What underlines the issue of recipe credit at Sqirl is the contention from multiple former employees that the label of “chef” has been misapplied to Koslow. While many acknowledge that Koslow routinely works the food expediter station on weekends—a role that focuses on finishing dishes, keeping track of incoming orders, and coordinating with front-of-house staff on food to be delivered to tables, and is its own particular kind of hard work—some of her detractors say that Koslow’s weekend work is more performative than substantive.
I’ve been to lots of restaurants where the chef works the pass and never works the line.
Per Koslow, the formerly secret / unlicensed prep kitchen has been inspected since 2018 and has an A rating. Who knows when the photo of the slop bucket with scraped-off jam mold was taken.
Sure! In my observation is that food writers and food makers have gotten exceptionally close over this course of time. Remember the original chowhound rules that prohibited food industry folks from even posting? Well… I’m not saying that we go back to that, but there was a legit reason for it. Bias that is created when you have the reporter cozy with the reported. And it goes both way to the detriment of the reader because the reporter is going to get an experience that is not going to akin to the reader who is making the decision to go there (and actually spending their cash on it). Those pretty pictures at Eater are nice to look at… but is that going to be my experience… maybe not… That is why I don’t read much of it. Just like then, I prefer forums like these… even the old Zagat survey… Too much is compromised because that is the expectation now, softball questions, pretty pictures, no probing so that next month they can get into the door of the next place… and the next place… etc…
And in all fairness, it’s not just in food reporting… it’s also in a lot of entertainment reporting now too.
@FarleyElliott Honestly, this is probably the best piece of investigative reporting that Eater had ever produced as far as I recall. It’s detailed, in-depth, and balanced. I especially appreciate how you guys got in touch with so many former employees to offer their 2 cent while giving Koslow herself Koslow’s rep a chance to give a canned response. I hope Eater can sustain this type of quality coverage!
As for my reaction to these newly emerged details thanks to Eater:
The first impression I got is that Koslow have little to no contributions in basically all the recipes that made Sqirl famous aside from jam making. That’s possibly the reason why no less than 4 of her CDCs say that “she doesn’t/can’t cook”. On the other hand, she’s more than happy to let people know that she’s actually the “chef” that came up with these great ideas.
Look no further than the following quote from Onda’s founding chef, Orozco, in reference to Koslow contributing nothing to his recipes while crediting herself as the origin of recipes:
@robert I know this isn’t an apple to apple comparison, but what if Donato from Providence started calling himself “chef” and suggests to the media that most, if not all, recipes were his creations? He is the owner of the restaurant. Check. He works the pass(I might’ve seen him there once or twice). Check. He is the face of the restaurant(partially). Check.
Here’s another beauty:
There were many rebuttals that the rep made which seeminged disingenuous but none infuriated me more so than this particular one. Koslow was the most concerned of all people about the unpermitted kitchen? Are you fucking kidding me?! She was the one that subjected her employees to work in this unsafe AND unsanitary area with NO ventilation for at least 6 years until an employee was finally fed up and reported the situation to the health department.
Okay, since I don’t know much about restaurants, I assume you’re saying that there’s plenty of restaurants where the head chef isn’t out there making the food.
The thing is, one presumes that the chef actually made most of a dish somewhere at sometime in their professional life. I don’t think that applies to Koslow.
I’ll admit, I was too lazy to watch anything but the first video (which was the shortest one). Her chopping and plating is… not impressive. Did she mention working as a line cook in one of the other videos?
And, even if she had, I don’t know if anyone after only year of experience could/should be getting awards…
I think she needs a new rep (excellent article, @matthewkang and @FarleyElliott). The shudder-inducing language and explanations are not doing her any favors. When they talk about the origins of the sorrel pesto rice bowl, it sounds like Koslow and her husband had a dish that they liked and asked an employee to make a variation. I mean, I guess I could do that, too (hire a trained chef to cook the food I had liked elsewhere and wanted to make available locally), if I wanted to spend the money. If I were successful in doing that, should I getting nominated for prestigious chef awards, too?
After reading the article, she comes off as more clueless than malignant. It seems like she’s really good at marketing herself. And, when the (perhaps unexpected) praise and hype developed, I don’t think she knew how (or perhaps didn’t want) to re-direct the accolades elsewhere. And expanding a business is always a tricky thing… Esp if you don’t have much experience in the operations of said business elsewhere. ::shrug::
I liked this paragraph from the article:
“Just say yes,” says former pastry chef Piligian. “Ria made all these recipes. Yes, Javier made these recipes. Yes, Sasha did this, or Gabe or Matt or Cat or whoever. These are the people that are the integral part of making this restaurant go, that contributed to the books, that contributed to all the events. That propped her up for all these nominations. That’s the important part that I don’t want to get lost in all of this.”
She dabbled into the culinary world working in the pastry department of Bacchanalia in Atlanta for year. After working at Fox for years, she was transferred to LA working as a digital producer but also as a baker at Village Bakery doing graveyard shifts. Eventually, Koslow was laid off by Fox so she moved back to Atlanta working briefly at Abattoir.
There are plenty of self taught cooks that are very capable and some even garnered a McChelin star…or 3.
Yes, like Alvin Leung. I didn’t phrase myself well, but I think my comment was more about @robert’s question about whether she had worked as a line cook or not for a yr. To me, whether she worked as a line cook or not is not relevant b/c, regardless, she may not have had much of a hand in developing SQIRL’s dishes and possibly might have been able to prep them herself.
Those three videos show her making several of Sqirl’s dishes. I think anyone who claims she’s not a competent home cook is bullshitting. The videos certainly suggest that she couldn’t work fast enough to hold down a place on the line, but who cares?
Her original products are what Sqirl grew out of, and they define its style. She had a big hand in developing every dish that depends on her jams, sorrel pesto, preserved lemon, lacto-fermented hot sauce, whey-fermented lentils, and so on, which is most of them.
Has anyone on this thread made a comment one way or another about her being a competent home cook? I honestly don’t remember.
Because having (or not having) a collection of skills that suggest mastery and which are worthy of lavish praise (that presumably also help your bottom line, business wise), even if those skills are completely self-taught, is 50% of what this entire thread is about? (the other 50% being the mold)
If she ate a dish that she thought would pair well w/ her sorrel pesto, why didn’t she just make it herself?
Well, you have the guts to post here under your own name and to respond to criticism, so you deserve some credit for, as another poster said, dealing w/ more grief than you deserve.
thank you. I’ve tried to be an active part of the FTC community. I’ve gotten some criticism leveled at me for ‘stealing stories,’ which simply isn’t true as we are probably the only food publication keen on linking and crediting this forum if we ever draw news from it. I believe in engaging honestly with the community and have always said my door is open for honest conversations and feedback. (And once in a while I’ll throw on some hot takes here too for fun). I know Eater LA isn’t perfect, but we do strive to serve readers and our audience to the best of our ability. We have four staffers and a staff photographer who are dedicated to doing right by LA’s diners. Anyway, I appreciate your note.
but I did help edit along with other members of the Eater staff.