What’s Cooking in The Girl’s Kitchen

For this week’s Dear Montecito, I asked Jules Bartling, one of the core founders of The Girl’s Kitchen, to update our community on the pop-up kitchen and meals team bringing whole foods to our community, and to communities negatively affected by the current administration. From Jules:

I like to think of The Girl’s Kitchen (TGK) as a lucky and fabulous accident. I know I can speak for Robyn and Sami when I say that none of us planned or expected to find ourselves working in the world of food, but somehow it has ended up feeling like exactly where we were supposed to land. 

TGK is a passion project born of a necessity to create, regardless of the medium. When the pandemic started, my little brother, his girlfriend Sami and I all found ourselves moving into my parents Mike and Robyn’s home. We were all one big family under the same roof again starting that March of 2020, and we all seemed to gather in the kitchen. 

We three girls, my brother, and my dad would all obsessively collect cooking videos and recipes on social media and at some point I decided I was the one who’d take charge in bringing those recipes to life. Once we got to start broadening our social circles again, sharing our home-kitchen creations was our favorite pastime. 

The more we cooked for our family and friends, the more confident we became. We started making absolutely everything, from tomatillo salsa-marinated Wagyu steak burritos to hand folded sorpresine alla with vodka sauce, to our house favorite; sesame soy marinated salmon bowls. 

At some point Justine Roddick (after having our salmon bowls maybe 20 times) finally insisted we look into selling our food. With Sami’s natural ability to find and highlight beauty in anything and everything she encounters, Robyn’s unparalleled ability to organize and plan events and experiences, and my newfound love for cooking, it was the perfect recipe for success. We’ve done a handful of pop-ups in a fun, interactive build-your-own-bowl style and some fabulous private dinners, but our most recent endeavor has been our weekly meal pick-up program, hosted by The Eddy grocery store. 

This past election completely devastated us all, and the three of us wanted to find a way to do SOMETHING to make a difference and fight against what this administration is imposing on the American population. This is where our program comes in. For the last four months, we have been cooking for our beautiful community, all so that we can send 100% of the proceeds to Whole Women’s Health Alliance, an incredible nonprofit that funds and facilitates access to those in need of abortion care who live in states in which it has been banned. We are so proud to stand for the rights of others, and it’s been so amazing watching our community connect with us not just through our food, but through our morals and social goals as well. 

As for what’s next for us, we are committed to continuing to create ongoing support for the causes we believe in, continuing to donate a portion of our proceeds to the wonderful charities we believe in, while also offering a product that our customers truly love… our house-made sauces. Our dishes are all packed with beautiful flavor, but I must say the star of the show is always the sauce! We prioritize all clean, organic, preservative-free recipes, which is why our spicy mayo and serrano crema have been such fan favorites, they really do bring everything together. 

We’ve had so much fun using our sauces in a variety of different ways, which is why we want to get them on grocery store shelves for all our customers to enjoy and experiment with at home. As The Girl’s Kitchen, we stand for love and compassion, and believe there’s no better way to unite people than with a beautiful meal.  

To learn more about The Girl’s Kitchen, follow them on Instagram at @thegirlskitchen805