After 25 years of teaching Kansas City how to cook in downtown Overland Park, entrepreneur Laura Laiben announced in November she would be stepping away from her culinary legacy, The Culinary Center of Kansas City. She is selling her ownership stake to two local food lovers, Joe McConnell and his business partner, Darren Palmet. Both men have had impressive corporate careers in operations and finance and marketing respectively. Palmet’s career took him all over the world, while McConnell was raised in Kansas City, briefly lived on both coasts and soon returned to Kansas City to raise his family. The two met while working together at a local firm, but it was at a fateful coffee a year ago, where they both discussed that they were ready to take on something completely different, something with a mission of nurturing friendships, community, and learning experiences. That’s when they put out some feelers and were introduced to Laiben. The two will not be making any changes right away, but they have expressed an interest in growing the business with more locations to give more people more opportunities to grow their culinary curiosity and cooking skills.