GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Jenna Arcidiacono is a name many people in West Michigan might recognize. If that doesn't ring a bell, maybe her nickname does — Chef Jenna.
She's been featured on FOX 17 several times in the past, for her amazing food and selfless acts of kindness.
While her name and face might be familiar, her story is not.
Chef Jenna's first job was at Cook's Drive-In, slinging chili dogs and root beer floats in Caledonia. She worked there until it was time to go to college, when she took her talents to Michigan State University.
"I worked at Michigan State at a place that was all vegetarian," she told FOX 17. "They shut down shortly after and tried to pay us in hummus.”
After that, she dipped her toes in a couple other cuisine styles, before graduating from MSU and moving to San Francisco.
That's where her life got a little saucy.
“After a few years, I was working at a restaurant called Mona Lisa on the strip in North Beach, which is the Italian section," said Chef Jenna. "A handsome Italian walked by. He was just on vacation, visiting with his best friend. We made a connection pretty quickly. Before you know it, I'm living in Italy, married to him and trying to learn Italian by pointing and waving and in the kitchen with his mom, who has been my mother in law for 23 years now."
Her mother-in-law, or Nona as everyone calls her, will be 95 in August. She has 11 children, including Chef Jenna's husband.
Nona showed Chef Jenna the ropes of not only how to cook, but how to food a lot of people at once.
She and her husband, Maurizio, eventually came back to West Michigan and took what they learned from Nona to open up Amore Trattoria Italiana in Comstock Park.
"Maurizio and I call each other Amore," she said. "That was kind of our term of endearment for each other since the beginning. So now, it's our legacy as well.”
Chef Jenna's legacy will include much more than the amazing food she serves at her restaurant. Giving back to the community will be a part of her lasting identity too.
She helps other local restaurants through a social media trend she started called Tip Back Thursday, started her own non-profit called Food Hugs, spreading hope and compassion through cuisine, and has even gifted multiple cars to people in need.