How I Got My Job as a Director of Fermentation

Welcome to Pre Shift’s series, How I Got My Job, where we ask hospitality pros from all corners of the industry how they got here and what their role is really like. 

This week, we’re chatting with Jamaar Julal, director of fermentation at Honeysuckle. Eater describes the Philadelphia restaurant as the city’s “best living room” filled with “talented people eager to tell you about their meticulous, inventive, risky, unconventional work.” Julal, a self-taught expert on kombucha, koji, and more, is one of those people. What started as a DIY operation—he would make kombucha in his studio apartment and hand-deliver it, on bike, to customers around town—landed him in an unorthodox career path, with a title usually reserved for chefs at behemoths like Noma.

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Jamaar Julal: I was attending The Restaurant School in West Philadelphia for a degree in restaurant management. I debated for a long time whether I would switch to the culinary program, but I decided against it because of the hours and the lifestyle.

I started my kombucha company, JamBrü Ferments, back in 2018 when I was a student. Kombucha came into my life because an old coworker of mine brought a home brewed batch into work. I had been wanting to try to make it, too; I didn’t know much about fermentation at the time, so it seemed intimidating. But I tried it, and it was really good. That kind of gave me the confidence to try to make it myself. I made a bunch of batches at home, and I was posting it on my Instagram story, just sharing the process with my friends. I started to give kombucha away, then I started selling it out of my apartment. I’d bike it around Philadelphia. 

In 2020, the Philly Inquirer wrote an article about the kombucha business. From then on, it just took on a life of its own. I went from going door to door to selling wholesale to about 20 to 25 restaurants and markets in Philadelphia. After that article came out, I had to move my operation out of my apartment into a kitchen space I rented out. I started brewing professionally, and it just kept growing. 

Kombucha and fermentation was sort of my means of finding myself in the in-between of things—between culinary and front-of-house—because I enjoy aspects of both. I love to find myself between those spaces. Funnily enough, moving to Honeysuckle, I’m doing exactly that. I had that realization maybe six months ago, like, Oh, I really set myself up with exactly what I was trying to do in the first place, before even realizing it. It all came back full circle. Now I’m a director of fermentation, which is pretty cool.

Honeysuckle was another organic thing. I was sort of brought into the Honeysuckle realm in shifts, every time I met with [owners Cybille St.Aude-Tate and Omar Tate]. First, they offered to sell my kombucha at the shop. Another time, they were doing a residency at Blue Hill Farm, and they asked me to produce a dehydrated strawberry powder [made from SCOBY] to be incorporated into the dessert course. Then they asked me to join the team. They were like, “We want you to ferment for us, with us.” I was not expecting that. I was really honored and surprised.

I asked what the position was. They were like, “You can name it.” The only name I knew of was “director of fermentation” at Noma and other large, very established restaurants. I was like, “Well that’s the only thing I can think of. Sure, I’ll be the director of fermentation.” That was late 2021, and I’ve been there ever since.

When I first started with kombucha, it was mainly “YouTube University.” I started watching a bunch of videos about the process, SCOBY, recipes. I ordered a starter kit on Amazon for a gallon of kombucha and a recipe book. Eventually, I got it down pat. I treat it very similarly to when I was in culinary school. I’m a visual and hands-on learner, so videos were my biggest help. 

Fermentation wasn’t necessarily something that was taught in school. In my mind, I had thought of “fermentation” as this bubble that floats around beverages, but I had no idea about koji. Reading up about a mold ferment, that sounded crazy to me. I got a book called Koji Alchemy, which had diagrams that helped me set up a home incubator in my studio apartment at the time. I started working at Honeysuckle, and I just kept practicing and expanding. 

More recently, I’ve had the opportunity to train at different breweries [and] fermentation spaces and ask questions. I’m really lucky to be in the position I’m in with the network I have. Now, I know people who are established in this industry, who know what they’re doing, and I’m able to speak with them. Also, a few months ago, I got to train in Ugata, Japan, for a sake program. It was a life-changing experience.