Our team.

Jen Wu

Jen’s drive to gather different people around a table began after September 11, 2001. At St. Paul’s Chapel, directly adjoining Ground Zero, she joined a group of volunteers that catered to fire, police, rescue, and emergency medical workers, offering meals, music, therapy, first aid, rest, and community events. The grassroots volunteer relief effort grew to be an extraordinary 24/7 operation for nine months, now commemorated at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. It taught her the immense value of genuine hospitality and the healing nature of shared meals.

Jen studied Statistics & Operations Research and Marketing at NYU with an Entertainment, Media, and Technology concentration, then worked in market research. Throughout her career at a major recording label and a technology research firm, Jen frequently hosted and attended a huge variety of dinner parties in space-starved New York City and San Francisco. After an apres-ski dinner with nine friends inspired the Cookhouse concept, she interviewed event professionals and amateur hosts alike, fielded a proprietary conjoint research study and, after 18 months of searching and five failed attempts, found the right spot and built Cookhouse with the goal of addressing the many pain points of hosting parties and business dinners for 10-40 people. Jen owned and operated the physical Cookhouse from 2011-2022 with a concurrent career in innovation and futures thinking research.

Cassandra Gonzalez

Before joining Cookhouse, Cassandra worked as baker and pastry cook, on farms, and in food education in New York and Atlanta. She holds a BA in Sociology from Emory University and an MSc. in Health and Society from Wageningen University. She also works as a personal chef, cooking instructor, and nutrition coach. Her areas of research interest include medical anthropology, sustainability, food studies, labor studies, and media studies. She joined Cookhouse as an event planner and manager and is excited to be a part of Cookhouse’s next chapter! In her spare time, Cassandra loves reading, training for her next marathon, advocating for safer streets, and summarizing the latest pop culture news for her colleagues and friends.