We were lucky to catch up with Cornelius Lathan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cornelius, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

As a creator I’ve struggled trying to find myself in corporate America. The thought of trying to fit in and live a normal life and work a 9 to 5 often gave me anxiety. As a young kid I knew from the start that I would one day create something special and work for myself I just didn’t know how I was going to do it. My mission now is to be a mentor and help find that young person who is in the same place I was once in and help them find their way out using their own creative avenues.

Cornelius, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

So I’m Cornelius Lathan and I’m a Personal Chef, Caterer, & YouTuber. I took a culinary certification course back in 2013 and one I finished I was pretty sure that I was going to make culinary arts my career. As a personal Chef I’m booked by clients from all over to come to their homes and give them a restaurant experience in the comfort of their homes serving the meal course by course style to make the experience that much more elaborate. As a caterer I’m able to customize a menu based upon clients requests and needs and show my broad range of experience and knowledge when it comes to cooking and entertaining a large group of individuals. Lastly, my cooking show on YouTube gives me the ability to be in every place at once. With YouTube platform being so huge I’m able to reach thousands at once and show them that if you work hard and dedicate yourself to the art of cooking/content creation you can make a great living cooking for the masses online and never have to step foot into a restaurant.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

When my career began I lost my uncle who was the reason I even decided to cook in the beginning. It was a huge shock and losing him made me realize how much life i was losing out on working in a restaurant so I decided to leave and create my own lane so I can see my family, create my own schedule, and actually began to enjoy life.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Using Social Media helped me not only build a pretty big reputation but I has allowed me to create a huge clientele base that almost support me a cult following. It has been such an incredible journey using web based apps I’ve been using for years just wasting time now to see those same apps help me grow my business… Sometimes I still can’t believe how much I’ve grown by simply using social media.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram.com/kinglathan
• Facebook: Facebook.com/kinglathan
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@CorneliusBistro

Image Credits
Antonio Sanderfer, Richard Smith, Cornelius Lathan