E-Mail This Article to a Friend Three-chord meal Lisa Loeb and Dweezil Zappa get cooking BY CARLY CARIOLI

The new Friday-night Food Network program Dweezil and Lisa, which follows the culinary and musical adventures of long-time couple Dweezil Zappa and Lisa Loeb, began with the search for the perfect pie crust. While on tour supporting her 2002 album Cake and Pie (A&M), bespectacled singer-songwriter Loeb and guitar-geek Zappa (who produced and played on the disc) invited an Arizona chef on stage to give a pie-making demonstration. "I always want to know how to do a better pie crust," says Loeb from her home in Los Angeles on Grammy day, where she’s making a late breakfast of orange pancakes. "So we did it as part of a show, and the fans liked it and we learned a lot. Plus, everyone got to taste the pie." A&M’s parent company, Interscope, wasn’t interested in supporting a rock-and-baking tour, so Loeb and Zappa approached the Food Network with the idea of landing a guest spot on one of the station’s shows. But the couple’s enthusiasm for the network’s programming ("Dweezil and I tend to talk about food a lot," says Loeb) led to a deal for their own show, which premiered this year, and they’re supporting it with a Food Network–sponsored tour that hits the Paradise next Sunday.

On Dweezil and Lisa, the pair zoom around the country visiting restaurants (in Atlanta, they took in both Watershed, a restaurant co-owned by Indigo Girl Emily Saliers, and a chicken-and-waffle joint run by Gladys Knight), getting tips from the pros, and concocting funky dishes (a recent episode was dedicated to a "Food Deception" meal that included a pile of mashed potatoes disguised as an ice-cream sundae). "I don’t think that people are going to be too freaked out about two people who aren’t professional chefs talking about food," says Dweezil. "Everybody likes food. We do have a legitimate interest and appreciation and enthusiasm for food. I also think there are similarities in the creative process of cooking and making music. People don’t necessarily talk about them, but I view them as similar in the sense that with music and cooking you have the ability to take an idea that only exists in your head and make it come to life. You can take these ingredients and flavor it however you like, and the same thing happens with a song: I have an idea for a chord progression, and I can lay this melody over it, and in the studio I can produce these textures. The fun of being in the kitchen or in the studio is you take chances and see what happens."

"There are basic techniques that both musicians and chefs take for granted," Loeb concurs, "certain things you learn to do when you first start out cooking or playing. And non-professionals are always trying to learn about these basic techniques that can enhance your cooking style. Like boiling shrimp: instead of just boiling it in water, you put in some carrots and celery and bay leaf, so it gives it a bit of flavor. It’s the stupid little simple things that even someone who cooks a lot might not think of.

For a pair of aspiring TV foodies, the pair have quite a lot on their plates. Loeb just released a children’s album, Catch the Moon (Artemis) with her former college roommate, Ida’s Elizabeth Mitchell; she’s also finished a solo album for adults that’s due in April. Zappa, who’s familiar from his TV and film work (Pretty in Pink; a stint as an MTV VJ), has been returning to his first love, guitar, for a solo album due this spring titled Go with What You Know. He’s also overseen the release of Frank Zappa’s first DVD, a reissue of the 1979 concert film Baby Snakes. And on the pair’s upcoming tour — for which they’re performing together, solo, and with a band — Dweezil has arranged highlights from his father’s music into a 10-minute musical buffet.

Given the disparity of their musical endeavors, is it easier collaborating on stage or in the kitchen? "It’s about the same, really," says Loeb. "It sounds very unglamorous, but it’s pretty practical. In the kitchen, you just want to make something that tastes good. We both talk about what we want, and we allow space for each other to do our own thing. If there’s a place where one of us needs more space to do something, then that’s the way we’ll do it."

The Food Network presents an evening with Lisa Loeb and Dweezil Zappa next Sunday, February 22, at the Paradise, 967 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston; call (617) 423-NEXT.