About Us

Jen grew up in Watertown, SD and her childhood memories are filled with gathering around the table for Sunday dinners at her grandparents house. She remembers rolling up her sleeves with her grandma and aunt and helping out with dinner and the dessert. This was a time for her family to sit down and reminisce on the week and relax as a family. Jen wants to carry that same tradition with her husband and daughter. She loves to cook classics that are pasted down from generations in her family and she also love to develop new recipes. Jen started an online cooking show called Amateur Kitchen in January of 2011 where her and her daughter Maria show others that they don’t need to be a professional chef to cook or think like one. She and Maria bake desserts on the show and shares them with the neighbors often. Jen has neighbors and friends over to her house on a regular basis and in the summertime if the grill is going everyone knows they’re welcomed. Jen is excited to show all foodies what her grandma has taught her and she couldn’t be more happy to share this experience with her husband and daughter. 

Just like Jen, Chris grew up in Watertown, SD. His childhood memories consisted of helping his father and grandfather on the farm. Eating was considered more of an inconvenience because when they sat down to eat it took away from time they could be in the fields. It wasn’t until Chris met Jen that he started to enjoy sitting down to a meal and enjoying the conversation along with the food. One of the first meals that Chris ever made for Jen was king crab legs, he loved her so much that he was willing to die for her, literally since he is deathly allergic to shell fish. He leaves most of the cooking to Jen since she loves to cook so much, but on occasion he mixes up the perfect pancakes to make for his girls on Saturday mornings. He couldn’t think of two other people he’d rather spend time in the kitchen with other than Jen and Maria.