Making magic in the kitchen often requires equally magical music. Bryant Terry, acclaimed cookbook author, eco-chef and activist, recently combined two of his passions, music and food, into the pages of his new cookbook, Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remixed. Each enticing recipe is paired with a song, and they vary from the works of Erykah Badu to John Coltrane. But it’s another Coltrane, John’s second wife Alice, that Terry chooses for his Classic Platter.
You’ve got pretty diverse taste in music. Is there one album that you keep coming back to over and over?
Terry: It depends what kind of mood I’m in, or what genre I’m obsessed with at the moment; what the newest, latest music in my iPod is. I think one album I consistently place is Alice Coltrane ‘s Journey in Satchidananda. I’m a jazz officianado, but I love how she uses a lot of Indian classical instruments and the music on that album is very relaxing and beautiful. When I’m in the kitchen, I have this whole thing around minding my energy with the understanding that the energy we have, we impart that to the food. If the energy in the kitchen is off and you’re funky or mad, that’s going to transfer to the food. I really try to check my energy and if I don’t feel good, I do something before I cook food, especially for other people, so I will go for a walk in the woods, go for a run or do a quick sit and meditate.
So this Alice Coltrane album does that for you?
When I was first committing to sitting or meditating practice, I used to play that album a lot. It almost has this Pavlovian effect of when I put it on I click into a kind of meditative, calm state.
Bryant Terry’s Afro-Vegan: Farm Fresh, African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavours Remixed is available via Ten Speed Press.
Alice Coltrane‘s Journey in Satchidananda was first released in 1971 by Impulse! Records.
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