My name is Diane Sheya. In 2013, my husband and I became co-owners of the Salt Lake Culinary Center. About twenty years ago, my husband and I were involved in a gourmet cooking club with some friends. Every month we would get together and cook a meal,  if you were hosting you would decide the menu. We would rely on menus from Gourmet magazine back in the ‘80s, and we started to see a trend in cooking: from using dried herbs, to “hey, I’ve got parsley growing in the garden, why am I not using it?” We decided that we were going to start cooking classes in our home using fresh herbs. We’d come up with menus every month and it was really fun doing the research. That’s what drives me, finding a new ingredient, or finding a new technique, or a new cuisine I’m not familiar with. Read More

It came about for two reasons. I moved to the Rose Park neighborhood 7 years ago, was working in the community and got fed up about not having any place to get a decent cup of coffee. I was also burnt out and unhappy in my current career and I didn’t see myself being able to do it for much longer. I always thought having a coffee shop would be so much fun, but I think everyone thinks that. I wanted to open a coffee shop in the Rose Park neighborhood, and started to explore that option and quickly realized there was not a chance. I did not have the capital and no one was going to give me the money to open a brick and mortar. I thought…I never have seen a coffee truck around Salt Lake, and the food truck scene is healthy and happy. So I bought a FedEx truck and did it. Read More

I started Local Enthusiast when I was a poor college student. I knew eventually that I wanted to start a business and I knew if I was out there supporting others it would eventually come back to me when it was time for my business to blossom. I didn’t have any money and so I was like…‘well there are other ways to support people.’ I focused on showing cool things to do in Utah, architecture, local businesses and seasons…things I could afford at the time. Like Ruby Snap Cookies; my and my friends still talk about how we would splurge on three cookies and that was our thing for the week haha. Read More