THINKING OUTSIDE THE PIZZA BOX
DEVOURED’S JHY COULTER SERVES UP A SIGNATURE SLICE OF LIFE By Liz Goodwin Jhy Coulter knows how to hustle. She’s been doing it since she was 15, working at various restaurants while juggling her school responsibilities. As she turns 30 this year, she has a lot of great meals and big milestones to look back on— but even more lies ahead. Coulter is the owner and pie master behind Devoured, the city’s first Black and queer-owned pizza place. She and her partner, Brit Estes, run the pop-up at various breweries, coffee shops, and other pizza-friendly settings around town. Where their trademark “cloud crust” goes, the lines will follow. Coulter’s culinary journey technically started at a stateside pizzeria, but it really took off across the Atlantic. Estes had moved to Spain to teach English, and Coulter de-
cided to take a break from her graphic design studies to fly out for a two-week visit, which quickly evolved into a “staying until further notice” trip. The pair taught English together and enjoyed the quintessential European experience: travel, eat, and repeat. “I was so addicted to the constant traveling, eating, and collecting things from different restaurants,” Coulter says. “I was just obsessed with how the European lifestyle was. And after we got back to the states, I said to Brit, ‘What do you think about me becoming a chef?’” Rather than go back to school, Coulter jumped into the world of fine dining, where she could learn cooking techniques up close and personal. Her nights were split between multiple kitchens, including at Webster House under Brandon Winn. Coulter
Top left: Two pepperoni pizzas await baking at a Devoured pop-up at Strange Days Brewing. Above: Coulter smiles while talking with guests and preparing pizza at a pop-up. Photos by Liz Goodwin
absorbed as much as she could while also continuing her design job with a nonprofit. She eventually took the leap into cooking at Webster full time, where she learned “next level chefing” and the inner workings of an advanced technique kitchen. Then, she transitioned to working in an executive kitchen at UMB Bank, where the all-women team could create as they pleased. But when March of 2020 came around, her kitchen gig became a casualty of the pandemic. With an excess of hours in her day, Coulter experimented with a Gozney pizza oven she’d randomly won in an online giveaway. After some trial and error with the crust formula, she hit her stride and began slinging pies for her friends and family. The demand was there, and the popups soon followed. “Any time I was doing something with food, it just made sense,” Coulter says. “Things would just come. It was something I had never experienced before. As soon as I started shifting into something I was really interested in, it was a whole new world.” Her food philosophy is centered in curiosity, served with a side of mischief. Coulters’ palate underwent a considerable evolution through her time abroad, cemeting a fearlessness in her sense of taste
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“Any time I was doing something with food, it just made sense. Things would just come. It was something I had never experienced before.”
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