Sqirl in a Jam
July 25, 2020 12:29 PM Subscribe
Beyond Moldy Jam: The Inside Story of What Went Wrong at Sqirl. A story of gentrification, stolen recipes, a derailed jam empire, and the making and breaking of a burgeoning celebrity chef: perennial LA hotspot Sqirl's "Genius of Jam" Jessica Koslow.
Once touted as "downright revolutionary" by the NYT, and with block-long lines regularly stretching out of her cafe, Koslow looked atop the California food world going into the summer of 2020, with a second cookbook coming out, a brunch joint that did "$7,000 on a slow day," and a highly successful high-end jam company ready to capitalize on the pandemic-induced bread baking craze.
But then in early July a whistleblower's photos of moldy buckets of jam - and the claim that Koslow regularly instructed her employees to simply scrape the mold off and serve it anyways - opened the floodgates on a litany of accusations against her and her company: that she was operating an illegal packing facility, that she had stolen many of the recipes that had made her famous, and that the James Beard-nominated chef "couldn't even cook on a domestic level, let alone a professional one."
And it opened up further discussions of Sqirl's role in leading the gentrification of the working-class Latino neighborhood south of Silverlake, Virgil Village.
Once touted as "downright revolutionary" by the NYT, and with block-long lines regularly stretching out of her cafe, Koslow looked atop the California food world going into the summer of 2020, with a second cookbook coming out, a brunch joint that did "$7,000 on a slow day," and a highly successful high-end jam company ready to capitalize on the pandemic-induced bread baking craze.
But then in early July a whistleblower's photos of moldy buckets of jam - and the claim that Koslow regularly instructed her employees to simply scrape the mold off and serve it anyways - opened the floodgates on a litany of accusations against her and her company: that she was operating an illegal packing facility, that she had stolen many of the recipes that had made her famous, and that the James Beard-nominated chef "couldn't even cook on a domestic level, let alone a professional one."
And it opened up further discussions of Sqirl's role in leading the gentrification of the working-class Latino neighborhood south of Silverlake, Virgil Village.
That's because her book was released July 21.
posted by warriorqueen at 1:22 PM on July 25, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by warriorqueen at 1:22 PM on July 25, 2020 [3 favorites]
GAAAH.
Publicly, Koslow regularly described the neighborhood as undesirable, referring to Sqirl’s location as “a street corner that no one wanted to be on” and “a street no one knew about, in a neighborhood no one cared about.” In a 2016 Eater profile, she called the spot a “shitty corner on Virgil and Marathon.” And on Chang’s 2019 podcast episode, she referred to Virgil Village as being on the “buttcrack of Silver Lake.” Koslow then told Chang that Sqirl “became the community restaurant that the community was looking for.” That “community” was Silver Lake, not Virgil Village.When asked about her comments in these interviews, Koslow responded:
“It’s true that in 2016, I said some stupid and offensive things about the neighborhood and I am truly sorry for that. I knew right away how wrong what I said was; I regretted it immediately. Yes, Sqirl has perpetuated gentrification in Virgil Village; what conscious person could deny that? I did not set out to change Virgil Village, not by a longshot. The truth is that I first rented the Sqirl space because it was five minutes from my house and it was the only space I could afford. Then and now, I love Virgil Village and its community..."posted by spamandkimchi at 1:47 PM on July 25, 2020
When I was growing up we always made our own jam. Dad would quite happily scoop the mould off the top of a mouldy jar and we would eat it.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:15 PM on July 25, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:15 PM on July 25, 2020 [10 favorites]
I had some squirrel jam once but it wasn't very good and seemed to have notes of bitumin and maybe gravel.
posted by loquacious at 2:16 PM on July 25, 2020 [33 favorites]
posted by loquacious at 2:16 PM on July 25, 2020 [33 favorites]
My partner's grandmother would go one step further than joe's spleen's dad, stirring the mould back into the jam. Fortunately this was long before I knew his family and I never had to eat the mouldy jam.
posted by terretu at 2:19 PM on July 25, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by terretu at 2:19 PM on July 25, 2020 [2 favorites]
When I was growing up we always made our own jam. Dad would quite happily scoop the mould off the top of a mouldy jar and we would eat it.
In the LAmag article, it says Koslaw claimed she was acting "with the guidance of preservation mentors and experts like Dr. Patrick Hickey." And then:
Dr. Hickey, a Scottish mycologist, told The Washington Post that he was surprised to have his name invoked by Koslow, a person he says he has never met. He told the paper that she might have been thinking of comments he made in a 2014 BBC interview in which he stated that some foods, including jam, that develop certain molds in home refrigerators might still be safe to eat but, he says, that advice was not intended to be applied to commercial production.
So she took a guy saying, basically, "it's probably ok for i_am_joe's_spleen's dad to scrape mold off of his homemade jam," and this woman decided that meant "it's DEFINITELY ok to grow CARPETS of mold on my open jam buckets which I am selling for exorbitant prices."
