Lauren Furey ’19 has always loved feeding people, and recently she’s been doing so virtually.
Since social distancing orders have been put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Furey – owner of Lauren Furey LLC which offers personally curated culinary experiences – joined forces with Lowcountry Local First to produce a cooking webinar that utilized products from local farmers. With more than 30 viewers, Furey feels it was a good way to collaborate with those in the community.
“I think the webinar was a perfect way to combine the farmers, Lowcountry Local First, and what I’m doing on the culinary side of things to make it entertaining for people,” says Furey.
As a culinary entrepreneur, she aims to do just that. With goals to create unique and thoughtful experiences for her guests, she says this time social distancing has given her more space to think outside of the box on ways to do this.
“Instead of focusing on booking bachelorette parties, I’ve had no other option but to pivot and notice what other people in the community are doing,” she says. “It’s been challenging, but it’s also giving me a lot of time to think about where I want to go with everything. It’s been interesting seeing restaurants offering curbside service and everyone supporting each other. It’s made me more motivated to keep on trucking.”
Furey graduated from the College with a double major in business administration and hospitality and tourism management. While still a student, she launched her company that provides private chef services and cooking classes. She knows without her time at the b-school she would not be able to think about her business the way she does now.
“The business school helped me figure out where that inner spark in me was and how to apply it to cooking,” says Furey.
Furey is currently working on new webinars and cooking lessons. In the meantime, she says she can be found on Instagram (@laurensfurey), where she is always cookin’ up new recipes.
