Julie Zelinski for The Bay Citizen

Chef Blair Warsham, center, serves food at the Noise Pop music festival's "Covers" dinner in San Francisco

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How does Bob Dylan taste?

Like aged beef, soy and seaweed, according to Blair Warsham, chef and co-founder of the “Covers” dinner and song series.

“The beef represents Dylan’s leathery exterior — the man is 70, after all — and the seaweed and soy provide heavy notes that pair well with his raspy voice,” said Warsham, whose events aim to match wide-ranging musical selections with complementary dinner entrees.

Warsham’s sold-out meals, sponsored by the Noise Pop music and art festival, are only one of several local and national projects devoted to pairing food and music.

While restaurants have long had musical accompaniments, and concerts have long had food concessions, the current endeavors exhibit a new level of cross-pollination between music and food obsessives.

Musicians like M. Ward, co-author of a blog dedicated to crème brûlée, and members of the local band Vetiver have given lengthy interviews about their food interests. Summer festivals like Outside Lands, taking place in August at Golden Gate Park, advertise extensive creative food offerings, while the San Francisco Street Food Festival, also in August, boasts a large roster of hip-hop DJs and live bands.

Even Flour + Water, one of San Francisco’s premier restaurants, has added a monthly series of musical pairings, with Bob Mould, a seminal rocker, and others.

Both worlds revel in intensity and sensory pleasures, professional practitioners say.

“Obviously, you’ve got the total punk aesthetic of the working kitchen, with the cursing, staying up until 4 a.m., the drugs and everything,” said Dawson Ludwig, marketing director for Noise Pop. “But it’s more than that. Good music and good food are total indulgence, both providing fulfilling sensual experiences.”

A project that perhaps best exemplifies this movement is Turntable Kitchen, a food and music blog by Matthew and Kasey Hickey. The San Francisco couple use their complementary interests — Hickey has a vast record collection and extensive knowledge of music esoterica, while Hickey is a passionate home cook — to invent soundtracks for favorite recipes.

The blog, now with almost 40,000 monthly readers, suggests very specific pairings: a peppy upbeat playlist (with music from Girl Talk) for fish tacos, say, or something rustic and subdued (Iron and Wine) for roast chicken and potatoes.

“Everyone is looking for the tastemakers,” Hickey said, “people who can provide them with a well-curated experience.”