Jessica Largey

Coming Up

Training at California School of Culinary Arts gave Jessica Largey a formal base before a run through Providence, Bastide, and The Fat Duck added pressure, pace, and range. Those kitchens shaped a chef attentive to precision and composure, with technique used as a working tool rather than a display. From 2014–2016, she served as Head Chef at Manresa in Los Gatos, California, where her naturalist approach took clearer form. In 2016, she took on two roles at once: chef-in-residence at Intro in Chicago from 2016, and opening Head Chef at Simone in Los Angeles from 2016. The sequence shows a career moving by addition, with each room leaving behind a practical mark on the cooking that followed.

Where They Are Now

Today, she is chef at Simone in Los Angeles. For a Los Angeles native, the role places the work back in the city that first shaped it, but on terms defined by experience rather than nostalgia. Simone functions as the present-tense expression of her cooking: a kitchen where timing, restraint, and clarity matter more than excess, and where a dish earns its place by being thought through cleanly. The grain bowl is one example, shaped by that habit of refining an idea until the final version holds together without strain. It reflects a style that treats simplicity as a technical problem, not a lack of ambition.

Signature

Jessica's signature dishes include grain bowl and spring lamb dish. Read together, they point to a cook who works across registers without changing her basic terms: one built on grains, texture, and balance; the other on spring lamb dish and a more direct sense of presence. In both, the composition stays legible. The food is arranged with care, but the ingredients are allowed to remain themselves.

In Their Words “I’d say that I have a naturalist approach, which is definitely something I’ve developed while at Manresa.” “I like using techniques that are purposeful and preserve the integrity of the product.” Those two lines are plain, but they define the work clearly. Technique is treated as a means, not the point; the ingredient stays central; and the best result is one where the method disappears into the finished dish rather than competing with it.

Honors

Jessica's honors include James Beard Foundation Awards, Rising Star Chef of the Year (2015). The recognition arrived after a stretch of work that had already established momentum, and it marks the moment when her cooking moved from being noticed inside kitchens to being recognized more broadly. It sits within a career shaped by consistency, careful progression, and a voice that became sharper by staying disciplined.