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:15 PM on July 25, 2020 [24 favorites]
In the LAmag article, it says Koslaw claimed she was acting "with the guidance of preservation mentors and experts like Dr. Patrick Hickey." And then:
Dr. Hickey, a Scottish mycologist, told The Washington Post that he was surprised to have his name invoked by Koslow, a person he says he has never met. He told the paper that she might have been thinking of comments he made in a 2014 BBC interview in which he stated that some foods, including jam, that develop certain molds in home refrigerators might still be safe to eat but, he says, that advice was not intended to be applied to commercial production.
So she took a guy saying, basically, "it's probably ok for i_am_joe's_spleen's dad to scrape mold off of his homemade jam," and this woman decided that meant "it's DEFINITELY ok to grow CARPETS of mold on my open jam buckets which I am selling for exorbitant prices."
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:15 PM on July 25, 2020 [24 favorites]
The Virgil is way more responsible for gentrifying the made-up-by-real-estate-agents area of “Virgil Village” than Sqrl is.
posted by sideshow at 4:27 PM on July 25, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by sideshow at 4:27 PM on July 25, 2020 [3 favorites]
A recent article on Eater SF: The Founder of Diaspora Co. on the End of Her Sqirl Jam Collab and What It Means to Partner With White Gatekeepers
Somewhat lost amid the more obviously resonant aspects of the scandal, however, is the fact that at least one Bay Area food company — Diaspora Co., an Oakland-based, queer-woman-of-color-led spice company focused on decolonizing the supply chain of Indian-grown spices like turmeric and cardamom — was caught in the undertow of the controversy. Just a few days earlier, the company had announced its first-ever collaboration with Sqirl — a new jam made with Diaspora Co.’s single-origin green cardamom and rhubarb from a family farm in Fresno. According to Diaspora founder Sana Javeri Kadri, it was a dream partnership for a small company like hers — especially, Kadri says, because she herself had long admired Koslow and her restaurant.posted by Lexica at 5:18 PM on July 25, 2020 [4 favorites]
Kadri says she received immediate pushback from a couple of longtime customers as soon as she announced the collaboration this past Friday. As more and more details about the apparent atmosphere at Sqirl emerged over the weekend — and as Kadri herself had conversations with employees at the cafe — she ultimately decided to pull out of the collaboration. By Sunday, Kadri had issued a statement on Instagram and offered a full refund to anyone who’d already purchased the jam. While she says she expects to be able to work out the finances with Sqirl, as of now, Diaspora stands to lose as much as $10,000 on the deal.
The Virgil is way more responsible for gentrifying the made-up-by-real-estate-agents area of “Virgil Village” than Sqrl is.
That's pretty debatable considering The Virgil was founded a year after Sqirl, and isn't as well-known nationally or locally or as often touted in real estate listings. But it's not really a hill I'm going to die on.
I do think the term "Virgil Village" is useful specifically because it is a real estate concept (like the "Arts District" downtown), which is why I think it's also used in that context by the local gentrification documenters like Jimmy Recinos and Samanta Helou.
posted by joechip at 6:19 PM on July 25, 2020 [1 favorite]
That's pretty debatable considering The Virgil was founded a year after Sqirl, and isn't as well-known nationally or locally or as often touted in real estate listings. But it's not really a hill I'm going to die on.
I do think the term "Virgil Village" is useful specifically because it is a real estate concept (like the "Arts District" downtown), which is why I think it's also used in that context by the local gentrification documenters like Jimmy Recinos and Samanta Helou.
posted by joechip at 6:19 PM on July 25, 2020 [1 favorite]
That’s some damn expensive jam. I make a lot of jam and pickles, it’s not hard. Just buy or forage good ingredients. Seriously anyone can do it. We tried to go to Sqirl once when were living in LA for awhile. We were on our way to the Neutra house (go!) and saw then line and went somewhere else for a lovely breakfast.
One thing that has always bothered me is every article inevitably mentions their lacto-fermented hot sauce. Lacto-fermentation is simply using salt and not vinegar to ferment something like dill pickles or Tobasco sauce. There is really nothing special about it. I mean it might be great but if you’re making hot sauce it’s almost always going to fermented using eight salt or vinegar.
As an aside I just finished making some pickles five minutes ago. I’ve also got a bunch of sorrel in my garden and am totally making that rice dish for brunch tomorrow.
posted by misterpatrick at 8:21 PM on July 25, 2020 [5 favorites]
One thing that has always bothered me is every article inevitably mentions their lacto-fermented hot sauce. Lacto-fermentation is simply using salt and not vinegar to ferment something like dill pickles or Tobasco sauce. There is really nothing special about it. I mean it might be great but if you’re making hot sauce it’s almost always going to fermented using eight salt or vinegar.
As an aside I just finished making some pickles five minutes ago. I’ve also got a bunch of sorrel in my garden and am totally making that rice dish for brunch tomorrow.
posted by misterpatrick at 8:21 PM on July 25, 2020 [5 favorites]
The crazy thing to me about this whole thing is how preventable it seemed. Like by using less sugar and the other choices she made/bragged about, it lead to this result. Was the thought that others made those choices because the wanted to not had to?
posted by Carillon at 9:33 PM on July 25, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Carillon at 9:33 PM on July 25, 2020 [4 favorites]
"I'm gonna make a better product with no icky preservatives!"
