Just like food, music flourishes according to season. Lively steel-drum beats go down easiest under a July sun; languid jazz is best consumed fireside, with a heady aroma of coq au vin in the air. Fittingly, it was James Beard Award-winning chef April Bloomfield—best known for such New York dining institutions as The Spotted Pig and The Breslin—who reminded us of that relationship. “Normally, I like to listen to the food talk while I cook,” she says. “I love bubbling, searing sounds. But recently I’ve started to listen to music a bit more when cooking at home. The music I listen to changes not so much for the evening, but according to the season.”

Below, Bloomfield shares her seasonally influenced playlist: From Paolo Nutini’s hopeful spring chorus to Amy Winehouse’s aching winter ballad, consider it your secret ingredient for any cooking endeavor in the new year.

Spring:
Any track from Side Sky of Honey; Kate Bush
Shine on You Crazy Diamond; Pink Floyd
Hercules; Sarah Bareilles
New Shoes; Paolo Nutini
The High Road; Broken Bells

Summer 
Diamonds; Rihanna
Over Powered; Roisin Murphy
Hide U; Kosheen
Chandelier; Sia
Lose Yourself to Dance; Daft Punk

Fall:
Fall at Your Feet; Crowded House
Portland, Oregon; Loretta Lynn
From Clare to Here; Nanci Griffith
Autumn; Paolo Nutini
Fortune Teller; Allison Krauss

Winter:
Blood Stream; Ed Sheeran
I See Fire; Ed Sheeran
Set Fire to the Rain; Adele
Love is a Losing Game; Amy Winehouse

Photographs from aprilbloomfield.com
Portrait by Melanie Dunea. Food still life by Nicole Franzen