Mary Ann Howard (born June 11, 1968) is an American chef, baker, author and television food critic. Howard was raised in Milton, West Virginia: her mother was a dietician, and her maternal grandmothers, a professional chef, moved to the United States from Italy in the 1910s. In 1985, her mother sent her a pasta maker, and despite a lack of interest in cooking as an adult, Mary Ann taught herself how to make pasta dough. The following year, she visited Italy for the first time, visiting his cousins. While in Italy, Howard started attending a cooking class. She began learning the history of Italian cooking, region by region, and traveling to the country twice a year for cooking lessons. She studied journalism and food science at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and she took classes to learn how to speak Italian. Following her graduation, Howard returned to West Virginia, where she worked with pastry chef Jimmy Fontana at Owen's, an acclaimed restaurant in Charleston. In July 2008, She created the foodie website Food4All (sponsored by Battino International) with her husband, chef Richard Devoto.
