Abby Hupp started cooking for her family when she was about 8 years old. She grew up in St Louis, moved away, explored the country as a traveling renaissance faire worker for a few years, became a professional cook and eventually a chef. After twelve years of hard work, she was suddenly forced to give up cooking due to permanent shoulder damage limiting her abilities and causing a lot of pain.
Writing this cookbook served as a form of therapy after the injury, helping to keep self-pity and depression at bay. Not having full use of her arm, Abby was also forced to create a new job for herself, one she could do without risking further damage. Plan B Books is the result of the need for a hyperactive, overly organized ex-chef to keep herself challenged as she begins her new career as an author and publisher.
While she may have started her cooking career in chain restaurants and as a short order cook, Abby attended the Le Cordon Bleu program at Scottsdale Culinary Institute in 2001. She graduated at the top of her class, earning the coveted Le Cordon Bleu gold medal. Since graduation she has cooked in the kitchens of 4 star establishments, worked extensively as a caterer and has also had the pleasure of being a private chef for several families and one fraternity house in her hometown of St Louis.