Meet the Chef

About Jennifer

Jennifer is an Adjunct Chef Instructor at the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality. She also runs her own Catering and Personal Chef Business, and teaches cooking classes at Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida. As a 20-year veteran of the food industry, Jennifer has served in numerous capacities, both in and out of the kitchen. She honed her cooking skills working in various fine-dining restaurant and catering kitchens in the Southeast and Midwest. She also served as a Food Editor and Manager of Recipe Development for a large multi-national Marketing Corporation in the supermarket industry. And she worked as a Research and Development Consultant for Tavistock Restaurants. Jennifer holds a Master’s degree in Food Culture and Communications from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Colorno, Italy, a Bachelor of Arts in History, and a Culinary Arts degree from Johnson and Wales University. She has published articles for a variety of academic, marketing and lifestyle publications, and she belongs to the Association for the Study of Food and Society, an academic association devoted to interdisciplinary scholarship in food studies. In the summer of 2019, Jennifer will present a paper on Hunger Strikes inside US Prisons and Farms at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery at Oxford University, England.

Jennifer is a curious cook with a passion for creating, tasting, sharing, and learning about foods from around the world. She believes food is a delicious and creative way to explore other cultures and build relationships with others. Having lived in Italy and traveled the Mediterranean during her studies, Jennifer has acquired a breadth of knowledge about the traditional cooking of the region. But she also enjoys cooking the cuisines of Mexico, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America, and beyond. Breaking bread with others is among the best gifts we have been given on this earth, because it not only illuminates the world around us but also has the capacity to build community and create peace with others. If you have not yet begun to explore other people and their cuisines, Jennifer highly recommends that you do.

Contact Jennifer

For inquiries or a quote on booking an event with Jennifer, please contact her at chef@jenniferhostetter.com, or at 407.920.7571.