Our first goop Kitchen the delivery site is now preparing lunch and dinner across west Los Angeles. It is also open for orders – and summer rolls with chicken curry salad and Coco chocolate chip cookies are worth driving around town. But let’s go back. When we decided to enter the food space with goop Kitchen, we knew we needed someone really special at the helm. Someone who had serious skills, who was aligned with our core values, and most importantly, who realized that eating for good was as much a pleasure as it was health. We were lucky to find all that and more in chef Kim Floresci.
She has had an impressive and enviable career working in top restaurants around the world, including El Bulli, Per Se and The Restaurant at Meadowood. She knows how to get a restaurant off its feet – she and her husband opened and ran a restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, three years before they returned to California.
Her interest in food was stimulated in her youth. “I was a military kid and we traveled about a ton,” she says. “I lived in Germany for four years and I was so excited to experience that food. My parents would always take me to the markets to try local food, in Germany and surrounding countries, like France. “And then Floresca ate a particularly memorable meal: ‘My cousin made me the worst dinner I’ve ever eaten. It made me wonder, why would anyone want to eat like this?’ That experience served as a lesson on what not to do. Floresca learned to cook initially through the Food Network (“It helped me see that food prepared at home can be really tasty,” she says), and eventually at a culinary school. She used family dinners on Thursday night to try new recipes. “Some have achieved great success, and some a complete failure. Fortunately, none was as bad as that initial meal, ”he laughs.
As soon as we started working with Floresco on the goop kitchen menu, we saw how and why her career was shaped by her curiosity: Making an amazing taste of healthy food isn’t always an easy task, and she approaches problem solving with real creativity. And her food tastes amazing. She is a self-proclaimed perfectionist – she is always grooming herself, perfecting herself, trying to make things better. But what makes her beloved is the generous spirit of collaboration, which has shone through all stages of the process, from research and development to training and nurturing team culture.
Kim Floresca responds to a survey on goop food
What is your favorite item on the goop kitchen menu?
This is our teriyaki bowl. We worked so hard on that sauce – trying to find the right proportions without using refined cane sugar. It’s really good.
Tell us about the first recipe you ever mastered.
Chocolate cake. I think I was eleven. It was a recipe from the side of a can of Hershey’s cocoa powder. I remember not wanting to use oil, so I used apple sauce and thought it was best. I don’t know if I would think that now, but it’s definitely one of my favorite memories of food.
Your most commonly used ingredient?
Green onions. For some reason I love them in everything. Charred. Raw. They give you a fresh bite of onion without being too sharp.
Do you have aversion to food?
I don’t like beets. I think it’s a childhood thing, maybe I had a bad experience with them. I mean, I’ll eat them, but I’d rather not. I still love to cook them!
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When does it occur to you when they say “nice food”?
I have too many to list. But I love a good pot of rice with this sauce called finadene – it’s a Guaman thing. It’s lemon juice, soy sauce, chopped green onions and a bit of bird chili. That rice sauce is a really good dish from childhood.
Is there anything you’re sick of?
I do not think. I just have that restless perfectionism. I try to do it better and better every day, and my mind won’t let me calm down. So even though we have a great teriyaki recipe I’ve worked on probably hundreds of times, I keep asking myself: how can I improve it? How can I make it more interesting? Could this be the basis for something new? I don’t see it as fatigue from creating something. You can always learn more every time you do it.
What kitchen tools should every home chef own?
A big chef’s knife. Good set of pans. I’m not just saying this, but I really like the goop x GreenPan set. My mom even saw my set and bought them! In addition, build a good pantry foundation. Be sure to have the excellent olive oil you love, good salt, the different spices you love.
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What do you listen to while cooking?
The Queen of Preparation We love the Queen. And Killers when we run behind and need another wind.
Favorite cook?
Jeremy Fox About vegetables is one of my favorites. It is affordable, but also very advanced. He is one of my idols. Again, not only do I say this, but GP’s books are amazing too. I have been cooking from them for many years. They have always been a great inspiration for a clean meal.
What are the five things you always have in the fridge?
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1. Jar of pickles. It can be pickled vegetables or just pickles – they are my favorite.
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2. A jar of really good French Dijon mustard.
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3. I usually have homemade oat milk. I pre-toast the oats and add cocoa to the mixture and use it in my morning coffee. It’s a bit of work, but it’s pretty simple, and the result is so luxurious.
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4. Date and nut truffles to restrain my sweet tooth.
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5. The remaining rice for making soup or fried rice or for the sauce with the finadena sauce I mentioned earlier. I’ll even turn it into a dessert with a little coconut milk for a quick rice pudding.
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