DEVOURED BY PIE
JHY COULTER, SUPERSTAR PIZZAIOLA.
Jhy Coulter sippin’ on some natural white wine.
@devouredpopup, January 16th, 2012, by Jhy Coulter: I started Devoured in 2016/17 as a design project for a class. It was a magazine concept at the time. After holding onto my work, I wanted it to evolve beyond the spreads. I had worked in a pizzeria throughout college & loved tossing: little did I know it would come full circle. My Bae (other half of Devoured) & I had traveled back & forth from Spain for about 3 yrs & my ass was inspired to change my career once I was stateside. I went from a graphic design career to wanting to completely immerse myself into the chef life. I had worked in various restaurants since the age of 15 & was starting to feel like design was a hobby. Working with food was much more for me, I felt natural & free. I also wanted to create something hypeAF. After switching up my path, the universe started throwing shit at me, lol the universe is wild.
Met @bambambaklava [Action Bronson] in March ‘19 the show was wild af, I won a pizza oven from @mattymatheson in August of ‘19 & won a virtual cookoff on @munchies [Food by Vice] with @farideh [Farideh Sadeghin] in ‘20. I also worked with some of the best chefs in KC at Webster House & ultimately used these opportunities to create my vision. Anyway, I wanted to share this story because not a lot of ppl know where this concept came from, so here it is LITTLE BUDDY. All of these experiences & opportunities have brought together Devoured Pop Up. Me and Brit (Bae) love to create cool vibes & good snackums so we’ll continue to grow this thing organically w/lots of 🖤 🍕 THANKS FOR ATTENDING MY TED TALK. THAT IS ALL. HELLA GRATEFUL.
[Editor’s note: Jhy, featured in Kitchen Table #6: The Pizza Issue, also went on to compete in and win the Hulu pizza competition, Best in Dough; appeared in conversation with Stephanie Swane from Modernist Cuisine, and on the What’s Good Dough and Smart Pizza Marketing podcasts ; was a two-time winner for KC’s Best Food Pop-Up; and attended Roux Portland’s women-focused pizza event Sauced!]
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BREAKFAST FOR DINNER
BRETT (KTM): Jhy, where did you grow up, what was family life like, and how did food play a role?
JC: I grew up in Olathe, Kansas. I was raised by my mother. She was a single mom and when it came to food in my life I really loved everything. I watched Food Network every day and I wasn’t really picky, I was a chubby kid (still am). My mom would always make things like baked spaghetti, lasagna, fried fish & spaghetti, and breakfast-for-dinner. I loved what my mom cooked and I still do. Some things I didn’t appreciate at the time like when she would make ham and beans or she would eat sardines on toast, but now I appreciate it.
It was a lot of comfort food but when she didn't have time to cook and she had to work then I was kind of on my own to figure out things in the kitchen. So I would put any and everything in a tortilla. Leftovers and shredded cheese, whatever. A lot of frozen pizza, frozen burritos, and pizza rolls. Sometimes I would go to my grandmother's house after school and she loved to fry everything (chicken, smothered pork chops, fish) so I would eat over there while I waited for my mom to get off.
KTM: How many backyard pizzas do you think you made before you did your first official pop-up in April 2021? Wow, your four-year anniversary is the same month that this issue of Kitchen Table is coming out!
JC: I'm not really sure how many pizzas I made in my backyard but I feel like it was definitely a lot because I remember having pictures of stacks of boxes that me and my partner folded up and I had a lot of pre-orders so I would honestly say a lot of damn pizza.
KTM: Did you run the Devoured insta feed entirely on your own early on? You hit the ground running from the first post, a how-to manifesto for aspiring small businesses. The Black chef’s kiss x 5 icon is so so good. Brava. Punchy and consistent hashtags. It reads like an incantation to manifest a vision. Do you still run it?
JC: So I actually have been running Devoured’s Instagram the whole time. Even in the beginning it was me and lol now it's still me. I’m even responsible for the memes in the story. I have had different photographers or videographers on a few posts, but yes, it me!.
KTM: No doubt there’ve been challenges bringing Devoured to life, and almost certainly prejudice and bigotry along the way. You’ve also accomplished some truly wonderful milestones in an astonishingly short amount of time, and you’re very vocal with your gratitude to friends and family. Describe what it means to you, as a Queer Black woman, to have achieved the success you’ve experienced to date?
JC: It feels like I'm right where I'm supposed to be, you know? There have definitely been some challenges along the way—sheesh the whole journey—however, I feel like my mom raised me to be confident and positive and to really be who you are. It also means a lot to me to do what I'm set out to do, like I want to make my people proud. I want to take care of my mom, make sure she’s living better than she ever has; she deserves it.
