MEET THE CHEFS

Jimmy Dean^® Chef Jill Houk is a food connoisseur. However, one thing she loves more than cooking is sharing her passion for food with others through regular appearances on television stations throughout the country, including WMAQ-TV (NBC, Chicago), WJBK-TV (FOX, Detroit) and KATU-TV (ABC, Portland).

Chef Houk's savvy skills in the kitchen stem from the years spent as a child developing creative uses for flavors and preparing meals for her family. Although Chef Houk pursued a career in a different field, her heart couldn't resist the call of the kitchen, where she returned to realize her dreams of being a chef.

Today, in addition to her position at Jimmy Dean, Chef Houk is a co-founder of Chef on Call Chicago, a private chef service where she applies her food knowledge and know-how to prepare and serve decadent meals to dinner parties and small gatherings. Chef Houk also spends time teaching basic cooking skills to people transitioning out of homelessness at a community shelter in her hometown of Chicago.

Chef Houk graduated at the top of her class in the accelerated culinary arts program at Kendall College in Chicago. She also holds bachelor of arts from Northwestern University.