Elana Karp

After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu Paris, Elana Karp chose a unique path. Instead of going to work for a high-profile chef in the $600 billion restaurant industry, she helped launch a startup with a bold social mission: to change the way America eats. As the VP of Culinary at Plated, Elana oversees the entire menu creation process, crafting new seasonal recipes each week. Working with local farmers and fishermen to address the broken food system, Elana is helping to bring healthy, high-quality meals into dining rooms across the country.

With a little (read: a lot) of help from Elana, Plated delivers fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and gourmet recipes directly to your door so that you can create a healthy, quick, and delicious dinner without the hassles of meal planning and grocery shopping. Elana’s passion for cooking lies in reconnecting people to their food and the experience of cooking. Thanks to Elana, home cooks across the country are able to discover new ingredients and recipes that they’ve never tried before or may not have had access to.

Elana, who graduated from Cornell in 2008, went on to work for Teach for America, working with second graders in Harlem. Before joining Plated, Elana started a small business teaching children and families how to cook, while simultaneously running an after-school cooking and nutrition program for elementary schools throughout New York City. Now, in her spare time, Elana and her Plated culinary team volunteer with Wellness in the Schools, a program that brings chefs to public school cafeterias to promote healthy eating and food education.

Plated has allowed Elana to continue teaching and empowering home cooks on a nationwide scale, helping people eat better and live better, one plate at a time.