as well as from neighbors’ backyards and her own apple, apricot and orange trees in South Pasadena — and dreaming up tantalizing flavor combinations. LaGuire is putting a modern twist on the time-honored tradition of arti- sanal jams — handmade concoctions in small, quaintly packaged jars more likely to be found in gourmet food shops than on the highly competitive shelf space of chain groceries like Ralphs or Vons. It’s a niche shared by E. Waldo Ward & Son in Sierra Madre, which has been crafting its own jams (and bottling other delicate treats like olives) for more than a century. Both businesses are responding to a continuing demand for the often painstaking effort involved. “If somebody wants to buy a single flavor, they can go to any supermarket and find a million brands of raspberry jam,” LaGuire notes. “I work with multiple types of fruits to create a different combination, and it’s a chance to play with flavors. This summer, I’ve done a sour lemon jam with Coachella dates from the desert. The sweetness of dates and sourness of lemons come together in a taste explosion. I think of what’s not just seasonal but what might go together to lift or enlighten a classic.” LaGuire decided to launch her business just before she left for Paris to study pastry making last July. There she discovered the artistry and experi- mental élan that French chefs bring to their jams. Not long ago, LaGuire demonstrated how she creates new flavors at East Pasadena’s Mama’s Kitchen Incubator, the large culinary complex on San Gabriel Boulevard where she rents space for Ellelle. She took Tupperware con- tainers of apricots and raspberries out of refrigerators and poured the con- tents of each into a separate pot; she boiled the fruit for ten minutes before combining the juices and stirring them in a large copper pan she’d bought in Paris. Then she poured a sample of the resulting sunset-colored liquid onto a small plate she had just removed from a freezer, so she could see how it looked and tasted upon cooling. Running her pinky through the result, LaGuire declared the experiment a success. “I like the color of it,” she said. “I don’t use very much [sugar] syrup, so it’s on the tart side. I didn’t use any commercial pectin [a component of citrus IMAGINE RHUBARB JAM WITH CHAPARRAL SAGE HONEY ON A SLICE OF MORNING TOAST. THINK ABOUT THE TASTE OF BLUE- BERRIES, BLACKBERRIES AND VANILLA BEANS MELDED INTO A SWEET DARK AMBROSIA ON A BAGEL. OR A SMOOTH BLEND OF STRAWBERRIES, RASPBERRIES AND FRESH LAVENDER ON A CROISSANT. All those taste sensations are offered by the inventive Lennie LaGuire, a for- mer senior-level editor of the Los Angeles Times who started her own artisanal food company a year ago, six months after leaving the newspaper business. As the sole proprietor of Ellelle Kitchen (inspired by her initials), she has filled her days collecting fruits from farmers’ markets throughout the Los Angeles area — JAM SESSIONS SUMMER ENTERTAINING 38 ~ JULY 2009 ~ ARROYO ARROYO ~ JULY 2009 ~ 39 SOUTH PASADENA’S ELLELLE KITCHEN AND E. WALDO WARD & SON OF SIERRA MADRE FIND THAT OLD-FASHIONED TECHNIQUES GIVE THEIR ARTISANAL JAMS TIMELESS APPEAL. BY CARL KOZLOWSKI | PHOTOS BY TOMMY EWASKO —CONTINUED ON PAGE 40 Ellelle Kitchen’s Lennie LaGuire likes to detonate taste explosions with her original jams. Jeff Ward has brought E. Waldo Ward, the family’s century-old gourmet food business, into the 21 st century with tropical fruits and other exotic delicacies.