Jenny Howard

Jenny Howard grew up in a household where entertaining was a regular excitement. Some of her earliest memories are of roaming the house with her brother the morning after one of her parents’ frequent celebrations, all the haphazardly scattered dishes and glasses (and ashtrays – oh my!) testimony to the good time had by all.

Thus converted early on to the special joy and satisfaction that comes with providing hospitality, she’s journeyed down the food and wine trail in a host of varying directions: cooking school assistant, retail kitchen sales, recipe editing, and testing, catering, wine tasting room management, and most recently as the owner of a mobile pizza catering business, Gigi Rolling Wood-Fired Kitchen, operated out of a belovedly restored 1962 firetruck.

Although pizza and bread are the mainstays in her flour-dusted kitchen, she finds inspiration in all kinds of recipes and loves to venture into new techniques and flavors via the breadth of the Leite’s Culinaria recipe catalog. A large bowl of Carrot Ribbon Salad or White Wine Linguine will often be served at her table.

Jenny recently relocated with her husband and two goofy labradors to Bend, Oregon, where the idiosyncratic effect of high-altitude baking is teaching her new tricks – and keeping her humble!