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While some students venture to the Village or Late Nite on the weekend, junior entrepreneurship major Lauren Shirey is at home baking. She's had practice in cooking for crowds since she was little.
Shirey has taken her love and skill with cooking to open a catering business out of her barn, which houses a certified kitchen. Coming from a "family of eaters," Shirey has always felt comfortable in the kitchen. She recalls seeing the important women in her life cook.
"My mom cooks and cans and has her own garden," Shirey said. "My grandma on my mom's side is a fantastic cook. My grandma on my dad's side is a fantastic cook. That is a way that [cooking] has just always been expressed to me. It was kind of natural."
Helping her grandmother and mother in the kitchen helped Shirey develop a confidence for cooking for crowds. Her grandmother had a café for her church's congregation on Sundays after service. Shirey helped serve in that setting as well as at home.
"When I was younger, each of us kids had a night of the week, so we had to fix supper and we had to plan the menu so from an early age," Shirey said.
Her business took off by word of mouth. She served at a backyard wedding and built from there. Shirey hears about other possible events she can cater at by word of mouth as well.
Oftentimes people don't know how capable she is at her business.
"Sometimes I think it's kind of funny because people are off-handedly telling you stuff and internally I'll be getting really excited because I think, ‘Oh I might get to do this,'" Shirey said.
Shirey does all of her baking and cooking in her barn. She has help from a few family members, who staff her events, but tries not to take advantage of their help. Shirey likes to make most things from scratch and has a hard time letting people help with the preparation.
"Right now I'm doing all the preparation myself," Shirey said. "Realistically I know that when I expand I'll have to have other people doing some of the preparation, which will be hard because I want it done just so."
Ball State has been a good place for her to combine her love of cooking with the business side of catering in the entrepreneurship program. She chose not to move far from home because she was still networking and building her customer base.
Although this is not something she's paying her way through school with, it is a profitable business. She tries to schedule about 12 events per year so she can keep up with school. Her father has been the inspiration for her business, but her whole family is supportive.
"[Dad] just gets really excited," Shirey said. "I can spend all night talking to him and he'll have this idea and that idea and so sometimes when I go home ... I have to tone it down and say no. I need to stay focused and I need to finish school. I have to study for my exams."
The food prepared for the events comes mostly from homegrown vegetables and made-from-scratch pie crusts and bread. Since her family has a garden, she is able to feed up to 150 people with homegrown produce.
After hearing about the event, there is a process that leads up to the preparation and catering. The actual event doesn't take much time for Shirey, but the preparation can take a couple of days.
When the event gets set, she has taste testing with a few people in charge of the event. They pick out what they want based on her stock menu. They continue to keep in contact so that Shirey can be updated if there are changes to the number of guests or any dietary concerns. All of this leads up to the preparation and actual event.
"When it comes to the preparation, I'll have my stock recipes and write up a grocery list and basically, from start to finish, I might have one or two days of preparation," she said. "Anything I can do a day or two ahead I will. At the event we usually just set up, serve and then clean up and we're good."
Being close to home and in the entrepreneurship program is helping Shirey achieve her ultimate dream of launching a custom catering company that tailors menus for its clients. She has also thought about a bed and breakfast. Since cooking is one of her passions, she was not going to go four years of school without doing it.
"It's kind of weird that more students aren't already doing what they want to do," Shirey said. "If you're so passionate about this and it's going to be your job and career, then how can you stand not doing it for four years? I definitely feel really blessed that I'm doing something that I can be doing right now."
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