Jenna Helwig Does a Million Fun Jobs at Once

Work is about more time management for food writer and recipe developer Jenna Helwig. Although she must be really good at that. For Jenna, work is about how to do all the things she loves, doing them all at once.

Jenna’s career revolves around writing and cooking. With her degree from the Institute of Culinary Education, and a Bachelor of Arts in Radio and Television, Jenna was well-positioned early on to become the food editor of Parents magazine and food director at Health magazine. Now she is Real Simple’s food director. But not full-time. She needs to make room for all the rest of the work projects she loves.

Early in her career, she authored five cookbooks (!), including Bare Minimum Dinners and the bestselling, newly updated Baby-Led Feeding, based on her own parenting experience. Her 2015 to 2023 food blog helped her promote her cookbooks.

Now she’s focused on food and writing, while working on a second novel. During our interview, we discuss all the pleasurable work in her pipeline, and how she makes time and space for what she loves.

Q. You’ve had a few different editorial jobs at what has become People Inc., correct?

A. I work four days a week. When I started at Meredith Corporation (acquired by People in 2025. DJ), my job with Parents was three days per week. I had a seven-year-old and I started writing cookbooks. When I added Health magazine, they agreed to four days per week. When I started at Real Simple magazine (published by People, Inc. DJ) in 2019, I said, ‘Let’s just see if I can do four.’

It’s a dream job! I feel like there are fewer and fewer print editor jobs in the world. It’s been a real career highlight.

Q. What do you do at Real Simple?

A. I’m responsible for all our print food coverage. I develop and edit recipes, write technique stories, and dream up five digital stories per month. Such as I went to Expo West and wrote about food trends. Sometimes I write stories with a nutrition angle.

I also took over our book coverage, which is mostly fiction. I work with a writer to highlight five buzzy books, and then I turn that into a story for the website. I also just wrote a story about my favorite audiobooks.

Q. Did reviewing fiction influence on you writing a novel?

A. I wrote the novel in 2022. It took two years to write and a year to sell. So Actually, writing the novel influenced my desire to do more book coverage.

Writing a novel was not something I planned. It felt like a little bit of a lark, to see if I could do it. So it’s gratifying to see it coming out into the world.

Q. How did you get the writing done?

A. I got up at 6 a.m. and I wrote for an hour before I had to send the kid off to school or get to work. I’d fill in some more time on weekends and evenings.

Q. Do you have any tips about recipe development, based on your magazine work?

A. We work with a lot of in-house recipe developers. I still do some when I have the time. For Real Simple, I try to keep in mind what the executive editor once told me, that most food editors develop recipes for other food editors, instead of for their audience. They want them to be impressive. So I think about that, and I always try to stay laser-focused on the audience.

Q. You also have a personal chef business, Rosaberry.

A. When I graduated from culinary school, I knew I didn’t want to work in a restaurant for $10 per hour, but I wanted to be in food. I taught in-home culinary classes in Manhattan to wealthy women and their nannies. I did personal chef jobs until I got the job at Parents. I was developing recipes for Parents as a freelancer when I got the job there.

Then I brought on three other chefs and matched them with my clients. It’s a word-of-mouth business. For now it mostly putters along in the background. I’m like a chef agent — that’s how I think of myself.

Q. It’s interesting that you didn’t quit, that you figured it out.