One of Jessica Roy’s earliest memories as a child was whipping up boxed cakes in her Easy-Bake Oven—America’s first working toy oven—for her three brothers. “I thought it was the freaking coolest thing I’d ever seen, and that was where my love of baking started; I was probably 7 or 8,” she recalls. Roy then grew up cooking elaborate meals and beautiful desserts with her mother, even setting the ambiance for dinner parties by foraging flowers and making arrangements. “Our house became the cornerstone of our family, the place where we had all the birthdays, all the holidays, Thanksgivings, Christmases, and these would become celebrations,” she says.
“I think celebratory is one of the best words that describes what I like to do; I like to celebrate moments,” Roy continues. “I like to create memories around beautiful dining experiences, where not only are people eating amazing and delicious food, but they’re really there—I want them to feel like they’re in a really cool space, and then that will foster, hopefully, relationships and conversations.”
Now, Roy is the executive chef and owner of 608 Dahlia, a renowned garden-to-table dining destination nestled within the picturesque Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona Del Mar, California. She has also won two national TV cooking competitions.
- Chef Jessica Roy’s favorite spice at the moment: Chai spice
- Favorite foodie city: Madrid, Spain
- The dish she’s most proud of creating: Signature Buttermilk Chive & Gruyère Biscuits
- If she could only cook with one veggie: Potato
- Her favorite musicians to cook to: Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Taylor Swift
But her story can’t be told without looking at the impact competitive sports had on her ethos and drive to succeed. Roy played competitive sports for half her life, including hockey and volleyball, which shaped how she constantly strives for excellence and instilled the relentless pursuit of improvement.
“It really shaped me as far as, I’m naturally a very, very competitive person. I was just made that way,” she explains. “Nobody needs to start my engine. I’d start at like 7:00 in the morning. That really drove a lot of my desire to cook more ambitiously and do better. My thing is I’ve always been, how can I do better? How can I push this as far as I can take it right here and now, and then I’m always looking at, how can I make it better for the next time?”
Those “ingredients” of competitive sportsmanship, says Roy, are what really propelled her career forward and “allowed me to just soar” after graduating from Vanguard University of Southern California with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology. She also credits this mindset with helping her through demanding roles, from her first job as a dishwasher at Sur La Table in Newport Beach to leadership positions at esteemed restaurants like the three-Michelin-starred Alinea in Chicago.
Sur La Table, the chain retailer of upscale cooking and dining supplies, also hosts in-store cooking classes, and Roy can recall her first Julia Child class where they made beef bourguignon, a chocolate souffle, and a green bean dish. “I just remember being in that class and feeling like I was exactly where I wanted to be; I was doing what my number one choice would be, and that was to pursue a career in the kitchen, and that’s how I started.”
The next step on her journey was cooking at a Fairmont Hotel as a banquet chef. There, she was trained to look for opportunities to go the extra mile, and worked her way up to the lead line cook at night and then chef de partie.
“The reason why I thought it was so cool is because Fairmont’s whole mission statement is turning moments into memories,” she notes. “That’s why I went to work for Fairmont in Newport Beach. It’s not the cutest property in the world if you look at it, but I was so fortunate to spend over four years with them, and that was what I call my culinary schooling. It was my training; I treated it just like I was going to culinary school.”
She also learned how to cook with precision and speed for a large volume of guests. “I was extremely driven and competitive, and also, a female, and there were no other women around me, so I was outnumbered in that way. But I really never thought about it too much, because I was just always looking to dominate,” Roy says.
That desire to “dominate” led to Roy entering her first cooking competition, which she admits she found on Craigslist, of all places. “I was just looking at TV, film, video, and I was always looking to do a culinary competition; it was just one of my dreams,” she explains. “I’d sit on the couch with my mom at night and we’d be watching ‘Chopped,’ and I’d be like, ‘I gotta be on that show.’ I want to do a cooking competition, because it blends my competitive sports history plus my passion for cooking, and I also really like being up in front of people.”
Roy competed on a pilot series on TNT called “On the Menu” with Ty Pennington as host and Emeril Lagasse as menu master, and ended up winning her episode. She was paired with California Pizza Kitchen, and she made a signature Korean barbeque pizza and walked out with $25,000. “I was four years in at that point, and I knew I wanted to work in a three-Michelin-star restaurant, probably since year one. And so I applied to every three-Michelin-star restaurant in the country, [but] I waited for the show to air,” she adds, since she figured she’d have a better chance once her name was out there. The show aired after six months, and after sending her resume out, she finally heard back from Alinea in Chicago, who wanted her to fly in for a tryout.
