Rock and roll caterers
Alex Brown, left, and Evan George make up the food-blogging and vegetarian-catering team Hot Knives. Their catering company is part of a small but growing DIY foodie movement among those at the vanguard of L.A.s underground art and music scene. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Brown slices asparagus for a salad. When youre getting into music, you want to be into the most obscure bands with the smallest release records. With food, its the same thing, he says. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
George, left, and Brown prepare dishes in Browns kitchen. The duo like to post musical pairings on their blog for the food they make. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
A pan of focaccia is prepared in Browns kitchen. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Brown slides focaccia into the oven. Thats his Hot Knives partner, Evan George, in the background. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
The finished focaccia has been topped with chopped tomatoes, sliced squash and goat cheese. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
The finishing touch is put on asparagus salad with toasted walnuts and herbed goat cheese balls. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Amanda Brown, left, and Diva Dompé run a raw food and vegan catering company called Crops and Rawbers. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Brown works on a dish. Her catering company operates largely off-the-grid popping up at art openings, rock shows and warehouse parties. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Dompé prepares food. The fact that Crops and Rawbers and other such newcomers to the catering world are vegetarian, vegan and raw is, according to those involved, attributable to the nature of todays increasingly eco-conscious food landscape. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
People dont realize that just as there are all these professional people going to train at Le Cordon Bleu, there is a whole generation of chefs who are punks, and theyre partying and theyre hedonists and theyre into food and sucking the nectar out of life, says Brown, working on a dish. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
When theyre not whipping up dishes for Crops and Rawbers, Dompé, left, and Brown play in the psych-art-rock band Pocahaunted. They also run a label, Not Not Fun. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
The duo. Just because Diva and I love to be in the sunshine and we love fresh food and we love to make music and walk around barefoot, doesnt mean were hippies, says Amanda Brown. I just always want to take things to the next level. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Back in the late 80s, Stephen Hauptführ was largely responsible for jump-starting L.A.s rave scene through a weekly downtown acid-house dance party called Alices House. Now, hes a caterer. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Hauptführ works on a dessert tray. His catering career grew out of weekly dinner parties he used to throw out of his loft in the Brewery on the industrial outskirts of downtown. These days, he mostly caters small, private dinners and sells prepared food to Whole Foods, Naturewell and Elf. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Hauptführs goodies: vanilla and milk chocolate squares topped with a dab of cherry. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Guests eye an almost empty tray of Hauptführs desserts during a fundraiser at the LACE gallery in Hollywood. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
For me? A guest finds a tray of Hauptführs goodies hard to resist at the LACE gallery party. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
