Cooking food and producing music are very similar, and I believe improving your cooking skills also improves your producing skills and here's why:

- Shopping for groceries is basically crate digging but for food. It's about finding those ingredients that work well together.

- Preparing the ingredients; chopping, processing, seasoning, marinating. These are all terms which could be applied to sound as well. Marinating in music is sitting on an idea for a while to let your brain pick out what needs changing.

- Seasoning while cooking is like the little touches of processing you add to an already processed sample.

- Timing, arrangement and layering are things you have to consider while cooking and producing music.

- When your dish is finished cooking, or your track is mixed down, you can just throw it in a bowl and eat it. Although if you're serving your dish in a restaurant, or selling your track on physical formats, it is wise to make the presentation look nice, or get your track mastered.


There is so much overlap between producing and cooking that the two definitely compliment each other. I highly recommend cooking as a boost to help you think about producing in a different light.

I definitely agree with this! I honestly think that cooking can help stimulate the creative mind. Anything that involves using your hands can be very effective. Since it isn't an exact science like baking, it is it's own form of creativity. Some of the best ideas I have come up with have been while I was cooking, showering, and driving.

Interesting connection! Never would have thought of this; although i don't do a lot of cooking yet. Maybe it's time to start...

Well, I have found myself thinking "needs more high end" when a dish was lacking in sourness It's not a perfect analogy, but you can think of the basic tastes as different frequency ranges: a good dish (track) is usually a well-balanced mix of each of them.

Cooking is also almost as much about texture as it is about flavor, which I suppose would then be the "music" of cooking, i.e. harmony and rhythm. If you put all your components into a mixer you just get white noise.

I'm actually now more interested in improving my cooking based on production techniques. Instead of sampling from the store, can I synthesize the taste of chicken? Do I need to sidechain the sauce to give more room to the steak?

Do I need to sidechain the sauce to give more room to the steak?

Brilliant

I couldn't agree with you more!

My favorite things to do are cooking and producing music, like seriously.
There's just something fun about picking things out, putting them together, and savoring the finished products.

The theme of the dish is like the genre of a song.
The protein is the dish's foundation, just like your chords.
The garnish is what really makes your dish stand out, just like the melody, and without it, it would be a hunk of meat sitting on a plate. 
The sauce is what brings everything together and makes your dish complete, like the small elements that fill the gaps in your sound or the layers of your synths.

Finding the best ingredients that compliment each other is one of the most important parts, if they don't work together, it wont be 100%.
The kitchen is like your DAW, it has everything you need, and it's organized to your liking.
Prepping the food is like getting everything ready for the song, whether it be simple EQs or fixing the drums/sounds you want to use.
As you start to put things together, some things might not work out, and you may need to swap it out for something else.
The seasoning is what makes your dish shine, salt is the most important tool for a chef, it's like your EQ. You add effects to your sounds to make them flourish, and make the song more full.
Timing is key when it comes to cooking, a couple seconds could be the difference between perfectly cooked and overcooked. Not every element of a dish will have the same cooking time, you can't just throw everything in at once and expect it to be good. Having too many things playing at once for extended periods of time makes the song boring.
The pass (or just your kitchen counter) is where everything comes together, you make the dish look its best. The final touches, mixing, mastering, album artwork, etc...
A full course meal is like an album, you take people on a magical, orgasmic journey.

I guess this is how I see these two things relating.

It kind of sucks though... The two things I really love doing are very hard make a good living off of, but I'm still going to pursue it because I don't want any regrets, I already have too many...

"Accept everything about yourself - I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end - no apologies, no regrets.
Henry A. Kissinger"