Eat like a Minnesota artist with ‘A Musicians Menu’

Edie Baumgart says her new cookbook, “A Musicians Menu,” isn’t much of a cookbook at all. It’s her love letter to a Twin Cities music scene that has surrounded her for almost 40 years.

Baumgart, the president of Minneapolis-based RaeBeat Records, compiled more than 50 recipes from local musicians, stagehands and more into the cookbook. She calls it a “recipe book” akin to how a church might collect recipes from parishioners. And Baumgart admits she’s unsure if all the recipes will even work. But they will teach you something about the people behind the soundscape of the city, the guitarist said.

“Am I going to tell you that every single recipe works? Good question,” she said. “What I will tell you is that most of these recipes are recipes that people have cooked.”

“A Musicians Menu: Recipes That Rock by the Minnesota Music Community” is an inside-baseball look at the music scene largely through Baumgart’s own commentary and memories. Perhaps more than anything, the book is a record of what Minneapolis music was, as some of its veterans retire away from Twin Cities.

We talked to Baumgart about musicianship and cooking, and why she put them together in “A Musicians Menu.” The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

In the book’s introduction, you wrote that music saved your life. How so?

I was working a really intense corporate job. I’d go into work every morning, and I’d be on the express bus, and I’d be crying. The job had gotten so demanding on my time. And what I really realized was missing from my life was the ability to do music. So, I actually quit my job at one point in 2009, and I just sat in my house and I played guitar. And I can tell you that I do think it did save my life.

Our scenes don’t mix much. So, when you go to local music scenes, you’ll see music fans, which is great. And you’ll see a lot of musicians, because the people who help support the scene are the fans and musicians. I realize chefs work crazy hours, so I get that. But you don’t see a lot of people from the food industry. You don’t see a lot of actors. I was like, we really need to start understanding that we’re all doing art things.

Tell me about the process of writing this book. How did you solicit the recipes?

I really wanted it to reflect the personalities of the people that are in the book. So take a look at Jon Clifford’s recipe. I gave him no guidance. Jon Clifford runs HiFi Hair and Records — we call him the Mayor of Minneapolis Music. His recipe is meatloaf cupcakes. Like, I couldn’t make that up. That’s completely Jon Clifford. There are one or two people that I kind of went back to and said, “Hmm. Let’s look at something different.”

Who do you think might put this on their coffee table, or put a song on in the background and cook a recipe, as you suggest in the introduction?

It’s designed for people who are music lovers. It is a Minnesota book. Will it be interesting to someone from Louisiana? I don’t know. I think the concept is original enough that it might pique a lot of people.

They should trust me because I’m in that scene. I’m also sort of poking a little bit at our state and our city to say “you don’t really tell people how great a scene we have.” You go to Nashville, there’s bands playing in the airport. I know they have some music at the airport here, I get it, but they’re known as music cities; New Orleans, Nashville. But Minneapolis, I’ll tell you, has every bit as good a quality scene as any of those cities.

If you’re not a person who’s into music, you might find a recipe that you really like. And how many people have a recipe book that has meatloaf cupcakes in it?

“A Musicians Menu” (RaeBeat Records, $39.99) is available online at bit.ly/4o8G7Ff, at Lucky Cat Records (2557 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls.) and at the following events:

Nov. 22: 2-3 p.m. at Hi-Fi Hair and Records (1637 Hennepin Av., Mpls.), which will also carry the book.

Nov. 26: 5-8 p.m. with CHAIR (The Cultures, Humanities, and Arts on the Iron Range) at Lyric Center for the Arts in Virginia, Minn.

Makes 12.

Jon Clifford of HiFi Hair and Records contributed this recipe to “A Musicians Menu” (RaeBeat).

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients except mashed potatoes and mix well. Distribute into cupcake tins and bake until browned. Top with garlic mashed potatoes for the cupcake “frosting.”