"OMG my product is going bad super quick why?"
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 9:42 PM on July 25, 2020 [46 favorites]
"OMG my product is going bad super quick why?"
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 9:42 PM on July 25, 2020 [46 favorites]
Sugar is the preservative in jam! If you don't load up on the sugar then it's just stewed fruit.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:00 PM on July 25, 2020 [27 favorites]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:00 PM on July 25, 2020 [27 favorites]
The jam is not why I went to Squirl. In fact, I think I had it once. Nearly every meal I had there was something I really liked and couldn't cook at home, like the sorrel pesto rice bowl. (I know because I tried.) I'm so disappointed to learn what was going on behind the scenes.
posted by rednikki at 10:08 PM on July 25, 2020
posted by rednikki at 10:08 PM on July 25, 2020
I took one look at Sqirl's prices for jam and never bothered. As a jam maker, I know the cost that goes into an 8 oz jar, and I chalked it up to LA mystique and rent; there's no way one jar can possibly be worth the price.
Instead, I read a few reviews, watched a few videos, then made my own batch of brioche, slathered it with a really good ricotta I hand-whipped, and topped it with homemade blackberry and fig preserves and Maldon salt. I'm pretty sure I got the experience without the health code and employee rights violations.
I am intrigued by things like the sorrel pesto rice bowls, which I also will almost certainly never make at home. rednikki, may I suggest checking out Petite Peso and whatever Ria Dolly Barbosa is doing there, since she's the one who came up with that dish anyway?
posted by offalark at 11:45 PM on July 25, 2020 [5 favorites]
Instead, I read a few reviews, watched a few videos, then made my own batch of brioche, slathered it with a really good ricotta I hand-whipped, and topped it with homemade blackberry and fig preserves and Maldon salt. I'm pretty sure I got the experience without the health code and employee rights violations.
I am intrigued by things like the sorrel pesto rice bowls, which I also will almost certainly never make at home. rednikki, may I suggest checking out Petite Peso and whatever Ria Dolly Barbosa is doing there, since she's the one who came up with that dish anyway?
posted by offalark at 11:45 PM on July 25, 2020 [5 favorites]
I can't believe someone would try to get away with selling buckets of moldy jam. Jam is the easiest thing in the world to make, and to make safely. You do need to know basic food safety and simple canning techniques, but a child could learn them, literally. I know this being close to starting my own jam company about six years ago. It is labor, no question, but it is hard to fuck up if you follow simple, time-honored processes. If you are selling moldy jam, you screwed up big time, perhaps deliberately, and you deserve whatever consequences come your way.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:20 AM on July 26, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:20 AM on July 26, 2020 [2 favorites]
It's all gone squirly.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 12:56 AM on July 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Cardinal Fang at 12:56 AM on July 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
This is wild. For the past few years I've been dabbling in preserving/canning, and I've taken a couple of basic classes. It's like...the first thing you learn. Sugar is a preservative, gotta use a lot of sugar if you're trying to make long-term jam. Use tested recipes only. Throw it away if there's mold. If you want to use less sugar, that's all right for a quick jam that you keep in the fridge for a bit, but not for something you're trying to keep, and it's a risk. I mean, I'm only a home canner and I'm VERY careful about this shit because I don't want to give anyone botulism. It really seems like a total lack of understanding of the thing you claim to be completely passionate about?
posted by cpatterson at 3:20 AM on July 26, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by cpatterson at 3:20 AM on July 26, 2020 [7 favorites]
I don't think it could have been lack of understanding. From my reading the jams Sqrl sold in jars were pasteurized. If someone buys a jar of jam and it gets moldy after a week or two, then they're going to complain. People have no way of knowing if you scoop mold off your bulk jam for the restaurant. Ethics is about what you do when other people aren't watching. There may be some restaurants taking shortcuts but now I know for certain that Sqrl will cheat until they are caught. As a side note if you're going to have a secret that will torpedo your business, then you should avoid screwing your employees.
posted by rdr at 4:56 AM on July 26, 2020 [11 favorites]
posted by rdr at 4:56 AM on July 26, 2020 [11 favorites]
Jam is a weird space. When grumpybearbride and I first moved to Brooklyn our apartment had formerly been the HQ of a jam startup. The kitchen was completely disgusting and clearly unsanitary. Our downstairs neighbors told us that, when the jam people were moving out, they literally dumped jam out of the window and onto the AC unit below. This jam company is still in business, but I wouldn't buy anything they made.
