If you see colors while listening to certain types of music, or if every letter or number you see is "tinged" with a particular color, it is likely you have a neurological condition called synesthesia.Synesthesia is a catchall for a little-studied cognitive abnormality that has dozens of variations. My late father-in-law, Rinaldo, had one type of synesthesia. He was a musician, and whenever he played or heard music, he would involuntarily see colors that he associated with particular chords and music keys.
Late in life, Rinaldo decided to take up painting. In a period of months, he turned out scores of watercolors and other paintings. As the family soon realized, he was using a paintbrush to depict the music he was seeing in his head.
I've been thinking about synesthesia because of conversations with Paul Canales, the executive chef at Oliveto. Paul is a connoisseur of music - jazz, roots rock, heavy metal. He loves all these forms and often likes to blast a new discovery on the boom box.Paul tells me that music helps him cook. He'll be at home, trying to figure out a recipe or a creative use for an extra box of peaches.
A song will spring from the speakers and then the answer will be clear: A mostarda! A peach mostarda with star anise and chili flakes!
Paul does not have synesthesia. If he did, the sound of a song would prompt him to physically taste food on his tongue, not just think about it.
Yet it's clear that Paul feels a strong association between music and food. At Oliveto, the songs coming out of the kitchen boom box are not just background noise. They are an essential part of the creative process.
I have a slightly different association between food and music. Music doesn't generally stimulate my creative juices in the kitchen, but sometimes, the sight or taste of certain foods makes me think of a song or musical style.Consider the photo to the right. It shows sheets of fresh pasta with a filling, ready to be hand rolled into agnolotti.
There's something rather militaristic about all these fillings, lined up in formation. They remind me of a Marine Corps marching song.
Or consider the melon soup to the left. It is bright and sunny - the kind of dish that Joni Mitchell could have created.
And this plate of cookies? British ska.
A song by the English Beat, perhaps.
You get the idea.
Food and music - they go together, often capturing our imaginations in unexpected ways.
Note: For a really interesting video on the relationship between art and synesthesia, go here.
