Jennifer Maune honors her grandmother with a recipe for a Christmas classic
If you don’t recognize the name Jennifer Maune, chances are you will soon. In September, the lifestyle blogger from Little Rock became one of three finalists on Season 13 of MasterChef, Fox’s popular cooking competition hosted by Gordon Ramsay. Besides creating recipes and other inspiring content for her website, Jennifer is hard at work developing concepts for a future restaurant and forthcoming cookbook. But this busy creative is used to juggling plates, and she’s thrilled to share her passion with the world. “I love to gather people around the table,” Jennifer says. “It’s where milestones are celebrated, memories are made, and holidays are spent with loved ones. I count it as an honor to be a part of people’s celebrations when they’re making my recipes.”
Though Jennifer has pastry and culinary degrees from the School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality at the University of Arkansas Pulaski Tech and an advanced pastry certification from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Jennifer counts her grandmother as her most influential teacher. “We would cook and bake together, and I wanted to have a big family because of her,” she says, recalling Christmas celebrations with 40 or more relatives filling the house. That’s where Jennifer learned to embrace the beautiful chaos of hosting holiday get-togethers, such as cookie swaps and gingerbread-decorating parties. “Christmas is for sure my favorite holiday—the decorating, the food, the faith, and spending those precious moments with my family,” she says.
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