Friends and Family, a new breakfast-and-lunch place, to open in East Hollywood

For everyone who’s been missing the market-driven cooking of pastry chef Roxana Jullapat and her partner chef, Daniel Mattern, since the two left Cooks County, we have happy news. The restaurant veterans are opening up their own place, called Friends and Family, in a 4,000-square-foot location on Hollywood Boulevard that was previously an Armenian bakery.

Slated to open in early summer, the bakery, cafe and marketplace will focus on breakfast and lunch, with a retail component for Jullapat’s breads, pastries and jams.

Jullapat and Mattern opened Cooks County (which has since closed) on Beverly Boulevard with restaurateur Claudio Blotto in 2011; the three met while working at Campanile. Before that, Jullapat and Mattern had cooked together at Ammo in Hollywood.

Jullapat recently described the East Hollywood project as “super-casual, market-driven, vegetable-friendly.” Jullapat and Mattern are partnering with friends — one reason for the project’s name — Ash Shah and his wife, Niroupa Shah, whom they met while Mattern was consulting on the menu for Trejo’s Tacos, the recently opened taqueria from actor Danny Trejo on La Brea in Hollywood. (Shah is a partner-owner of the taqueria.)

“This is a perfect coming-of-age thing as a chef; it’s like a mature job,” said Jullapat, whose career has also included cooking at Bastide, Lucques, A.O.C. and Clarklewis in Portland, Ore.

Jullapat said they’ll be adding beer and wine and a strong coffee program (“I have a Costa Rican background; coffee is like blood”) to the menu of farm-to-table food, bakery items and jams.

With the opening still a few months off, Jullapat gave us her recipe for strawberry-rhubarb jam. Consider it a preliminary friends-and-family gift — and a reason to hit your local farmers market, where strawberries and rhubarb are now in season.

5150 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam

40 minutes, plus cooling time. Makes a scant quart jam

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 1 quart strawberries, stems removed and cut into quarters
• 2 cups chopped rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup blood orange juice
• 1/2 to 1 cup fresh orange blossoms tied in a cheesecloth sachet, or 1 teaspoon orange flower water

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed pot, add the sugar and then the water, but do not stir to combine. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and put the seeds and pod in the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until it is reduced to a thick syrup.
2. Add strawberries, rhubarb and blood orange juice to the pot. If you have it, throw in the sachet of orange blossoms as well. Simmer, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is reduced to a jam, 10 to 15 minutes (stirring is crucial because it helps break down the berries and the rhubarb, it also prevents over-caramelizing, which may cause the jam to stick to the bottom of the pot). To test if the jam is ready, chill a glass plate in the freezer, spoon a bit of jam on it and trace it with your finger – if your finger leaves a trace, the jam is ready.
3. Transfer the jam to a separate bowl. If you didn’t use orange blossoms, stir in the orange flower water and set aside to cool completely. Remove the vanilla pod and discard it. If you used a sachet, pull it out, give it a good squeeze onto the jam, and discard it. The jam will keep for up to a month, refrigerated, or you could pour the mixture into sterilized jars and seal (following the instructions given by the jar manufacturer) for a longer shelf life.

Each tablespoon: 17 calories; 0 protein; 4 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 0 fat; 0 cholesterol; 4 grams sugar; 1 mg sodium.

Note: Adapted from a recipe by pastry chef Roxana Jullapat.