My partner has supported me in so many different ways throughout my journey, ten years. I want to take care of her like she's taken care of me and to take care of my mom like she's taken care of me. More than anything, I want everyone around me to thrive. It’s important to me to always remain grateful and to always be true to myself.
KTM: Did you ever finish any actual layouts for your college project foodie mag? Because, I mean, that’s what I do. I have to ask, right?
JC: So I did finish a few of the layouts for my foodie magazine project. It featured a few made-up stories where I interviewed a few famous chefs and/or went to restaurants in different places around the world, but it was really just a mock-up. It was just for visual effect so I actually don't even know if anything that was written in the layout was real text, haha I can't remember for sure..
Shrimp & lemon pie, with white sauce and torn basil.
TASTY BEVERAGE
KTM: Pizza almost demands pairing with a tasty beverage. What are your go-to bevvies when noshing on ’za?
JC: When I eat pizza I really like pairing it with either lighter beers like a nice lager or a Belgian-style beer, a saison but a nice quality beer, not like watery cheap stuff. I also really like drinking herbal types of drinks like an Amaro or Fernet, things like that. A Negroni or like an Aperol Spritz is always nice. Just like really light drinks that have a good bitterness, I love bitter drinks and I think that it always complements good pizza.
KTM: I listened to you on the What's Good Dough podcast, and loved to hear how much farmers markets helped you grow the biz. Can you elaborate a little on this experience? Are you still doing any markets? Shout out to the market that helped you out?
JC: My experience with the Overland Park Farmers Market has been great. At the beginning I struggled with adjusting to the rigorous rules and regulations of being a part of the market; however. I really learned and grew after the first season. I appreciate the quality and standards that they have at the market. It really pushed me to understand why they have the standards they have.
With my experience there's been so much love, such a big community that I haven't really been able to find elsewhere. There's always your regulars that come by and people that are local to the market that are popping over from their house, maybe they live a few blocks away, but you always see them. It's really been a great way for me to connect with people and food and so I think that I will always want to continue to be around the farmers markets; whether that's buying goods from them.
Right now we are starting our third season at the Overland Park Farmers Market and that'll start in late spring. I would love to continue and if not then continue to keep those connections and support the other vendors that work so hard season after season.
KTM: As a designer, how conscientiously did your brand come together? (Sorry to use the B-word.) I learned your story by way of your insta feed, reading it from beginning to end, and it’s a beautiful thing. It feels 100% authentic, as if you didn't have to overthink anything. Were you intentional about the visuals and small details, or did it just sort of come second nature to you?
JC: I think as a designer I’ve been able to use my design eye with my socials and the brand (the B-word). I’ve always had a vision and I continue to put those elements together to see the vision through. I had an idea of what I wanted Devoured to become so I think that that's always been in the back of my mind while I create. So I guess I could say that it's second nature in some ways but also the small details that I try to put together cohesively.
KTM: Your wasteland pizza monster logo is awesome and demented. (I want that enamel pin!) What was the thinking behind this creation? Who is “Peter Fam Bam of Wasteland?” Did they come up with the design cold, or did you provide art direction?
JC: We'll definitely get you a pin sent over!! Peter is actually a clothing designer out of Kansas City. He and his wife own a company called Wasteland Society. He does a lot of sketching for his own brand and I can’t draw to save my life. So one day we were just joking about doing a pizza monster that would be a part of the Devoured logo. I asked him, like forreal I wasn’t kidding, could you draw me one? I was thinking of a pizza monster like muscles, just kind of looks crazy and bugged out. So then he sent me over his rendition of this pizza monster I was thinking of. I was cracking up about it and I was like this is absolutely perfect, but it was funny because one of the arms was super buff and I was like dude can you please make the arms chill, the monster is buffed out.
I asked how much money he wanted for it and he was like I don’t know, either $15 or $30, can’t remember which he said, it was stupid low. I was like, are you sure? You’re crazy! He was like yes, you’re the Fam. So he allowed me to use it in my pizza logo. He's a good friend of mine and I thought it was super cool and so we just have been using it ever since.
At the helm, Jhy Coulter working her magic.
INSPIRED BY FOOD
KTM: How do your recipes come together? Is there lots of testing? (Can I invite myself?) Are you watching other pizzaioli for inspiration? Did you consider other styles besides Neapolitan? Or is this style ideally suited to the pizza ovens you use?
JC: So typically my recipes come to me either day-of or I'll look around the store or look around the market and snag ingredients. I try to pair things together in that way or I'll experiment with different flavors but most of the time there's not any testing really at all. Sometimes there's never testing and I just kind of wing it, probably not the smartest approach. I get inspired by food in general. I love watching food shows and food videos, but I also watch and look at design, art (Pinterest is my shit), fashion, music videos. Most times I really just fly off the cuff.
