It’s weird that they even have a liquor license considering that they don’t serve alcohol. Perhaps they use it for catering.
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Without making a judgment call it is def the norm in many higher end places. At the 2 star place I worked the sous came up with all the dishes under the exec chef. Afterwards I went on to be a corp chef and chef de for a somewhat famous guy at the time and I did everything eventually. I mean i was great full bc I liked having all the controll but when he talked about specific thing I created in the media it was a little annoying. I think maybe the problem is looking at the exec chef as the end all be all of any restaurant. The media could do a much better job to help ppl understand how a restaurant really operates.
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different molds are ok or not ok, but any restaurant professional making products for retail consumption should know better. From what I’ve read its not ok to scrape mold like that off the top. You kind of need to know this stuff if you want to do any sort of preservation in commercial kitchen.
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True maybe a better analogy in this case is Alice Waters. It’s not perfect but in this case Jessica Koslow is the visionary of the savory side but not a Chef. Most likly has very little to do with any of the recipes on that side. Alice got in a tiff with JT over credit as well.
Where the analogy falls apart though is that JK was the chef in charge of jam production. So she gets to take credit for that.
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Alice waters is kind of a similar situation. However plenty of highly trained and very capable chefs, especially at the very highest level just prefer to be more of a mentor, also you get tired when you get old lol. When somebody appears in the media all the time one can assume somebody is behind the scenes. Whether that person is more kitchen manager or chef varies from place to place.
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Would be interested to know the ins and outs of Jeremiah Tower and Alice Waters, but the not so hidden subtext of Ria and Javier’s comments is not just theft/appropriation but outright disrespect. They don’t seem to think she can actually cook. For all the hate, and I mean this genuinely, was that ever lobbed at Alice Waters?
And I get transitioning to a different role/visionary, but they’re suggesting, whether true or not, that she could never do the thing.
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You’re right. From personal experience, they use it when catering events.
Moldy jam party? 
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Alice can cook but was not and is not a Chef but she’s still the driving force behind the restaurant it’s her unique vision.
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Lol. Having seen that bucket, it’s more like the pudding skins from Seinfeld.
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Interesting. As an aside, the LAPL has a special collection of early 70s menus from Chez Panisse. Would love to read an oral history or something of that era. My cursory impression is that it was all Fleetwood Mac style drama.
And I’m curious if you think the same applies to Koslow and Sqirl.
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maybe Sqirl could have been that defining spot and koslow the visionary leader—but the facade of progressiveness was undermined by koslow herself. Her comments regarding the shitty corner of virgil and perceived lack of leadership and disrespect felt by her staff of color and frank disregard for public safety all led to this point. I think we’re going to see more about Koslow’s role in gentrification of the neighborhood in detail
This IG post is really powerful
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This is a good point. Jam must have been the cash cow for Sqirl. For all the talk about the restaurant and it’s accolades we all know the profit margins must still be slim. But the Jams on the other hand must have been huge margins. Maybe it was ultimately pure greed that led Koslow to skirt the rules so far and so long.
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That and I think neither the inexperienced JK (as a restauranteur) nor the Chefs could figure out how to manage the huge volume of customers Orders in a safe manner. Makes me wonder what else got the short shrift there? There’s now talk of rats/vermin problems.
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And that’s on being both on the James Beard Award comittee and being nominated for best chef Cali this year. Yikes
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Awesome, thank you. Exactly what I was looking for.
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Waters/towers situation is particularly unique as i recall both of their situations were atypical for exec of a prominent restaurant
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I think Sqirl’s margins might have been better than most places.
I thought I had a beer when I ate at Sqirl. I guess that was just the rest of the day.
Criticizing a restaurant for having mostly white customers and mostly non-white staff, well, that’s 80-90% of the restaurants in LA.
Indeed, and if it’s true as Koslow said that all their kitchens have been inspected for the last two or three years, it’s seems impossible that they could have continued letting the jam get moldy.
Neither had any experience as a chef before Chez Panisse. Anyone who has worked there can tell you how much Waters’s taste guides what is served. Her role is similar to that of a dramaturge in a theater company.
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To be honest most of the places I’ve worked were very Fleetwood mac style lol. When you spend 80 hrs a week with the same ppl that stuff tends to happen!
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