While musician Ben Weaver worked the back of the house in the Minneapolis restaurant Corner Table, songs were simmering in his soul. After 18 months of cooking, Weaver hung up his toque and reached for his microphone. He recorded “Mirepoix and Smoke,” a minimalist album named for the holy trinity of onions, carrots and celery that is the base of many soups and sauces.

Cooking and making music have more in common than you might think, Weaver says. For one, “learning what things relate to each other and what things don’t,” Weaver told Dave Hoekstra of the Chicago Sun-Times. “And trusting the instinct that the ingredients in cooking or in music have a life of their own. Ultimately, your job is to bring them out into the world.”

Corner Table restaurant in Minneapolis, MN, where singer-songwriter Ben Weaver cooked. (Photo by KRIS HASE, for Corner Table)