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:57 AM on July 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:57 AM on July 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
I’ve come to realize that any (English language dominant) company that doesn’t have a vowel in its name Is likely to be a terrible company.
like who?
posted by ryanrs at 7:10 AM on July 26, 2020
like who?
posted by ryanrs at 7:10 AM on July 26, 2020
I’ve had some lovely breakfasts at Sqirl and this makes me sad. I’m an avid but casual jam maker (I don’t use a recipe and just make one-jar batches that I keep in the fridge or freezer because... I know I’m not adequately preserving things for long term?) and the processes that were apparently used there amaze me in how bad it sounds.
Anyway, the other day a friend gave me a loaf of challah she made and I got some ricotta and I had a nice papaya jam I made in the fridge and I made my own rainbow toast and it didn’t quite capture the vibe of a sunny morning with my best friend on a working vacation in LA like the other times I’ve had it, but it sure tasted good (and wasn’t moldy).
posted by jeweled accumulation at 7:55 AM on July 26, 2020
Anyway, the other day a friend gave me a loaf of challah she made and I got some ricotta and I had a nice papaya jam I made in the fridge and I made my own rainbow toast and it didn’t quite capture the vibe of a sunny morning with my best friend on a working vacation in LA like the other times I’ve had it, but it sure tasted good (and wasn’t moldy).
posted by jeweled accumulation at 7:55 AM on July 26, 2020
I make a lot of jam. (High five to my fellow MeFi canners) A friend and I take a day off of work every year and can at least 100 jars of cherry jam. I used to joke that it would be great currency in the apocalypse, and now that joke is less funny.
All told, I can (my myself and with friends) at least 150 jars of jam a year. That is by no means industrial scale, but also will hopefully underline how serious I am when I say that I have never opened one of my own jars of jam, even one years old, and seen mold. And I do all of the no-preservative, all natural stuff, too. My recipes don't look all that different from what's used at Sqirl.
I've been very confused by this story because as far as I know one does not keep jam in giant vats for parceling off into individual jars while cold. Jam is supposed to be poured into individual jars while still molten and then further processed using the method of your choice to kill any remaining mold or bacteria. And while keeping jam in vats to be jarred later avoids working with hot liquids, if you instead do things the traditional way the product is shelf stable until you open it. And there are a lot of tools available to use so that everything can be done safely.
Just, geez, there is no excuse here.
posted by Alison at 8:10 AM on July 26, 2020 [17 favorites]
All told, I can (my myself and with friends) at least 150 jars of jam a year. That is by no means industrial scale, but also will hopefully underline how serious I am when I say that I have never opened one of my own jars of jam, even one years old, and seen mold. And I do all of the no-preservative, all natural stuff, too. My recipes don't look all that different from what's used at Sqirl.
I've been very confused by this story because as far as I know one does not keep jam in giant vats for parceling off into individual jars while cold. Jam is supposed to be poured into individual jars while still molten and then further processed using the method of your choice to kill any remaining mold or bacteria. And while keeping jam in vats to be jarred later avoids working with hot liquids, if you instead do things the traditional way the product is shelf stable until you open it. And there are a lot of tools available to use so that everything can be done safely.
Just, geez, there is no excuse here.
posted by Alison at 8:10 AM on July 26, 2020 [17 favorites]
Alison, they weren't making vats of jam to scoop into jars later. They were making jars of jam AND vats of jam. The jars we're sold individually and the buckets were used in the restaurant. It's the buckets that would get moldy.
posted by cooker girl at 9:02 AM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by cooker girl at 9:02 AM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
waka waka waka
Metafilter: Jam is a weird space.
wub wub wub
posted by lalochezia at 10:14 AM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
Metafilter: Jam is a weird space.
wub wub wub
posted by lalochezia at 10:14 AM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
A couple summers ago, I was eating so much takeout. And I got so sick 3 times that summer. I missed so much work and weight. It was miserable. I chalked it up to norovirus but looking back, Sqirl was on regular rotation, and the sickness stopped after I quit eating out and I hadn’t been back to Sqirl since.
posted by Pretty Good Talker at 10:18 AM on July 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Pretty Good Talker at 10:18 AM on July 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
Ok I said I would and I did. Sorrel pesto and instead of rice I used farro because I like it more. Here’s the recipe, take that Sqirl.
A couple handfuls of sorrel - if you grow it once you’ll always have it as it’s a perennial and puts up young leaves all season. Toss into a food processor or whatever with some walnuts, toasted pinenuts, salt, a cloves of garlic and olive oil. Pesto that mofo. 1 cup of farro and 2 cups of water in the Instantpot for 10 mins. Drain and mix the parts together. Top with a poached egg and serve with some avocado with lacto-fermented hot sauce aka Sriracha, some garden tomatoes and whatever else you have around. $100 jam optional.
Sunday brunch and no line.
posted by misterpatrick at 10:21 AM on July 26, 2020 [6 favorites]
A couple handfuls of sorrel - if you grow it once you’ll always have it as it’s a perennial and puts up young leaves all season. Toss into a food processor or whatever with some walnuts, toasted pinenuts, salt, a cloves of garlic and olive oil. Pesto that mofo. 1 cup of farro and 2 cups of water in the Instantpot for 10 mins. Drain and mix the parts together. Top with a poached egg and serve with some avocado with lacto-fermented hot sauce aka Sriracha, some garden tomatoes and whatever else you have around. $100 jam optional.
