About Jeanelle

I cook, and write, and write about cooking.

Part kitchen romantic, part logistician, I’m a cookbook co-writer who basically helps people make the cookbook they were meant to make. I’ve also worked in professional kitchens, coached home cooks to new levels of confidence, and mined cookbooks and old family recipe boxes for new inspiration. 

I'm also a mother, spouse, dog person, and caretaker of a surprising number of thriving houseplants. I live in the Chicago area and I love thin-crust tavern-cut pizza on both a spiritual and an academic level.

Keep reading below to learn a bit more about me.

Breakfast or dinner?

Both! I love the ritual of weekend breakfasts. But I love the family togetherness that more routinely tends to happen at dinner, at least in our house. So if I have to choose, I’ll say dinner. (And you have the whole day to daydream about what you want. Planning!)

Sweet or savory?

Savory, 100%. Though I'm proud to have stepped up my sweets/pastry game in recent years.

What’s your deal with salt?

OMG taste your salt and salt to your taste! Meaning, every type of salt has a different level of saltiness, and while I’m the last person to preach about measuring anything, I do encourage everyone (regular home cooks and especially cookbook authors I work with) to taste the salt in their kitchen to gauge how much to use when cooking. Table salt is different from sea salt is different from kosher salt is different from that cool pink salt. My go-to is Diamond Crystal and we’ve been together long enough that I can feel how much to use when I take a pinch from the bowl.

Lowest cooking failure?

Make no mistake: professional cooks fail all the time. My lowest one, though, was when I was about 10 or 11, just getting my sea legs in the kitchen. For years I had served as apprentice as my mom, dad, and both grandmothers made entire meals, so at this point I figured I could handle something small on my own. I wanted soup, and we didn’t have any canned at the moment, but I unearthed some dry instant soup mixes from the pantry. I hadn’t seen it made before (uh, red flag alert, it’s because my mom only ever used the packets to amp up sauces, never for soup!), but I figured it couldn’t be hard. After choosing a flavor, I set to work, breezily dumping the contents into a small saucepan. Over a flame. With no water. My dad came into the kitchen sniffing the air, his eyes betraying a slight panic. “What’s burning?” Eyes darting to the blackening concoction, he blinked once and killed the heat. That day he taught me my first real cooking lesson: dry ingredients will burn in a pan without a liquid. Science! I didn’t get in trouble, but I did have to scrub out that pan. (Some of the scorch marks stayed for years. Years!!)

Highest cooking achievement?

Anytime I make something new to my kids that they love. Feelings of success in the motherhood kitchen are elusive and fickle, and if you know that high, you’ll chase it forever. (And/but: I have pretty basic expectations for how my kids eat. I have faith their food epiphanies will come when the time is right.)

I also have won juried contests for both my mac & cheese and a three-course vegan meal I once made. (Don’t worry, they were different contests.)

Also the feeling of pulling off a Christmas dinner of any magnitude is pretty terrific.

When did you have your food epiphany?

Between 5th and 6th grade. After a childhood of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I (probably rather rudely) informed my mom I would no longer eat those for lunch in the new school year, nor for any school lunch, ever again. I wanted lunchmeat! Cheese! Condiments! DELI. She informed me that that was a great idea, and that I should probably start making my own lunches. To this day I’m thankful to her for giving me more responsibilities in the kitchen, like making my own damn sandwiches. That was my first opportunity to get creative and learn more about what I liked and how flavors work together. To this day I also adore a deli tray. Sandwiches are my comfort food. 

What do you like to do when you’re not in the kitchen?

Hanging out with my family is my number one favorite pastime. I will accept any excuse to spend time in the city, ideally involving friends and Chicago’s unbelievable restaurant scene. I’m also thrilled that this chapter in our life includes being a 15-minute drive from my parents, both of my sisters, and a growing collection of nephews.

I’m also passionate about inclusive fashion and the ways personal style helps us evolve and connect with one another. I’ve got a deep, abiding love of road trips, the Great Lakes, looking at the moon, gardening, and knitting.

I will drop everything for soft scrambled eggs, craggy, crusty bread with cloudy green olive oil, tiny homegrown strawberries, any cheese, or a perfectly roasted chicken.

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