Jessica Koslow

Raised on sprouts and healthy fare from California farmers markets, Jessica Koslow would seem an unlikely candidate for a career in the sweet side of the food business. But Koslow had a yen for sugar from a young age and couldn’t get enough of the Rice Krispies treats she and her dad would make together—much to the chagrin of her health-conscious mom. So maybe it’s no surprise that she’s ended up helming a restaurant known for its luscious and unusual jams.

While she was a pastry chef in Atlanta, Georgia, making preserves was part of her everyday routine. When she moved back home to Los Angeles, she remembered thinking how much produce was taken for granted. “I was determined to take what I had learned and apply it to the farmers market,” she says.

In 2011, Koslow opened Sqirl as a preserves company, using unsold berries from the farmers market that she jarred and squirreled away. The exotic jams, made from local fruits and herbs, with such evocative names as Seascape Strawberry and Rose Geranium, flew off the shelves. A year later, Sqirl was serving breakfast and lunch—or anytime food, as Koslow describes it—with dishes like sorrel pesto rice, “kabbouleh,” and chopped breakfast salads that mesmerize customers.

Now she’s branching out with her newest gig, Onda, a collaboration with Mexican chef Gabriela Cámara of Contramar in Mexico City, and is excited by the thought of running a full-scale restaurant. Cooking with others has often been important to her—whether inviting guest chefs, such as Magnus Nilsson, to her kitchen or cooking pop-ups at the Frieze art fair. Although she spends much of her day at Sqirl, Koslow is enthusiastic about cooking at home, which is a mere seven minutes away from the restaurant. “If given the chance to cook, I’ll take it,” she says, though she often does takeout too. Her meals at home are a mix of high- and lowbrow, along the lines of “Georges Laval Champagne and a samosa in a takeout box. Or I’ll make a hot dog with French’s mustard and artisanal kraut from Brassica and Brine—show me the range life has to offer,” she says.

When she does cook, she includes lots of vegetables. “It’s likely you’ll find a small but delicately cooked protein, a grain, and at least two veggies,” she says. Occasionally, she’ll stumble across a combination that later appears on customers’ plates. “One example is a version of a chicken and rice porridge that was so delicious that I decided it needed to be on the menu at Sqirl—and that’s how the Long-Cooked Chicken and Rice Porridge with Cardamom Ghee became a dish there.”

Her navy blue, quintessentially California kitchen—with citrus fruits scattered on the marble countertops—is also ground zero for testing out jams. With jam there is “always a new combination to play around with. And failures lead to successes,” she notes. Once while making a jam of kumquat and rhubarb, she got the ratios wrong and the jam was more kumquat than rhubarb. “It was bitter and the color was a muted gray. I could have stopped,” she recalls. Instead, I reversed the ratios and what do you know, it’s a vibrant pink color and absolutely one of my favorite jams that we make!” One thing’s for sure—Koslow is never in a rut.

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CURRENT HOMETOWN: Los Angeles, California

RESTAURANT THAT MADE HER NAME: Sqirl, Los Angeles

SIGNATURE STYLE: Next generation California cuisine

BEST KNOWN FOR: Her ricotta toast and jams, and her cookbook, Everything I Want to Eat

FRIDGE: Sub-Zero

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  1. GEORGES LAVAL CHAMPAGNE—“He’s absolutely one of my favorite Champagne producers. The vines have been farmed organically for well over thirty years, the wine is fermented in neutral oak barrels with indigenous yeast—I could go on.”
  2. DOMAINE DES MARNES BLANCHES CÔTES DU JURA SAVAGNIN
  3. SESAME GINGER SALAD DRESSING
  4. JUS DE RAISIN DU MAS DE GOURGONNIER GRAPE JUICE—“My husband and I picked up this grape juice in Provence. I enjoy picking up food that I’ve never seen nor will ever see at home.”
  5. STIEGL GOLD AUSTRIAN BEER
  6. RAW WHOLE MILK—“It’s friendlier for me to digest than regular milk.”
  7. RADISHES—“We eat them with dip at breakfast.”
  8. ORGANIC DATES
  9. HOT SAUCE—“My friend makes his own lacto-fermented sauce and we always have it on the table.”
  10. BRASSICA AND BRINE SAUERKRAUT
  11. TAKEOUT INDIAN BASMATI RICE AND DINNER from last night
  12. EGGS FROM CHINO VALLEY RANCHERS, delivered twice a week
  13. GREEN PROVENÇAL OLIVES
  14. SQIRL WILD BLACKBERRY AND MEYER LEMON JAM—“Jars that have dented lids or don’t seal correctly end up at home or at a staff or friends’ homes.”
  15. ORGANIC SEASONAL MISO
  16. HONEY ROSEMARY APPLE BUTTER (LEFT) AND RANGPUR MANDARIN WITH SEGMENTS MARMALADE (RIGHT)—“I’m testing all these jams for the Sqirl cookbook. The flavors include kumquat and chamomile, Rangpur lime with mandarin segments (a marmalade), mango passion fruit, blackberry-apple butter, and apple-pomegranate jelly. I loved making apple jelly with passion fruit—making a jelly set from natural pectin is very challenging and then the seeds are just so beautiful.”
  17. TAKEOUT SAMOSAS
  18. HUMMUS
  19. MARINATED ANCHOVIES, SALAMI, SMOKED TROUT—“These are all for SNACKS! I like to eat these with little crackers or bread.”