Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Paholsky.
Hi Jessica, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve always been drawn to storytelling, whether through writing, photography, or video. I graduated from Penn State University with degrees in journalism and photography as well as minors in international studies and international arts. During college, I studied abroad in Mexico, Cuba, and Italy, each program a different duration.
The longest program, in Perugia, Italy, was a full semester during my sophomore year. During those four months, I traveled to each of Italy’s 20 regions. That experience really opened my eyes to how much there is to learn when you look beyond the surface of a place or culture. Later on, in order to graduate with honors, I produced a short documentary about extra virgin olive oil, a topic largely inspired by my time in Italy. In fact, the olive grove I chose to highlight in the story is not too far from where my home base was in Perugia.
After college, I worked for two years at a teen travel company, documenting through video students’ experiences around the world during the summer and fulfilling various administrative tasks during the school year. Then, in 2016, I took on video production full time at a publishing company, and that’s when I decided to challenge myself to publish a book. I knew I wanted to pursue the cookbook genre given it’s the most visual in nature, and I also wanted it to bring together my interests in food history, storytelling, and international cultures. Once Upon a Pesto was born.
What started as an idea I scribbled down on a park bench became years of recipe development, writing, cooking, and photography, alongside my full-time career in communications and marketing. After a lot of patience and persistence, Once Upon a Pesto made it to print in July 2025.
My cookbook gives readers a well-traveled collection of 40 homemade pesto recipes, each with two ways to use them. Each set of three recipes forms a chapter and is tied to a certain country or culture, allowing me to weave in stories about the foods, traditions, and culture. For me, it’s a way to bring together the things I love most while helping other people discover the world through food – no matter where they are or their skill level in cooking.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not the smoothest road out there, but it’s been worth the journey! One of the biggest challenges was building a book from the ground up while working full-time. For about two years, my weekends were filled with recipe development, cooking, food styling, photography, and writing. Once Upon a Pesto was something I created entirely on my own – and learning as I did it.
There were also unexpected bumps along the way. When the publishing company where I worked announced it was going up for sale, I moved on to another job opportunity, but I continued working toward the goal I had set for myself in 2016. Getting a book published also required a lot more than having a good idea. There were countless details to work through, people to collaborate with, and decisions to make before I could finally hold a finished copy in my hands.
I think one of the biggest lessons was learning to stay committed to the vision even when the finish line felt far away and, many times, wasn’t even possible to pinpoint in time. I couldn’t always control the schedule, but I could keep making progress. I was fortunate to have support from friends, family, and the people who helped bring the book to life, and that made a real difference.
When I look back, I’m proud that I didn’t let the size of the project discourage me. It was a long journey, but seeing the idea become something tangible that people can cook with, learn from, and share with others makes it all worthwhile.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Professionally, I work in communications and marketing, with focuses on visual and strategic storytelling. I enjoy taking information and ideas, collaborating with experts in their fields, and finding ways to make them engaging, accessible, and memorable through photography, video, design, and written content.
Once Upon a Pesto is an extension of that very approach, but it brings food and cultural exploration into the mix. The central idea of my cookbook is that pesto is a process, not one specific recipe. The word comes from the Italian verb “pestare,” meaning to crush or to grind. As soon as others know this fact, they realize pesto can be made with ingredients from all over the world, ingredients they like or want to try, or the very ingredients growing in their home garden.
What sets my cookbook apart from others on the shelf (or Amazon) is the combination of creative storytelling, visual art, research, and international lens. I care about both the details and the bigger picture. Making something appealing to the senses is important, but I also want it to leave people with something meaningful to think about or something new to try.
It’s all about perspective. From Once Upon a Pesto back to my current job, I appreciate learning daily and consider myself a lifelong student. The opportunity to learn from others of different backgrounds and ethnicities is all around us. Over the last four years, I’ve been working at a global company with colleagues on nearly every continent. I get to contribute to their projects and strategies while gaining an even greater appreciation for the vastness of our world.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Growing up and even now, I would never consider myself a book worm. But creating and telling stories through different media has been part of my life since childhood. I have memories and visual proof of this.
I still remember making my first book as a kid. I folded and stapled sheets of printer paper together, illustrated them with colored pencil drawings, and wrote a story about talking guinea pigs to share with my family. Around that same time, in elementary school, one of our assignments involved storytelling in 3D. I built out the outline of a lamb with cotton balls. Then in sixth-grade science, I again used colored pencils to illustrate the pages of a book about different underwater creatures. I let that teacher keep it, and I think she still has it in her classroom today.
So, in a way, publishing Once Upon a Pesto was a more grown-up version of something I was already doing time and time again as a kid. The format, subject matter, and scale has changed, but the impulse to create and share has never gone away!
Pricing:
- Price for book varies based on source (Amazon, B&N website, Library Tales Publishing website) and cover type (paperback vs. hard cover)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.onceuponapesto.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onceuponapesto/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/onceuponapesto
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpaholsky/
- Twitter: https://x.com/onceuponapesto
- Other: https://a.co/d/0hazCxnV
