SPEC Spotlight: Food Entrepreneurs
JORDIE’S JOINT When I spoke to Jordyn Roberson about her Los Angeles-based cooking venture, Jordie’s Joint, it was clear that the endeavor was fueled by love. Not just her own love for cooking, but her friends’, family’s and even strangers’ appreciation of her craft. Roberson first got serious about cooking during her junior year of high school, but it wasn’t until the COVID-19 lockdown that she started sharing her recipes. She recalls getting frequent messages from family and friends for her recipes. “People would just say ‘Oh my gosh! I want to try your food.’” In September of 2022, Roberson sat down at the kitchen table of her dorm with her friends and spent hours envisioning and planning what her cooking company would look like. They decided on logos and color schemes, plates, and of course, the name itself.
Finally, Jordie’s Joint was born. “It wasn’t my intention,” Roberson said of doing large-scale pop-up events. However, when a large order was canceled 10 minutes before it was going to be delivered, Roberson had to find something to do with all the food. She decided to do a last-minute pop-up outside of USC’s Leavey Library selling all the barbecue chicken plates and mac and cheese she had prepared. The food sold out in an hour. The prospect of expanding her business in this way was exciting to Roberson. She realized that doing these bigger events allowed more people to try her food. “I just like cooking for people and making them happy,” she said. 47
WRITING Ellie Orlanski DESIGN Yumei Shi PHOTOGRAPHY Grace Oh PR Alicia Graham TALENT Jordyn Roberson
Roberson understands the contentment and joy that food can bring. She spoke about having meals with her extended family where the dining room was almost silent because everyone was simply enjoying their meal together. “No words needed to be said.” On her love for cooking, Roberson says, “It’s definitely community-oriented. And I think that cooking for someone is definitely a love language and you can put a lot of care and thought into it and you can definitely taste the difference.” As a Human Development and Aging major, Roberson isn’t cooking a lot of soul food for herself. She wants to become a registered dietitian and create nutrition-assistance programs for the elderly and people with chronic illnesses.
But she also knows that nourishment comes in many forms. She beamed when she recalled one customer telling her, “Oh my god, this tastes like home [in New Orleans], and I haven’t been able to get any food that tastes like home.” 48