s Cafe * The Robins
  • Soul Sauce * Cal Tjader
  • Stone Cold Dead In The Market * Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan
  • Giblet Gravy * George Benson
  • All That Meat (And No Potatoes) * Louis Armstrong
  • I Like Bananas * Hoosier Hot Shots
  • Chocolate Shake * Duke Ellington
  • Banana Split For My Baby * Louis Prima
  • Black Coffee * k.d.lang
  • Clean Up Woman * Betty Wright