There is something genuinely magical about watching someone find their true passion and turn it into pure joy for everyone around them. On the latest episode of the Pizza Story podcast, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Chef Jenny Messing, the brilliant mind behind The Little JEM Kitchen.
Based in San Clemente, California, Jenny has built an unforgettable catering and pop-up business centered around vibrant, live-fire dining and handcrafted California-style sourdough pizza. If you have ever scrolled through her page, you already know that her food is breathtakingly gorgeous, colorful, and deeply authentic.
Growing up in Southern California among a huge family of siblings and step-siblings, food was always at the center of Jenny’s world. Her dad and grandmother were avid home cooks, and budget friendly pizza nights were a regular household staple.
Before she stepped into the professional culinary world full time, Jenny spent years in the action sports industry, working in sales and women’s marketing for Oakley. But her passion for cooking and entertaining never faded. She began hosting intimate backyard supper clubs, which naturally blossomed into catering requests from supportive friends. Eventually, she took a leap of faith, left the corporate world behind, and never looked back.
The Pandemic Pivot and Perfecting Sourdough Crust
When the pandemic forced kitchen shutdowns, Jenny adapted immediately. Having spent years making bread, she began crafting sourdough pizza dough kits. These were complete with homemade sauces and cheeses and she’d wake up at three in the morning to mix, pack, and hand-deliver them across her community. For local families stuck at home, those kits provided comfort, connection, and a sense of normalcy.
Backyard Friday night pizza parties with her husband had always been a tradition, but her craft reached an entirely new level when she received a Gozney Dome oven. Moving away from modified outdoor grills to high-heat portable ovens allowed Jenny to launch mobile pizza catering. Today, pizza pop-ups make up seventy-five percent of The Little JEM Kitchen’s events, taking her from seaside backyards to remote, off-grid kitchens set up in the middle of the desert.
Bright Flavors, Local Farms, and Live Fire
What sets Jenny’s pies apart is her dedication to scratch-made quality and hyper-seasonal California produce. Sourcing directly from nearby organic farms like The Ecology Center, her menu constantly evolves based on what is fresh, colorful, and in peak season.
While her seasonal offerings shift constantly, Jenny has perfected standout signature staples that keep clients coming back. Her most requested creation is a Carolina Gold barbecue chicken pizza topped with a tangy, mustard-based yellow barbecue sauce, fontina cheese, smoked chicken, red onions, bacon bits, and fresh cilantro. Another fan favorite is her pesto and Spanish chorizo pie, combining bright herbal pesto, cured chorizo, rich fontina, and a sweet, spicy finish of hot honey.
As someone who comes from a family with a sixty-five-year-old pizzeria and a deep love for Italy, I adore seeing pizzaiolos treat dough with reverence while introducing unique regional twists.
Staying Small, Passionate, and Connected
Despite receiving offers from outside investors looking to scale her brand, Jenny remains dedicated to keeping The Little Jem Kitchen intimate and hands-on. For her, the fulfillment of culinary work comes from personally mixing the dough, standing in front of the blazing ovens, and seeing the smiles on her guests’ faces as they take their first bite.
Much like the beloved family-run trattorias across Italy, Jenny embraces the grind because it allows her to preserve genuine soul in every dish. Pizza remains one of the few humble, nostalgic foods that unites people across every walk of life, and Jenny captures that warmth perfectly.
Be sure to follow Jenny’s culinary journey on Instagram at @thelittlejemkitchen, and tune in to the full episode of Pizza Story to hear our complete conversation about dough fermentation, live-fire cooking, and finding purpose through food.
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