Sunday brunch and no line.
posted by misterpatrick at 10:21 AM on July 26, 2020 [6 favorites]
I have not been able to put my finger on why this story is so incredibly chafing to me, but then I realized: just the absolute time and place of it all. I have a love-hate with Hipstery Instagrammable Food Restaurants, but you can do the aesthetic because that's what makes people feel thrilled right now and ALSO make great food that gets people talking and showing/lining up, and apparently Sqrl did that so fair play to them...
...but also fuuuuuck them for getting away with food safety violations that no nonwhite-owned restaurant in this city would ever get away with. A *secret unpermitted kitchen*? How many nonwhite non-investor-backed business owners are routinely accused of having secret rooms, for unpermitted cooking or living, just because it's fun to make people scared for their livelihoods? The whiteness of these places, where rules are for the poors and working garnish for a year will get you a line job at some other place that's probably been featured on a Netflix show, but in-house butchery for a taco shop before and after high school classes will get you a dishwasher job, but only if you're undocumented otherwise they have to pay you too much.
Right this minute I am in mourning for a part of LA I'm afraid I'll never see again: the restaurants who've maybe never had a $7k day, but probably never went more than an hour without a sit-down or take-out order, even at mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Places paying a lot of rent for tiny strip-mall storefronts but there was enough volume to stay afloat as long as it was consistent, but didn't have Instagram Walls or good lighting or the right look that made you feel like you were out with your favorite youtuber. And food trucks, which could definitely be hipstery but it was such a facet of any gathering in LA because the weather's almost never an issue, but we won't be gathering any time soon. These places don't have enough square footage to distance more than 2-4 tables, maybe only one or two to leave a place for take-out-ers to stand. They're getting shut down by the health department, if not just giving up because they know they can't do the impossible.
As I watch these places disappear off listings, get marked as closed on Yelp, watching this city burn down what's left of its culture because we won't just pay people to stay home and suspend rent and loan payments. ALL that'll be left next year, once most of the survivors are finally vaccinated, will be extremely white investor-backed restaurants and franchises. I'm afraid they'll move in as quickly as possible, as soon as commercial rents crash, renting out 3-4 of the old storefronts at a time (or these restaurant-owning conglomerates will buy the property outright) so they can put in distanced seating, so that by the time the next wave of family-owned restaurants gets enough cash together the rents will have shot up again. Your average strip mall will be Sqrl2, Shake Shack, Starbucks (now with boba!), a vape shop (like roaches, nothing seems to destroy them), French Laundry 2 Go, Gordon Ramsay's Pierogies & Pho, and then like a taco shop but they only sell one kind of taco and then you can greenscreen yourself eating it with your favorite Influencer. And then a CVS, RiteAid, or Walgreens, plus a freestanding Chick-Fil-A, Chipotle, or Buffalo Wild Wings in the parking lot.
I think post-pandemic California, if not the rest of the world, is going to see a pretty dramatic population shift anyway - all my apartment-dweller friends in LA are talking about moving somewhere (anywhere; a friend remotely bought something in rural IL where they've never been because they liked the house and the price) they can afford a house, in case they have to spend several years in lockdown again - and I suspect that those places will be where the little family restaurants will go as well. (This whole thing is also a gentrification nightmare, for other places that probably have no idea what's about to hit them.)
posted by Lyn Never at 11:49 AM on July 26, 2020 [31 favorites]
...but also fuuuuuck them for getting away with food safety violations that no nonwhite-owned restaurant in this city would ever get away with. A *secret unpermitted kitchen*? How many nonwhite non-investor-backed business owners are routinely accused of having secret rooms, for unpermitted cooking or living, just because it's fun to make people scared for their livelihoods? The whiteness of these places, where rules are for the poors and working garnish for a year will get you a line job at some other place that's probably been featured on a Netflix show, but in-house butchery for a taco shop before and after high school classes will get you a dishwasher job, but only if you're undocumented otherwise they have to pay you too much.
Right this minute I am in mourning for a part of LA I'm afraid I'll never see again: the restaurants who've maybe never had a $7k day, but probably never went more than an hour without a sit-down or take-out order, even at mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Places paying a lot of rent for tiny strip-mall storefronts but there was enough volume to stay afloat as long as it was consistent, but didn't have Instagram Walls or good lighting or the right look that made you feel like you were out with your favorite youtuber. And food trucks, which could definitely be hipstery but it was such a facet of any gathering in LA because the weather's almost never an issue, but we won't be gathering any time soon. These places don't have enough square footage to distance more than 2-4 tables, maybe only one or two to leave a place for take-out-ers to stand. They're getting shut down by the health department, if not just giving up because they know they can't do the impossible.
