6music with Cerys

10-1 Sunday 2 October 2022

This Sunday on Cerys Matthews’ show on 6music, I will be talking about three spices and their personal connection to music on the book’s playlist.

Every book I write has a thread of music running through it, and SPICE is no exception. Food and music are so connected - a least in my head - as well as being parallel lanes on the road to exploring cultures outside your own.

As usual, somewhere between when it’s delivered and when it’s published I make a playlist that relates to the book I’ve just written: part is just the soundtrack - tracks that I played often, that suited the words and the mood - and the rest is what came up because of the writing.

Some bubble up attached to memories, others are discoveries from deep diving into the music from a country or region I was exploring the flavours of. I’ve uploaded the Spice playlist which I hope you enjoy, along with a brief note about each track on it. If you view this post online (click the ‘6music with Cerys’ title) you should have more options for playing and clicking through the playlist.

Do tune in on Sunday if you can.

Mulatu Astatke: an Ethiopian jazzer who I discovered when making niter kibbeh and doro wat, both traditional recipes of Ethiopia

Chuck Berry: all will be revealed on Cerys’ show

King Sunny Ade: a Nigerian musician I knew a little from when I was in my teens with his crossover album Synchro System. I played this - and much more - when making Yemisi Aribasala’s wonderful Pepper Kola with grains of paradise from the book

Alabaster DePlume: soundtrack

Rustavi Choir: Georgian folk singers; if you like a male voice/collier choir you will love these extraordinary voices - Svanuri marili, a Georgian spice blend, had me exploring the music of its country

Floating Points and Pharaoh Sanders: soundtrack

George Benson: when I was developing the mincemeat recipe in the book it occurred to me that as with marmalade, George Benson and cycling, mincemeat is one of those things I love very much, but want only very occasionally. So I played some George Benson, and this one was new to me

Doris Matte: a Louisiana/Cajun swinger/songwriter, discovered while I was tweaking the blackening seasoning spice blend and the Blackened fish recipe that uses it

Four Tet: soundtrack

The Beatles: the Nutmeg brandy Alexander recipe - all explained here

The Upsetters: as with jerk seasoning, Lee Scratch Perry’s house band were from Jamaica

Afro Cuban Allstars: almost every book I write has at least one mojito, a classic cocktail from Cuba. the connection with this track is explained (along with a mojito recipe) here

Nino Rota/Carlo Savina: from The Godfather soundtrack, played on a loop while developing my mostarda di frutta recipe

Nick Drake: soundtrack

Bonny Light Horseman: soundtrack

Fan Gong: Chinese folk music, from Sichuan province, discovered while making the Mapu tofu recipe kindly given to the book by Li Ling Wang

Ibrahim Ferrer: another connected to the mojito, and I’m particularly fond of Ibrahim having seen him at the Albert Hall almost a quarter of a century ago

Aborigine recordings: if there’s one thing I regret about the book, it’s not being able to find someone who would represent the food of native Australians or native Americans, despite talking to numerous. In the end I suspect it was the distance and time difference that caused the conversations to come to nothing. I hope the use of wattleseed - an extraordinary chocolatey, coffeeish spice - in the shortbread in the book shows it off well.

Sault: soundtrack

Talk Talk: all will be revealed on Cerys’ show

Ryuichi Sakamoto: a Japanese musician and composer who I knew first back in the day for his soundtrack to Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, and his work as part of the groundbreaking Yellow Magic Orchestra. So much he has done since is beautiful. I played this - amongst others - to death while making the recipes Yuki Gomi created for the book, showing off how spices are used in the food of Japan.

Van Morrison: soundtrack

Saung Inle Myint Maung/Nhin Yi Thant: a jazzer from Myanmar/Burma played while making Mimi Aye’s deliicous pickle, kindly donated by her for the book

Unknown artist: music from Extremadura, Spain, which I found while making José Pizarro’s fabulous chicken recipe using Pimentón de la Vera from the same area.

Temple Invisible: I didn’t know there was such a thing as Romanian hiphop until I went looking for sometihng to play while making Irina Georgescu’s delicious Sauerkraut fritters with caraway seeds

Ravi Shankar: as with Maunika Gowardhan’s phenomenal Punjabi Chicken Curry, Ravi Shankar hails from northern India, and hearing this reminds me of the afternoon I first made her curry with Ravi as the soundtrack

José Canal: music from Extremadura, as above

Krzysztof Komeda: Bigos is the quintessential Polish winter stew, and making Zuza Zak’s recipe for the book I discovered this brilliant Polish jazzer.

Benny Likumahuwa: an Indonesia jazz musician I found while making Lara Lee’s Sambal goreng tempe; they go together perfectly.

José Alfredo Jimenez: perhaps the father of modern Mexican music, and someone who was unknown to me until I went exploring while making Nicola Miller’s Buñuelos with Piloncillo syrup - a kind of anise bread that, like the music, while make you very happy

Uri Gurvich: an Israeli jazzer, based in NYC, who has become a real favourite since making Honey and Co’s ridiculously good Pistachio and golden raisin baklava for the book

Mahmoud Guinia: a Moroccan musician who also worked with Pharaoh Sanders (see above), who I only came to know by making Nargisse Benkkabou’s Ras el hanout and chocolate chips banana bread

Rachmaninoff: I can’t claim to be an expert on classical music, never mind Russian classical, but I do like this. I often make Alissa Timoshkina’s gorgeous Russian Gogol-mogol with rye and coriander - a coming together or custard, spice and rye bread that’s every bit as good as it sounds.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: When I first heard NFAK I was in my teens and fascinated by WOMAD - a festival of what was then called ‘world music’ - at which he played. He was the first ‘world music’ artist I remember something clicking with. I reacquainted myself withy his wonderful music while making Sumayya Usmani’s astonishing Baluchi-style chicken sajji.