CAROLYNN SPENCE

Carolynn Spence is the chef at Hollywood’s iconic Chateau Marmont. Photo: LA Times

What was the food highlight of your year?

By far a lunch in Paris at Chef Jean Francois Piege’s Thoumieux. It almost made me weep. Each course felt like part of an opera. 

What was the music highlight of your year?

Watching the Refused perform. The singer Dennis is like a bad ass Swedish punk rock Mick Jagger.

Was there a moment when food and music came together in a memorable way?

The most timeless way music & food come together for me is when i get to work in a quiet kitchen alone in the mornings. Those days are few and far between nowadays but there’s nothing like throwing on some Desmond Dekker and straining a perfect veal stock at the ass crack of dawn.

MARK TROMBINO

Mark Trombino is a drummer (Drive Like Jehu) and producer (Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World). He recently signed a lease in LA for the first location of his Donut Friend concept.

What was the food highlight of your year?

I guess the food highlight of my year was discovering Guisados. It has become one of my favorite places in Los Angeles, the place I turn to whenever I’m running around and want something quick, cheap, and delicious. I love that they’ve taken something that everyone in LA is super familiar with, something you can find multiple times on just about every street here, unique and special. That’s an inspiration to me. I hope to achieve the same sort of thing with Donut Friend!

What was the music highlight of your year?

The musical highlight of my year was probably seeing both The Refused and The Faint at this year’s FYF. Both bands have been super important to me and kind of represent the two sides of my musical taste. To be able to see them both at the same festival was amazing. And I hate festivals!