As I watch these places disappear off listings, get marked as closed on Yelp, watching this city burn down what's left of its culture because we won't just pay people to stay home and suspend rent and loan payments. ALL that'll be left next year, once most of the survivors are finally vaccinated, will be extremely white investor-backed restaurants and franchises. I'm afraid they'll move in as quickly as possible, as soon as commercial rents crash, renting out 3-4 of the old storefronts at a time (or these restaurant-owning conglomerates will buy the property outright) so they can put in distanced seating, so that by the time the next wave of family-owned restaurants gets enough cash together the rents will have shot up again. Your average strip mall will be Sqrl2, Shake Shack, Starbucks (now with boba!), a vape shop (like roaches, nothing seems to destroy them), French Laundry 2 Go, Gordon Ramsay's Pierogies & Pho, and then like a taco shop but they only sell one kind of taco and then you can greenscreen yourself eating it with your favorite Influencer. And then a CVS, RiteAid, or Walgreens, plus a freestanding Chick-Fil-A, Chipotle, or Buffalo Wild Wings in the parking lot.
I think post-pandemic California, if not the rest of the world, is going to see a pretty dramatic population shift anyway - all my apartment-dweller friends in LA are talking about moving somewhere (anywhere; a friend remotely bought something in rural IL where they've never been because they liked the house and the price) they can afford a house, in case they have to spend several years in lockdown again - and I suspect that those places will be where the little family restaurants will go as well. (This whole thing is also a gentrification nightmare, for other places that probably have no idea what's about to hit them.)
posted by Lyn Never at 11:49 AM on July 26, 2020 [31 favorites]
I'm a little annoyed that most of the comments in this thread are about the moldy jam, rather than the infuriating racism of the owner and her shittiness to her workers and neighborhood, covered up with the equally infuriating bullshit veneer of fake progressive-ism.
posted by splitpeasoup at 3:21 PM on July 26, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by splitpeasoup at 3:21 PM on July 26, 2020 [7 favorites]
Eater LA: There’s No I in Jam: Sqirl Wrestles With the Sticky Question of Who Really Owns a Recipe
The narrative surrounding Sqirl has nearly always been bigger than the restaurant itself, and some of the issues surfaced by what some are calling Moldgate have quietly circulated outside of the public sphere for years. But in a moment when representation and equity are at the forefront of conversations across the country, questions in the restaurant industry about ownership, attribution, and who ultimately gets to benefit have never been more relevant or more forceful.posted by Lexica at 4:37 PM on July 26, 2020 [4 favorites]
“It’s telling that some people have been more outraged over the moldy jam than the allegations of unfair treatment and exploitation,” says former pastry cook Elise Fields, who worked at Sqirl from early 2018 through June of last year. “But if that’s the catalyst to get everyone to care about the deeper issue, which is the years and years of completely unfair treatment and exploitation of her chefs’ talents, particularly her POC chefs, then good.”
I think it’s because we collectively expect and tolerate an amount of mistreatment of workers and communities, especially POC, in this trade of ‘nationally famous’ urban hipster restaurants.
But mold in my jam?! — that’s a bridge too far.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:47 PM on July 26, 2020 [2 favorites]
But mold in my jam?! — that’s a bridge too far.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:47 PM on July 26, 2020 [2 favorites]
Upton Sinclair is supposed to have said of the reception of The Jungle - "I aimed for the public's heart but I accidentally hit them in the stomach."
posted by atoxyl at 11:40 PM on July 26, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 11:40 PM on July 26, 2020 [8 favorites]
In her July 12 statement, Koslow said the lack of preservatives was to blame for the mold. “We don’t use commercial pectin, sweeteners or other stabilizers, and to highlight the fruit, we add [a] little sugar… And put simply, a low-sugar jam is more susceptible to the growth of mold. The same types of mold that develop on some cheese, charcuterie, dry aged beef, and lots of other preserved foods.”
This is jaw-droppingly, astoundingly incorrect, and demonstrates such a lack of food knowledge that I'm angry that she's been paid to even write about food in any context. Yes, low-sugar jam is more susceptible to mold. No, it is not comparable to surface mold on aged cheese and charcuterie. This is an error on the order of...I dunno, asserting that cars are fueled by motor oil rather than gasoline. I'm an experienced home canner. I use (safe) low-sugar techniques. And even my lowest-sugar jams can sit in the fridge once opened for a couple of months without molding, so I'm terrified of what she was feeding these people.
I'm not angrier about the jam than I am about the racism. I'm always angry that the restaurant industry perpetuates the same ol' structural racism day in, day out, and that there is so little recourse and so little pathway upward (i.e. capital) for the talented folks doing the recipe development and cooking. I'm frustrated that there's not much that ordinary people like myself can do to change it, because the real power and money is about real estate and investment backing. I try to keep up with the whisper campaigns, and I stop patronizing restaurants when I hear about shitty behavior (no matter how much I like the food.) COVID and how some restaurants handled layoffs brought out some whoaaaahhhhhh moments that were useful in whittling down my list of places to visit when and if they reopen. I push back when people in my city sneer at the aesthetics of the storefronts in lower-income neighborhoods while patting themselves on the back for patronizing (in both senses of the word) the "hidden gem" restaurants, whose owners' names they do not memorize the way they do the names of white restauranteurs.
