Kneading Conference 2026

Alexis is a cookbook author, pizza obsessive, and recovering corporate executive who lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband, daughter, and giant cookbook collection. After spending ten years in the media industry as a VP at Food Network and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she was eager to get her hands dirty in the kitchen. So, in January of 2015, she traded in her sad desk lunches for life on a 100-acre organic farm in Ireland where she attended Ballymaloe Cookery School. After returning stateside that spring, she began editing cookbooks, food styling, and baking bread at Tartine and other bakeries in her then-home of San Francisco. Having lived in Paris, London, New York (born and bred!), and San Francisco, she infuses her love of food and travel into everything she cooks and bakes. When she's not cooking in or writing about her Instant Pot® (she has authored 4 cookbooks on the subject), she is in the kitchen baking sourdough bread or at her pizza oven working on her launching skills. Her latest culinary endeavor is Croûte, artisanal sourdough pizza catering: pop-ups, private dinners, and cooking classes at her home or yours. Find out more at croute.com and @croutefarmhouse on Instagram.