2023 Chefs
HEARTS DELIGHT Q&A
Q: Which three foods do you wish were banished?
A:
Green peppers, swordfish, only two
Q: What was your favorite Halloween costume?
A: I used to wear my mom’s lab coats and her medical instruments (she was a microbiologist) and squirt blood all over and be a scary doctor of death.
Q: What's your most meaningful family heirloom?
A: A soup terrine my aunt gave me
Denver, Colorado
Featured: Saturday Grand Tasting & Auction
A James Beard Foundation award winner for Best Chef Southwest in 2013, Jasinski opened her first restaurant, Rioja, in Denver’s Historic Larimer Square to critical acclaim in 2004 featuring a menu inspired by Mediterranean ingredients and influenced by local and seasonal products. She and business partner Beth Gruitch acquired Bistro Vendôme, a French bistro across the street from Rioja in 2006 and opened Euclid Hall Bar & Kitchen just around the corner in 2010.
“Chef Jen” was a finalist on the 2013 season of Top Chef Masters. She was named 2004 Colorado Chef of the Year and 2005 Western Regional Chef of the Year by the American Culinary Federation. Rioja is consistently listed among Denver’s top restaurants by the 5280 Magazine, The Denver Post and the Gabby Gourmet Restaurant Guide and Rioja has been annually awarded four stars by AAA since 2010. Jasinski has been named Best New Chef, Rising Star, Best Chef and more in Denver Magazine, Restaurant Hospitality, Nation’s Restaurant News, The Denver Post, eater.com and 5280 Magazine. In 2007, she was the Jean Yancey award winner in the Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Women in Business awards.
Jasinski’s impressive restaurant credits include stints at Wolfgang Puck restaurants including Postrio, San Francisco; Spago, Las Vegas;, Malibu; Spago, Chicago; corporate chef at Wolfgang Puck Food Company.
She lives in Denver with her husband Max MacKissock (also a chef) and their two dogs Deano and Gingersnap.