Once Upon a Chef

Once Upon a Chef Jenn Segal

Pity the husband and two teenage children of former Reston resident Jenn Cohen (now Jenn Segal of Potomac, MD), author of the Washington Post and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling book, Once Upon a Chef. Jenn says, “I usually test my recipes about five times, which means my poor family often eats the same dinner five nights in a row!”

In other words, her family has to “suffer” through recipes that have landed Jenn on countless TV shows and magazines, including The Oprah Magazine, The Hallmark Channel, Entertainment Weekly, Parade.com, and many others. These are the food creations that generate more than five million page views monthly on her website, www.onceuponachef.com, and keep Jenn constantly “making sure my recipes are foolproof and restaurant-quality. For me, a recipe can’t just be good; it has to be good enough to write home about.” Or to serve at home, apparently.

So how did this 1991 graduate of South Lakes High School become a worldrenowned foodie? Jenn’s family moved to Reston when she was two years old and, ironically, they lived on Turkey Wing Court! Okay, perhaps that street name did not influence her, but given the varied route she has taken to her success, who knows?

About her school years in Reston, Jenn says, “I’m embarrassed to say that I wasn’t involved in many activities outside of my schoolwork and friends. I guess I was a late bloomer!” But bloom she did! After high school, Jenn attended the University of Vermont as a history major and spent her sophomore and junior years studying abroad and working as an au pair in France where “I lived with French families and both of my host mothers were wonderful cooks. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with them, and I developed a keen interest in French cooking.”

Jenn completed her bachelor’s degree at George Washington University in DC, and then, “As soon as I graduated, I enrolled in a French culinary school in Maryland called L’Academie de Cuisine. I’ve been working in the restaurant/ food industry ever since.”

That work was certainly not always at the level of fame where she now finds herself. As a line cook at the prestigious L’Auberge Chez Francois in Great Falls, Jenn worked under enormous pressure helping to prepare the elegant dishes featured there. She describes Chez Francois as “a very special place… but I found out pretty quickly that working there wasn’t quite as romantic as dining there. It was a large, European-style brigade kitchen… If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to cook in a restaurant kitchen, imagine trying to juggle multiple orders in your head, cooking on four different burners with food in the oven at the same time, flames, sharp knives, hot pans and the incessant stream of orders coming in and going out. It was terrifying!”

But not terrifying enough to frighten Jenn out of the food business

altogether. Instead, she applied her culinary experiences and creativity to blogging about food, which “allowed me to work from home and gave me a platform to share my passion for cooking with others. It also helped me discover my inner teacher, which I didn’t even know existed. I love the creative side of developing new recipes—that’s why I got into this field—but over the years, I’ve found that I enjoy teaching just as much. I think the format of my website, which includes detailed step-by-step photos and a lively Q&A section, reflects this.”

At first, Jenn’s blog struggled to attract readers. But fueled by Jenn’s conversational writing style and unique recipes, it eventually “reached enough traffic to transition from a hobby to a business. After about four years of blogging, I was getting enough readers to monetize the site and earn a living.”

Jenn’s blog attracted so much attention that publicity grew steadily and then erupted in 2018 when Once Upon a Chef was published. Requests for interviews boomed and a book tour ensued. She admits, “As an introvert, it was terrifying at times, but it was so rewarding to meet readers face to face and hear how my recipes impacted their daily lives.”

She still has to overcome nervousness before interviews, but Jenn steadies herself with this core belief: “Good food is one of life’s greatest pleasures; having reliable recipes for delicious family meals is really valuable to people. It makes me happy to know that my work is improving their lives in some small way.”

Especially important to Jenn is hearing from readers who tell her “that my recipes are now part of their family traditions. I feel so lucky to be able to contribute something that brings families around the table to connect in a joyful way.”

And that, no doubt, includes her own.