The Austin Chronicle
\nThe Beat Divas Teach Cooking With Songs of Food, Love, and Mayhem
\nMusic on the Menu at Central Market
\nBy Virginia B. Wood, Fri., June 17, 2011<\/p>\n
When Kelly Ann Hargrove founded the\u00a0Music on the Menu<\/strong>\u00a0series at the\u00a0Central Market Cooking School<\/strong>\u00a0in March 2003, there was no way she could know what one of the acts she booked would ultimately accomplish. The vocal trio known as the\u00a0Beat Divas<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Mady Kaye<\/strong>,\u00a0Beth Ullman<\/strong>, and\u00a0Dianne Donovan<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 began presenting dinner classes with a generous helping of jazzy harmonies in 2004 and quickly became one of the recreational cooking school\u2019s most popular quarterly attractions. The Divas\u2019 seasonal dinner menus certainly attract customers, but the appealing set of food-related songs they\u2019ve written over the past few years to supplement the menus delights music lovers as well. Each Beat Divas class opens with \u201cCookin\u2019 in the Kitchen,\u201d and other tunes are served up during and between courses. Appetizers might be paired with the bluesy \u201cSweet Potato Jive,\u201d while the versatility of chocolate dictates that the calypso-inflected \u201cLittle Bit of Chocolate\u201d could fit just about any course. \u201cHog Fat\u201d complements pork dishes, \u201cCuppa Joe\u201d fits in at coffee time, and \u201cSweet Treat\u201d can make you salivate over the thought of a man creating desserts and pastries.<\/p>\n The food songs originally intended to accompany the dinner class performances became a full-time project for bandleader Kaye over the past two years. A new CD titled\u00a0Dishin\u2019 With the Divas: Songs of Food, Love & Mayhem<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is the result. Kaye penned seven of the songs herself and collaborated with Ullman on four others. As the title suggests, the songs deal with food, love both troublesome and sweetly expressed, and the mayhem wrought by a dangerous devil\u2019s food cake. \u201cBetter Not Drink the Water\u201d isn\u2019t a political polemic, but rather an exaltation to enjoy wine when traveling the world. However, the quirky \u201cFast Food Junkie\u201d fits right in with the current national debate on convenience foods and obesity.<\/p>\n Many of the songs from the CD have been warmly received by the Divas\u2019 loyal fans at Central Market, but the culinary musical creations were formally debuted before and during the opening ceremonies of the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference. The appreciative crowd listened to the songs with rapt attention, and several attendees later stopped by the Beat Divas\u2019 booth at the conference\u2019s culinary expo to chat \u2013\u00a0Martin Yan<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0grabbed several copies of the album for gifts,\u00a0Ellie Krieger<\/strong>\u00a0showed some interest, and one of the tunes just might end up as the new theme song for a cooking show. There\u2019s really no way to predict what good might come from the high-profile IACP exposure, but the Divas are ready in case producers from the Food Network or\u00a0Every Day With Rachael Ray<\/em>\u00a0should come calling. Their next project will be a cookbook based on recipes from their popular cooking classes.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Divas have three promotional events for the new CD scheduled for the coming week, including the newly produced video of \u201cSweet Treat,\u201d starring attractive, tattooed Central Market chef\u00a0Robert Jenkins<\/strong>\u00a0as the dreamworthy pastry chef, posted at\u00a0www.facebook.com\/thebeatdivas<\/a><\/strong>. Each and every one of these events is worth a taste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Austin Chronicle The Beat Divas Teach Cooking With Songs of Food, Love, and Mayhem Music on the Menu at Central Market By Virginia B. Wood, Fri., June 17, 2011 When Kelly Ann Hargrove founded the\u00a0Music on the Menu\u00a0series at the\u00a0Central Market Cooking School\u00a0in March 2003, there was no way \u2026 Continue reading