“It was honestly pure hell. It was one of the most intimidating things I’d ever done in my life,” she admits. “They were ranked nine in the world at that time, so they were top 10. I walk into a kitchen after everybody’s already there, and there’s probably at least 30 chefs in that kitchen … I had a huge prep list, and I completely bombed it my first day, and they had me clean a 30-pound case of fiddlehead ferns. They’re these little green things that curl up like a garden hose, and you have to uncurl them and peel out their prawns and then curl them back in. It was one of the biggest nightmares you could possibly have somebody do, which is why they give you that job.”
The intense atmosphere also involved “lots of yelling,” and her job during the evening service was to fill up liquid nitrogen tanks. Her plan that night was to fly back home to California in the morning and get the promotion at the hotel she was promised. But for some reason, when she woke up, she wanted to go back and do it all over again. “It’s like the sick and twisted part of me that was actually looking for torture,” she laughs. “So I go back the next day, and I just had this fresh attitude again. It’s just how I wake up. I don’t know, growing up with all this California sun maybe did it to me.”
Against the odds, her positive attitude made an impact on her psyche, and she nailed her prep list and everything else they threw at her, which got her noticed. They asked her to join the team, and in six short weeks, Roy quit her stable, cushy hotel job, and moved from the California sun where her family lives to move to the Windy City to pursue her dream. “This is my master’s training, and I need to go and prove myself, to pretty much myself. I wanted to just see, can you roll with some of the best chefs in the world, not in just your local area,” she adds. “I didn’t know a soul in Chicago, and I moved there close to the restaurant, and I went in every day and I just crushed it.”
Roy’s time at Alinea marked a turning point. Immersed in one of the world’s most demanding kitchens, she honed her precision, creativity, and resilience. The experience not only tested her limits, but also solidified her commitment to culinary innovation. Her tenure included grueling international pop-ups in Madrid, Spain, and Miami, proving her adaptability and capacity for excellence under pressure.
After spending two years in Chicago, she was ready to come home. “My time in Chicago is one of the greatest experiences of my career. It shaped me. I learned to work with extreme precision and speed and very, very highly creative technical cooking and thinking,” Roy says. “That makes me this problem solver, creative engineer of food or whatever I want to create. It just was amazing, and it’s an experience that I feel was well worth the investment.”
Returning to California, Roy combined her technical expertise with her entrepreneurial spirit. In 2021, she opened 608 Dahlia (originally called Cultivar) nestled within the serene Sherman Gardens, replacing Café Jardin in the space which was operated by French award-winning chef Pascal Olhats, who founded multiple restaurants throughout Orange County.
The restaurant quickly garnered acclaim, including a five-star OpenTable rating and recognition as one of Orange Coast Magazine’s Best New Restaurants. Roy’s dishes are inspired by her career journey including her early love for baking, like her signature small-batch buttermilk chive and Gruyère biscuits made with organic European flour, aged French Gruyère, Maldon salt, and local citrus infused honey and whipped butter—which she started selling par-baked on her website for in-person pick up. Another recent standout menu item is the braised short rib with brown butter sweet potato purée, petite vegetables, and a red wine reduction.
A focal point of the restaurant is its garden-facing bar, which boasts a display of seasonal décor and flowers—harkening back to Roy’s early love for floral arrangements. The cocktail program at 608 Dahlia mirrors the ethos of the kitchen, transforming seasonal ingredients and fresh juices into beautifully handcrafted Soju-based cocktails like the Strawberry Basil Margarita and tropical-inspired Bird of Paradise. Nonalcoholic options turn florals, herbs, and fruits into enchanting elixirs.
As she considers expanding her culinary footprint, Roy’s vision extends beyond the kitchen. Her plans include exploring lifestyle branding, incorporating elements of passions for fashion and design into her projects. Meanwhile, her commitment to creating joyful, memorable dining experiences remains steadfast.
For Roy, being a chef is more than a profession—it’s an expression of love and community. With every dish, every celebration, and every new venture, she continues to build a legacy defined by passion, creativity, and the unyielding pursuit of excellence.
