Winning a free Gozney Roccbox oven changed Jhy Coulter’s life. Now the pizzaiola has taken another major step, opening Orange By: Devoured, in Kansas City.
Coulter won Chef Matty Matheson’s Gozney oven giveaway in 2019 and used the oven to make pizzas in her back yard. Pop-ups around Kansas City followed, with Coulter adopting the brand name Devoured. She won another, much more prestigious contest—this one on Hulu’s Best in Dough series in 2022—with a pizza that featured crumbled bacon, jalapeño bacon jam, black garlic ricotta, pecorino, Parmesan and basil. That one came with a check for $10,000. Since then, she has been busy raising money and building out her first brick-and-mortar pizzeria in midtown Kansas City.
Coulter describes her pizza style as neo-Neapolitan. Perhaps it will become better known as the “Jhy pie.” “It’s not the traditional, simple Neapolitan,” she told the Kansas City Star. “It’s more intricate, with our own takes on toppings and seasonal items. But the pies come out really crispy, with chewy dough and some leoparding. I guess that’s how I’d describe a Jhy pie.”
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Coulter has worked as an English teacher overseas, a graphic designer, a protégé of Brandon Winn, executive chef at the now-closed Webster House, and as a sous chef. When she lost the latter job during the pandemic, just a few months after being hired, she returned to Webster House as a volunteer, making meals for people in need. Meanwhile, she was developing her own signature dough recipe and inviting friends over for her pies-in-progress, which led to her popularity as a pop-up pizzaioloa around the city.
She opened Orange By: Devoured on Thursday, August 15, serving 11” whole pizzas as well as Spanish-inspired tapas. Included on the menu: the Jam Bam (white sauce, mozzarella, prosciutto, thinly sliced potatoes, blueberry ricotta and herbs) and the Herbie Birdie (white sauce, herb-roasted chicken, garlic, rosemary, feta, spinach, butternut squash puree, pecorino and Parmesan).
When Coulter entered Matheson’s giveaway contest on Instagram, she was suspicious but determined—completely unaware that it would set her on a new course in life. “I just started going HAM,” she told Kansas City Magazine in February 2022. “It was stupid, but I really wanted to win. Honestly, I thought those giveaways were a scam. I was, like, ‘This s— isn’t real, but I’m going to try anyway.”
She put the oven to more extensive use after losing her job during the pandemic. “Before that, it was just for fun, like, for Chiefs games and stuff,” she said in the Kansas City Magazine interview. “But I realized I really like using it. I started watching a bunch of pizza videos on YouTube and trying to perfect the dough. I became obsessed with the process.”
With Orange By: Devoured now open, Coulter is starting off small—the restaurant seats 22 people. But the Hulu hero likely has a bigger future ahead of her as she continues to fine-tune her recipes. “If you obsess enough about it, then you can make the pie you want,” she told Kansas City Magazine. “It takes a long time. There are still moments where I’m, like, ‘This isn’t perfect.’ I’m always making improvements. I’m always making tweaks.”
