10 Reasons Why Rock Music And Food Are A Match Made In Heaven

Just like the line-up of a band - every ingredient in a recipe has its own important part to play to deliver a truly memorable performance. Like a great guitar solo - sometimes it just takes a single ingredient to make a dish stand out. Sometimes you need that unique blend of tastes to get the best impact.

Rock’n’roll is littered with culinary links, from Guns ‘N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, to System of a Down’s Chop Suey and Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a bat (rest assured, there are no bat recipes in this book).

As with great rock songs, cooking is all about timing. Sometimes tracks build to an epic crescendo other times it’s about a short, sharp, heavy baseline. In ‘Dark Side of the Spoon’ - the ‘B.P.M.’ (or beats per minute) scale indicates how long each recipe takes to prepare and cook.

Some dishes are like a catchy riff - simple, but effective; while others are like listening to an epic LP - complex, longer-lasting, but hugely rewarding.

Rock music is all about volume! You want it high! Cooking is kind of similar and in ‘Dark Side of the Spoon’ - the volume dial on each spread shows how much culinary skill will be required to serve up your festival of flavours (like Spinal Tap’s amp, this goes up to eleven).

Going to gigs is all about finding out about new music and listening to the Support Act. Our Supporting Acts section includes our favourite accompaniments and sides to help turn any meal into a feast. Dark Side of the Spoon also includes a spotify playlist to accompany every dish – so you can get to know every artist.

Like a good festival line up – when you’re cooking for friends you want a mixture of tastes and styles. If you want something heavy – get some ‘Slip Gnocchi’ to start, then take it slower for your main and have some ‘Smoked Haddock on the Water’, then finish with some ‘Nirvana Split’.

Any good line-up needs some legends… In ‘Dark Side of the Spoon’ that’s a role played by ‘Fleetwood Mac n’ Cheese’, ‘Beef Patty Smith’ and ‘Status Pho’. Each recipe is inspired by rock legends past and present and is accompanied by an illustration created exclusively for the book by our favourite artists.

Face it rock music is nothing without the fans – you need to play to a sellout crowd, but sometimes you are playing to smaller more intimate venues. ‘Dark Side of the Spoon’ is the same - all the recipes are designed to serve four people, but can be easily scaled up if you’ve got a big crowd or down if there are just a few of you eating. So it won’t matter how many groupies you’re catering for.