I wonder if they will serve moldy jam at dinner or if that’s going to remain a brunch special
Seriously amazed that scandal didn’t end this place…
Maybe if they have a collabo with Noma LA, moldy jam can be a dish like Noma’s mold pie from a while back
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This, too, blows my mind. How did everyone so quickly forget about moldy jam?
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What was equally offensive to me was how she talked about the “shitty” neighborhood she was in. Don’t talk down about the neighborhood that allowed you to be a success.
NEXT!
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JAM. a 26-week natural fermentation experiment that yielded amazingly alkaline results, with earthy, bitter notes that tend toward sweet on the back palette. +15 baked fish accompaniement
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Sqirl apologist here. I like jessica. good interview on Taste with her about the aftermath of the jam. I’m excited for the dinner.
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I should probably resist the urge to go against the grain here, but apart from the worker safety/worker treatment around health inspections, which bothers me, the discourse around Sqrl seemed more about hipsterdom and its attendant issues (gentrification, appropriation) than anything commensurate with what Koslow did. Don’t know quite how to factor gender in the equation but it was certainly there too.
I know some of her sous chefs, Bonjavier and Sasha Piligian if memory serves, came close to saying she can’t cook. But I’m curious, genuinely, if say Jeremiah Tower would have said this about Alice Waters in the 70s.
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I figure a lot of customers had been eating there regularly and didn’t die or get sick from the moldy jam, so they didn’t care.
Maybe some quit going but not enough to do anything but maybe make the line a bit shorter.
A restaurateur doesn’t have to be a chef, they just have to know how to hire them.
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Koslow has been on the line 9/10 times I’ve been to Sqirl FWIW
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Lol he absolutely would have! Recommend his book about that time period
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Alice Waters was never the chef. She did work on the line sometimes. Victoria Wise was the first chef, followed by Tower.
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Yes, that was undoubtedly part of it.
But it doesn’t help that, when you (Koslow) are accused of hiding workers in some back room during inspections in addition to a very defensive response about the moldy jam, people recall that you also said:
“My cheat is this shitty corner on Virgil and Marathon. The cheat is, like, I pay two dollars per square foot."
I assume some people call that “shitty” general area home. And maybe they think it’s shitty, too. But at least they’re not charging $$$ for food that isn’t properly kept in said shitty corner.
My own memory was that her sous chefs more said she didn’t properly give credit for recipes largely developed by others, esp since she can’t really cook and wouldn’t have been able to develop those recipes on her own.
Just my 2 cents.
Edit: I found the Eater article about the issue
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Yes in all seriousness i wonder how many of our favored places fix issues by just scraping some stuff off the top. I admit most of my aversion to Sqirl is to the social/pop cultural dimensions than their food, by which Im neither disgusted nor elated. Id like to extend some generosity by saying I hope she’s reflected well on her attitude toward the “shitty” corner she rented in a historically and systemically underserved area
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She created.the restaurant and gave them opportunities. Maybe she’s kind of an asshole, but sometimes that helps in business.
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I don’t think anyone is arguing that she may be a good businessperson. Possibly looking at people as disposable and minimizing their achievements (or co-opting them as your own) is indeed often an asset in terms of making money.
But, in this situation, I choose not to support someone who seems to have a history of being crappy to their colleagues.
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I choose not to stand in line.
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Side note but remember that weird Koslow Camara project that died almost instantly in Santa Monica? It had such cool potential!
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We’re all selective about our morality in consumption, self very included, so I understand if others won’t go to Sqirl.
But Sqirl became a repository for all these larger criticisms - attribution in the kitchen, gentrification, treatment of employees - that people don’t seem to much care about in other chefs or at all anymore. July 2020 was a really different time, but it stuck to Sqirl.
It’s kinda ‘print the legend,’ though in the negative. For me the connection between what she signifies and what she did seems loose, and she’s hated more for the former, specifically her class and gender.
Anyway I didn’t much like her Mexican restaurant and felt it misunderstood that cuisine (platters to taquear without salsas condiments etc), but I’ll try Sqirl dinner.
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I think those are fair points. The distinct impression I had from the discussions at the time were that many already hated her for whatever reason (resentment of her success, perhaps) and were taking the opportunity to gleefully (and unnecessarily) grind their axe against [edit] with her.
I am certainly not under the impression that most chefs/restauranteurs are angels. But, for me personally, when some stuff comes to light, it does affect my desire to give them my $ or to spend my free time around them. The moldly jam doesn’t bother me as much as the other stuff. And I actually loved the sorrel rice bowl (which is why it particularly chaps my a$$ that someone else might’ve developed it and not been given proper credit) and very much liked Onda the one time I went.
There are restaurants/chains/restauranteurs (or influencers, including ones on FTC) that I actively avoid (only a few and most of them men, actually [or the unappealing behavior coming from the male half of a male/female partnership]) that I don’t generally find the need to talk about much.
Whether others are affected the same way or not, I do not know. I imagine many are probably not.
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