Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Diana Riley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Diana, 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?

Chef Diana Riley’s mission is to serve others through her boutique cooking company and teach the fundamentals of cooking and the significance of sharing simple, nutritious, affordable and pleasing meals with family. She teaches how to cook for educational, self-care and entertainment purposes. Besides operating a business, she is a Certified ProStart Educator. Diana is a member of the American Culinary Federation and 100 Black Women of Metropolitan Baton Rouge. She is also an avid reader, writer and loves spending time outdoors with her kids, gardening and bike riding.
Over the years, I have spent in the culinary industry, learning, working, teaching, and all other experiences the profession has afforded me. It is especially challenging as a woman in this very tough and evolving culinary industry.
I grew up in a family of great cooks, much like most of you. Our mama and aunties know how to throw down in the kitchen. Quite naturally, that’s where I learned. We always had home cooked meals using fresh ingredients nd most of the time food grown for our family garden. This lifestyle gave me a sense of hope that i would carry on that legacy in my own home with family. However, being a chef is different, its being more skilled, proficient, talented and knowledgeable so all that good cooking is not in vain.
Later as I leveled up in my career and become an entrepreneur I noticed, not many chefs look liked me on tv, teaching culinary or in the history books. So I became an educator, teaching young minds the industry simultaneously helping families serve a homestyle chef prepared meal.
This journey was very challenging because I had to balance my life and align myself with my purpose. Doing so, I had to remove some aspects of my entrepreneurial endeavors to make room for what was necessary at the time. With this understanding, incorporating self care in my daily routines led the way to teach other women how cooking can be therapeutic.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Diana Riley’s interest for cooking and military service began while she was in high school. Her course electives in Food Service and JROTC fueled her passion. Later, Diana enlisted in the Louisiana Army National Guard. She attended Quartermaster School at Ft. Lee, Va. Her military occupational specialty was food service specialist. Diana graduated top 5 in her military occupational specialty class and was awarded Honor Graduated. Diana received the Army Achievement Medal during Annual Training at Fort Polk, LA for outstanding performance in her MOS as a Food Service Specialist. She served as volunteer Family Readiness Group Leader, she planned and organized several events to promote the morale and well-being of her fellow soldiers and their families. She is an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran and received an honorable discharge. After 9 years, her military career ended but not her passion. She received a Culinary Arts degree at Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. In 2011, Diana also received her certificate in entrepreneurship training from the Syracuse University Whitman School of Management VWISE. She is the owner and Executive Chef at The Kitchen Table Catering Company, LLC. Founder of Mama Chef® which is a family meal service and a movement to help bring together family, friends and food to the kitchen table. Chef Diana Riley’s mission is to serve others through her catering company and teach the fundamentals of cooking and the significance of sharing simple, nutritious, affordable and pleasing meals with family. In her best-selling cookbook, Cooking on Purpose Life Lessons Learned from the Kitchen, she shares her journey and readers can gain insight to the “chef life” and her newly released Grace at the Kitchen Table. She has also co-authored Resilient Warriors: Stories of the Perseverance of Women in the Military. Chef Diana is the host of Kitchen Table Conversations with Chef Diana Podcast.
She has been a feature author at Essence Fest, and Congressional Black Caucus Foundation for 3 years, and has also been featured in Swagher, VHM, and 225 Magazine.
Currently she is a member of American Culinary Federation, and 100 Black Women of Baton Rouge. When not doing business, or working as a ProStart Educator, she spends most of her time with her family, serving at church, or brunching with girlfriends. She is relatable as the “mama next door”.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was in a transition in my life where I was changing careers from being a full time author and entrepreneur going into full time education system. This was a very exciting time because I was getting the opportunity to share my success, lessons, and knowledge of the culinary arts industry with young minds. I was also trying to figure out how to keep doing business. I had to find out way to keep what I was building from scratch, from falling apart. Its like baking a cake, you mise en place (prepare) and mix all the ingredients, now its time to bake. Your hope and prayers are the cake comes out near perfect without falling. I was in the baking stages of my business when I transitioned into a full time career.
to keep from falling apart, I scaled back my business services and focused on my well being to handle everything that was going in my life as a wife (at the time), a mother, author, and now educator,
Taking the time for self care, delegating some tasks, and only doing what was most important to keep my business relevant and functioning was my priority.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

During the onset of the pandemic, I had just signed a lease for a new location 2 months prior. The building was not ready to start doing business, I had to hire contractors to build into a very basic commercial kitchen for licensing to get started. I had no idea that I could do it on my own until I had no other choice. Local businesses, and schools were shut down. I had to help my kids with virtual learning all the while virtually teaching my students. I called my leaseholder and had a very scary and intimidating conversation. I had to ask for grace and find solutions to keep the lease and build my kitchen at the same time not knowing if I could get anybody to leave their home and come work on the building for me. I finally found a contractor which later I had to dismiss(another story for another time). It took me a year to open that location. During this year, I had no real business income. Building a business from scratch takes persistence, effort, determination and courage. This was the second location that I moved my business to. Currently, I am preparing to move to another location because I am pivoting again. If you don’t have the wherewithal to withstand the challenges of entrepreneurship and owning a small business, I suggest you study and learn from experienced small business owners. There is a lot to learn and most of us entrepreneurs learn from failing. In other words, “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”. Its not just cliché its truth. There have been several times in my life, I had to get out of the kitchen.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dianakitchentable.com
• Instagram: www. instagram.com/dianakitchentable
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/chefdianariley

Image Credits
Photo Credit: Meet the World Image Solutions