I'm spitting about the jam as an emblem of her incompetence and entitlement that just happens to hit close to home for me, with the way she blithely Dunning-Kruger'd herself into being a fucking "chef."
posted by desuetude at 12:32 PM on July 27, 2020 [4 favorites]
This is jaw-droppingly, astoundingly incorrect, and demonstrates such a lack of food knowledge that I'm angry that she's been paid to even write about food in any context. Yes, low-sugar jam is more susceptible to mold. No, it is not comparable to surface mold on aged cheese and charcuterie. This is an error on the order of...I dunno, asserting that cars are fueled by motor oil rather than gasoline. I'm an experienced home canner. I use (safe) low-sugar techniques. And even my lowest-sugar jams can sit in the fridge once opened for a couple of months without molding, so I'm terrified of what she was feeding these people.
I'm not angrier about the jam than I am about the racism. I'm always angry that the restaurant industry perpetuates the same ol' structural racism day in, day out, and that there is so little recourse and so little pathway upward (i.e. capital) for the talented folks doing the recipe development and cooking. I'm frustrated that there's not much that ordinary people like myself can do to change it, because the real power and money is about real estate and investment backing. I try to keep up with the whisper campaigns, and I stop patronizing restaurants when I hear about shitty behavior (no matter how much I like the food.) COVID and how some restaurants handled layoffs brought out some whoaaaahhhhhh moments that were useful in whittling down my list of places to visit when and if they reopen. I push back when people in my city sneer at the aesthetics of the storefronts in lower-income neighborhoods while patting themselves on the back for patronizing (in both senses of the word) the "hidden gem" restaurants, whose owners' names they do not memorize the way they do the names of white restauranteurs.
I'm spitting about the jam as an emblem of her incompetence and entitlement that just happens to hit close to home for me, with the way she blithely Dunning-Kruger'd herself into being a fucking "chef."
posted by desuetude at 12:32 PM on July 27, 2020 [4 favorites]
From the article:
Not all of Koslow’s business projects have been cancelled or put on hold: New York publisher ABRAMS Books this week released Koslow’s new jam cookbook, which is billed as “a cookbook that looks and feels like no other preserving book out there.”
Well, every other preserving book out there says on no uncertain terms that "if you see mold on your jam, throw the entire batch out". So I certainly wouldn't be surprised that someone advocating "scrape off the mold and eat the rest" is very likely to have released a book that is "like no other preserving book out there".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:26 PM on July 27, 2020 [4 favorites]
Not all of Koslow’s business projects have been cancelled or put on hold: New York publisher ABRAMS Books this week released Koslow’s new jam cookbook, which is billed as “a cookbook that looks and feels like no other preserving book out there.”
Well, every other preserving book out there says on no uncertain terms that "if you see mold on your jam, throw the entire batch out". So I certainly wouldn't be surprised that someone advocating "scrape off the mold and eat the rest" is very likely to have released a book that is "like no other preserving book out there".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:26 PM on July 27, 2020 [4 favorites]
…Okay, I just did a bit of spelunking online. And I think what this article, and this thread, is missing is some visuals.
Towards that end: this is a tweet with a picture of the mold on one of the aforementioned buckets of jam.
I am quite certain it is not quite what you're envisioning when you thought that "scraping a little mold of the top is fine."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:30 PM on July 27, 2020 [5 favorites]
Towards that end: this is a tweet with a picture of the mold on one of the aforementioned buckets of jam.
I am quite certain it is not quite what you're envisioning when you thought that "scraping a little mold of the top is fine."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:30 PM on July 27, 2020 [5 favorites]
I am actually a little bit mad about the jam itself, because that too is a kind of gentrification. It's not exactly appropriation, and yes obviously you can buy Fancy Jam in pretty much any grocery store, but just this idea that this fancy white lady making jam is "elevated". Anybody with basic equipment can water-bath can (and it takes even less equipment to make freezer jam and...just let it sit out in a bucket until it becomes sentient), and anybody can put rosemary or cardamom or whatever in their jam. In the tiniest village in the most remote place in the world, one house can make excellent bread and the one next door exquisite jam and the dairy next door to them can make gorgeous farmer's cheese or clotted cream and they accidentally run into each other over a hot frying pan and voila, a $18* toast entree occurs.
(*I don't even fucking know - this article wrote like 2000 words about the goddamn thing without saying and every single person quoted or otherwise involved in this article should be required to shampoo with grape jelly for a week.)
One of the great things about preserves and preserving is that the recipes are the thing. I might not have the money to send you my strawberry-lemonade jam across country, but I could mail you the recipe or read it to you over the phone or put it on my blog. If you aren't an experienced enough preserver to do your own chemistry calculations, you source your very well-tested recipes from Ball or your county extension service or a reliable magazine or a book that you own or borrow or get from the library, and you take precautions to ensure good seals and sanitation and try really hard to make safe food.
