About Jess

Hi there, I’m Jess – the founder and recipe developer behind Plays Well With Butter! 

I spent my college years obsessing over flavor while working at fine dining restaurants, but then corporate life nearly sucked all the fun out of my love for food. 

After a 12-hour day commuting downtown and working a desk job, I’d return home in the dark, exhausted and hungry, and all of a sudden, dinner felt like a chore I had to do – not the fun, curious exploration I craved. I simply had to find a way to preserve my love of cooking that fit real life.

My love of food grew in restaurants, but the real story actually goes back even farther to my mom’s kitchen in rural Wisconsin and summers at my Grandpa’s house on O’ahu. 

My mom has always been my biggest inspiration in the kitchen. She was born and raised in Honolulu, but moved to Wisconsin after marrying my dad. In the Midwest, she had to learn some savvy kitchen skills to recreate her favorite recipes (without any Asian grocery store!). Her cooking always packed the most flavor with the fewest low-fuss ingredients.

When we traveled back to Hawaii, we were always welcomed with food. As long as I can remember, my family has shown their love through cooking – whether it was poolside grilled kalbi or handmade spam musubi. Many of these family recipes can be found in my self-published cookbook, A Taste of Hawaiʻi at Home.

When you combine this generous spirit of aloha with being raised in the hospitable, comfort-food culture of the Midwest, it makes sense that I grew up with a deep love for making sure everyone around me feels welcome and well-fed. 🥰

That’s why, back in my days working a busy corporate schedule, I knew I would never be happy resigning myself to a lifetime of rushed, mediocre weeknight dinners. So I stopped relying on the basic recipes I found on Pinterest and decided to create my own.

That’s how Plays Well With Butter began! I’ve been obsessively testing and sharing recipes since 2016, and am proud to say I’ve cracked the code on balancing fast + fabulous. ✨

Learn more about Plays Well With Butter here. 

A Little More About Me…

Most days, you’ll find me in my cozy South Minneapolis home with my husband Chris (we’re teenage sweethearts who took a decade of detours to figure it out – very Freddie Prinze Jr. movie, puka shell necklaces and all), our 3 dogs – PBR (forever my big guy), Bodie (my rascal bear), and Lilikoi (our newest addition) – and my freezer stash of emotional support parmesan rinds (you never know when you’ll crave a pot of soup, ok?!).

When I’m not recipe testing, I’m probably reading an unhinged romance novel on the porch and yapping about it on Instagram Stories (sorry, Mom 😅), tuning in for the newest episode Grey’s Anatomy after 20 years (yes, really), or counting down to Christmas like Buddy the Elf.

A Few Other Obsessions…

• Living my best 73-year-old life at 37: Sunday crosswords, jigsaw puzzles, and a very unfortunate taste for very expensive champagne.
• Trying (key word: trying) to arrange flowers. My house always feels better with fresh blooms…even if they look like a toddler put them together.
• Losing my mind at the farmers market and coming home with a truly unreasonable amount of seasonal pretties. (See: that one time I bought 12 lbs of honeynut squash. 🫠)
• Chasing down the best fancy pastries and coffee Minneapolis has to offer (respectively: pistachio roll at Dahlia; tiramisu iced latte at Caphin – easy on the milk, heavy on the ice).
• Spending summer weekends at the lake cabin doing…absolutely nothing. ✨

Follow me on Instagram to see more glimpses of everyday life in the Plays Well With Butter house, and find all my current favorite things on my Amazon Storefront.