About

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Jess grew up learning the ins and outs of restaurants at her father’s Italian restaurant  outside of New Haven, CT. By age six, she was bussing tables, throwing pizza dough and ringing up customers (it was the 90s). After high school, she moved to Vermont where she did a short stint at New England Culinary Institute, but called it quits when the chef instructor pulled out a rolling pin to teach the class how to make pizza. She then went to work under a chef she truly admired at Blue Moon Cafe, a fine dining restaurant in downtown Stowe, VT. 

 

After moving back to CT and cooking at various restaurants on the shore including Madison Beach Hotel, she packed up and moved to Glendive, MT for a year of service with AmeriCorps. There, Jess coordinated a farm-to-table program, working with local farmers and schools to educate children on all things food and where it all comes from. She taught evening culinary nutrition classes and spent mornings on the farm growing and harvesting barley, wheat, corn, and any vegetable that would grow. After receiving a state grant, she opened what would be the first food co-op in that region of eastern Montana. That co-op is still running today. 

 

From Montana, Jess moved to NYC, where she went on to cook at the Michelin star restaurants Oceana, ABC Kitchen and Spotted Pig. 

 

After leaving the culinary industry in 2014, Jess started a life in the corporate sales world, starting with Anheuser-Busch, and quickly moved up to managing the northeast. She then continued working as a regional sales manager for various large corporations until September of 2025, when she hung up the corporate sales hat and went back to what she truly loves: food. But in a simpler way — hot dogs. 

 

Uncle Jessie’s Hot Dogs is a product of two of the most important things to Jess: food and community. It is an opportunity to give back and support neighbors and friends while also remembering to enjoy the simplicity of life.