But it's not sexy or exciting, it's for old ladies which is the worst two things to be, and probably poor to boot. It's just that whiteness again, that thing where every idea you have is solid gold and other people will fall over themselves to agree with you and give you a book deal if you seem young and thin and rich enough.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:14 PM on July 27, 2020 [3 favorites]
(*I don't even fucking know - this article wrote like 2000 words about the goddamn thing without saying and every single person quoted or otherwise involved in this article should be required to shampoo with grape jelly for a week.)
One of the great things about preserves and preserving is that the recipes are the thing. I might not have the money to send you my strawberry-lemonade jam across country, but I could mail you the recipe or read it to you over the phone or put it on my blog. If you aren't an experienced enough preserver to do your own chemistry calculations, you source your very well-tested recipes from Ball or your county extension service or a reliable magazine or a book that you own or borrow or get from the library, and you take precautions to ensure good seals and sanitation and try really hard to make safe food.
But it's not sexy or exciting, it's for old ladies which is the worst two things to be, and probably poor to boot. It's just that whiteness again, that thing where every idea you have is solid gold and other people will fall over themselves to agree with you and give you a book deal if you seem young and thin and rich enough.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:14 PM on July 27, 2020 [3 favorites]
i think a lot of the distaste for koslow is because of how on-the-nose this type of food is as a stand-in for white gentrification and privilege. pre-covid, standing in line for hours for expensive ricotta jam brioche in a diverse neighborhood with great food from all over the world, as rents explode all around, just plays into the most stereotypical display of absurdity that anyone who lives in a gentrifying area anywhere can relate to.
but there are more nuanced questions about gentrification and affordability when it comes to areas like virgil village or the nearby historic filipinotown or even echo park or downtown la. pre-covid, some businesses were doing it right, even though they were relatively new to the area. but those stories are not as interesting because they don't lend themselves to the avocado-toastification of the debate.
now of course everything has changed for everyone, including the would-be gentrifiers. it could be, as some above have said, that everyone will be pushed out by chains and corporations, in which case the front line of the fight won't be against people like koslow in any event.
posted by wibari at 2:30 PM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
but there are more nuanced questions about gentrification and affordability when it comes to areas like virgil village or the nearby historic filipinotown or even echo park or downtown la. pre-covid, some businesses were doing it right, even though they were relatively new to the area. but those stories are not as interesting because they don't lend themselves to the avocado-toastification of the debate.
now of course everything has changed for everyone, including the would-be gentrifiers. it could be, as some above have said, that everyone will be pushed out by chains and corporations, in which case the front line of the fight won't be against people like koslow in any event.
posted by wibari at 2:30 PM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
As a frequent home canner myself I was dumbfounded at the fact these aren't pressure canned at all and only hot water bath. Let alone the jam is allowed to "cool".
posted by wcfields at 3:26 PM on July 27, 2020
posted by wcfields at 3:26 PM on July 27, 2020
Ordinary, time-tested, sugar-full jam recipes don't need to be pressure canned. A water bath works perfectly well, if the jam is processed correctly (sanitize jars and lids in boiling water; remove, drain, and fill with hot jam just off the boil; add lids, screw down rings, process in boiling water as directed). Pressure canning is required for things that are low-acid and low-sugar.
As a home canner, I have no idea what would be required to safely process a multi-gallon bucket of jam, let alone a low-sugar jam.
posted by Lexica at 4:23 PM on July 27, 2020
As a home canner, I have no idea what would be required to safely process a multi-gallon bucket of jam, let alone a low-sugar jam.
posted by Lexica at 4:23 PM on July 27, 2020
and I suspect that those places will be where the little family restaurants will go as well
I cannot believe all the favorites for this comment, but if you think that family restaurants in BFE Illinois or whever else are going to be the same quality as LA or that whatever single family home community all your apartment-escaping friends are moving to is not going to be nothing but Buffalo Wild Wings and a CVS across from a WalGreens, then you have not been to most of the rest of the US. And your apartment-escaping friends are going to be gentrifying those communities, completing the cycle of irony.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:50 AM on July 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
I cannot believe all the favorites for this comment, but if you think that family restaurants in BFE Illinois or whever else are going to be the same quality as LA or that whatever single family home community all your apartment-escaping friends are moving to is not going to be nothing but Buffalo Wild Wings and a CVS across from a WalGreens, then you have not been to most of the rest of the US. And your apartment-escaping friends are going to be gentrifying those communities, completing the cycle of irony.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:50 AM on July 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
I'm skeptical of the supposed new wave of urban flight, but generally restaurants will only survive according to the capacity of the population density. I really don't see how a significant generation of small family-owned eateries would thrive outside of the population centers that they feed.
posted by Think_Long at 9:04 AM on July 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Think_Long at 9:04 AM on July 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
Squirrel Jam should be a bluegrass band that only plays covers of Pearl Jam songs.
posted by trombodie at 8:03 PM on July 28, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by trombodie at 8:03 PM on July 28, 2020 [3 favorites]
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posted by 41swans at 12:57 PM on July 25, 2020 [1 favorite]