I would like to make some other styles other than Neo-Neapolitan. I think that I could in the ovens that I use with other styles but I just haven't had any time to really experiment with my dough. When it comes to recipes and flavor profiles I could do that on the fly but when it comes to dough recipes I am hesitant to make sudden changes and I would have to test out those a lot more, I just haven't given it the time or thought, but I know I will.
KTM: What is “cloud crust” pizza? A “Snackum?”
JC: Cloud crust is the name that was basically given to Devoured’s texture of the pizza dough. When people would eat it, a lot of them would describe it as like a puffy, airy nice and chewy like “cloud” and so it stuck. As for a “Snackum” it’s just a made up word from Jhy lala land, referring to a snack or a tapa/ small plate item. It's something cuter to snack on. I really just like using the word.
(duh)
TURN OF EVENTS
KTM: Thought experiment. Covid changed so many things; can you imagine where you might be right now if the pandemic never happened?
JC: I think about this all the time. I really don't know what I would be doing or where I would be. I think that I would definitely still be in the food realm and traveling a lot, but I yeah it's kind of a weird thing to realize because Devoured wouldn't be the same without the pandemic happening, so it's a real interesting turn of events with my life path.
KTM: Your desire to learn and evolve as a business and as a human is pure inspiration. From making cheese to harvesting tomatoes, you’re discovering pizza down to its base elements. I see lots of shout-outs to producers, BBQ sauce, meat purveyors, grain millers, tomato sauce producers, etc. How do you source ingredients? Is there still a process of exploration for finding local and/or high quality product, or have you settled in with some core people and products?
JC: I think that I have learned to love using local ingredients and meeting the people behind the products. It's really inspiring to me because I have goals to one day create my own product of some sort. So I always want to have that genuine love for the food and for where it comes from. I love to explore using different ingredients, especially if I'm in a place that I've never been before; I like to eat the local food and try things that aren't necessarily familiar to me.
I think that that exploration really makes sense for why I choose to work with the products I do. I do have some core people that I like to buy certain things from and once I'm in my shop I will definitely continue those relationships. It's important for the consistency of the food and I think that knowing where your food comes from makes you feel better about it.
KTM: Did you ever rid yourself of the “AutoZone” earworm jingle, and come up with a good pizza slogan? Haha!
JC: lol of course not, I love that slogan. I’ll get back to you with a pizza one…
KTM: I love the Insta post from October 13, 2020 so so so much. It’s like a metaphor for Devoured itself.
“Focused on the pies, but focused on the game. #chiefs”
Are you a football fan? Or just a Chiefs fan?
JC: I’m a sports fan, I love the Chiefs. I admire the energy that athletes display. I’ll always be a hooper at heart.
Brit Estes, Jhy’s partner in life and business.
GROWING PAINS
KTM: What are the growing pains with Orange by Devoured? Is it open? Did you bring any of your tenured Dev-Squad with you? (I’m very curious to see how the tapas-format vibes come across in KC. Do you have a menu?)
JC: Transitioning from a pop-up to a shop is weird and we haven’t even opened yet. There were things about pop-ups that I really enjoyed and I'll always miss some of those times, however I've really been ready to have a spot where I can just consistently be. Pop-ups are always going to be hard on you because you're constantly moving from place to place.
I'm pretty adaptable, however it will definitely be nice to be in the shop. I think that some of the growing pains have really been the extra expenses that I've had to incur with the business to supplement this growth and I'm having to get used to a lot of paperwork… a lot of extra, extra, paperwork all the time.
Whether it’s filing, submitting, applying for things, there's just a lot that goes into a restaurant. I think going into a pop-up is so much easier than opening up a physical location. There’s pros and cons for both. I do have most of my original team from the pop-ups; we actually really never had that big of a team to begin with, haha, but the team will grow as we move into the shop. I think at this point in time with the growth of Kansas City the people are hungry for new concepts. They already love small plates at other spots so I’m hoping we will be well-received. We also test items at our pop-ups as we build a menu. Menu is still in the works.
KTM: What is the Devoured Pizza Club? Is that still a thing?
JC: Devoured Pizza Club is still a thing, we will expand on this concept soon and will be able to elaborate on what it is :).
KTM: What does the idea of community mean to you?
JC: Community means supporting each other and showing everyone love. I think that it's been an important piece of Devoured since day one. It’s how we have been able to succeed in our community. If it wasn't for the people then we would still be in the backyard, alone. Even my friends and family are the community. Real shit, if my friends and family never came and got a pizza in the beginning we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, haha. I am super grateful for that.
It's super super special to be a part of a community. I know that I want to continue to give back when I'm able to. There’s so many special things that have come out of us being a part of different events and meeting different people. You really feel the love, as cheesy as that sounds. Kansas City is unique in that way: they ride for local.