On any given night across Tennessee, you\u2019ll see musicians in restaurants, tuning their guitars or warming up at the piano, as they prepare to elevate the guest experience for diners enjoying their meals. Elsewhere, you\u2019ll find hosts and hostesses poring over the perfect songs to play to create just the right atmosphere at their dinner parties. This is the Tennessee experience \u2014 food paired with music.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development recently expanded this natural pairing with a creative challenge. It teamed up chefs and musicians from across the state and asked them to create\u00a0 \u201cSound Bites,\u201d harmonious combinations of taste and sound.<\/p>\n
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Sonic Seasoning<\/p>\n
Sound Bites is based on the idea of \u201csonic seasoning,\u201d a phrase coined by Oxford University experimental psychologist Charles Spence to describe how the brain treats sound as an active ingredient in perception. Per Spence\u2019s research, elements like pitch, tempo and instrumentation can influence how the brain perceives taste. Carefully paired soundscapes and playlists can intensify the notes you detect as you eat a dish.<\/p>\n
To illustrate this theory, TDTD created three chef-musician teams highlighting Tennessee\u2019s major regions. Country artists Lee Brice, David Tolliver and Billy Montana worked with Dancing Bear Appalachian Bistro\u2019s Jeff Carter to represent East Tennessee. West Tennessee chef Felicia Willett of Felicia Suzanne\u2019s collaborated with Three 6 Mafia cofounder DJ Paul, rapper Lil Wyte, producer Boo Mitchell, and the band Southern Avenue. And singer-songwriter Ben Rector teamed up with Nashville chef Philip Krajeck of Rolf & Daughters, Folk, and Junior to capture Middle Tennessee\u2019s spirit. TDTD then asked each group to compose a unique dish and a song to pair with it, documenting their creative processes through three short films.<\/p>\n
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Sensory Duets<\/p>\n
Each docu-short takes viewers on the artists\u2019 journeys of creating dishes and pairing them with the perfect chords. \u201cWe have incredible tomatoes here,\u201d Krajeck says in the Middle Tennessee film. \u201cBut one of the things people don\u2019t know, or haven\u2019t experienced, is what it\u2019s like to walk through rows of tomato plants.\u201d There\u2019s the smell of the vines, the feel of the leaves, the flesh of the tomato. Krajeck translates those sensory experiences into flavors and textures, using every element of the tomato to craft a transportive bowl of pasta.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inspired by Krajeck\u2019s decision to use the entire tomato in his dish, Rector opts to use the entire instrument \u2014 in this case, a banjo \u2014 in his song. High frequencies represent the acid and salt in the food. The lyrics capture the feeling of walking through tomato vines, inspired by Rector\u2019s own memories of his grandfather\u2019s garden.<\/p>\n
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Natural Collaborators<\/p>\n
What makes Sound Bites more than a clever creative exercise is its invitation to participate. TDTD\u2019s online interactive pairing tool invites you to enter a dish and identify its primary flavor profile (sweet, sour, salty, bitter or umami) to receive a Tennessee playlist curated to complement those notes. Toggle between different playlists to experience how subtle shifts in tempo, pitch and instrumentation influence your own perception of flavor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSound Bites \u2026 [is] built as a discovery platform,\u201d says Debra Smith, TDTD\u2019s assistant commissioner of marketing. \u201cThe pairing engine connects food and music, while the website guides travelers to explore culinary experiences across the state. It\u2019s designed to drive exploration well beyond the initial launch, with room to evolve over time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For restaurants and hosts, this opens up intriguing possibilities. Just as sommeliers carefully select pairings and chefs thoughtfully plate dishes, hosts can curate playlists by flavor profile rather than genre alone. Music can become part of the mise en place \u2014 an intentional layer of hospitality. \u201cFor centuries, people have paired food with wine,\u201d says Mark Ezell, TDTD commissioner. \u201cNow, we\u2019re asking, \u2018Why not food and music?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Tennessee, the implications are even broader. Music is not just an industry here \u2014 it\u2019s cultural infrastructure. By positioning music as an ingredient in the culinary experience, Sound Bites reframes two of the state\u2019s strongest assets as collaborators rather than companions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to see visitors move from inspiration to exploration \u2026 [and] to see culinary experiences contribute meaningfully to overall travel growth,\u201d says Smith. The result is immersive tourism \u2014 a reminder that in Tennessee, flavor has a soundtrack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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