Cooking Up a Career

Koren Draper grew up cooking, but it wasn’t until she left a job in retail to care for her mother and a new baby that she started to think about a career in the food industry. 

At the time, Draper was reading lots of cookbooks, watching the Food Network, and experimenting with ingredients. When she was ready to get back to work, she had two requirements for her new job: It had to involve food and people. 

“I didn't realize that you could build a career in food and not work at a restaurant,” she told Your Hot Job. 

Draper landed an office job at a corporate catering company near her home, outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But one day, after she helped out in the kitchen when the company was short-staffed, her boss asked her to make the switch permanent. At first, Draper was responsible for making salads. But she quickly moved to more complicated dishes. 

“My passion, once I gave it a little bit of fuel, just turned into a burning flame,” Draper says. “And it just kept going and going.” 

Draper began taking culinary classes, which she’d once thought would be impossible to do while working. She eventually moved up to general manager at the catering company, bringing in new clients while overseeing the kitchen.  

After about 15 years on the job, Draper started to consider her next career move. Then the pandemic hit. As workers stayed home, corporate catering companies struggled. Draper wondered if she should try a new career. But nothing fulfilled her like preparing food. 

Koren’s Kitchen provides fresh-cooked meals for catered events. The company also offers a private chef experience and meals for busy families.

COURTESY KOREN DRAPER

Around this time, Draper was introduced to a family in need of a private chef. It was a position she didn’t even know existed. She began planning meals, purchasing groceries, and cooking at the family’s home for the parents and their five kids.  

“I learned that there’s a lot of people who don’t know how to cook, that are too busy to cook, or they just don’t feel like cooking,” Draper says. “There’s a whole niche in the food industry of being a private chef to go cook at different clients’ houses.” Soon, her client list began to grow, with help from social media and the website she built for her new business: Koren’s Kitchen.

Draper eventually moved from clients’ homes to a small kitchen in the basement of a church. And she started creating a set menu for weekly meals, which included dishes like salmon and meatloaf. After some experimentation, she felt that focusing on family meals and catering was the right fit. 

Next, Draper decided to focus on finding a kitchen of her own to expand her business. She told friends she was looking for a new location. Spreading the word worked. Recently, she moved into her own space, where she hosts tastings and cooking classes, and cooks for family meals and catering events. 

Today, Draper manages a team of eight, and although she’s moved into more of a leadership role at her company and spends less time cooking, her work is still about people and food, just as she always wanted it to be. “I find that doors will open for you,” she says, “if you’re bold enough to knock on them.”