Muhly learned to cook as a child, and he finds the alchemy of the kitchen consonant with the composer’s art.

Lines like this are why I’m embarrassed to read anything from The New Yorker, even off the screen in the privacy of my apartment. Every article has at least one of these high-brow signifier sentences, using all sorts of florid language to describe some inane point. I mean, srsly? “He finds the alchemy of the kitchen consonant with the composer’s art?”

Also, I’m not sure how, but I’m pretty confident that Top Chef deserves some of the blame for that line, too. Seems like every asshole who makes more than 40,000 a year is really into Thai fusion cuisine and farmers’ markets all of a sudden.

quote’s from “Eerily Composed: Nico Muhly’s sonic magic” by Rebecca Mead