Behind the Mission: Chef Dirty

Meet Chef Diana “Dirty” Cornell, from the East Coast! After being diagnosed with MS at age 25, this graduate from the National Gourmet Institute, and owner of a pie company called This Pie is Nuts found that her past roads led her to First Descents. Chef Dirty has been on our Core Programs since 2021, cooking delicious and nutritious meals for our participants. We are so lucky to have her on our team!

Get to know Chef Dirty a bit more through this Q&A:

What is your favorite outdoor activity and why?

I have always considered outdoor activities as “something I do.” FD has opened the door for me to so much more than that. Like the appreciation of just being still. It’s the opposite of what my inner tempo has been my whole life. My favorite outdoor activity has now become the non-activity of the outdoors. Sleeping under the stars for the first time will do that to you.

Favorite part about your job:

I have a hard time calling First Descents a job, because it never feels like one. I make meals in the kitchen with some of my favorite people. And then I get to sit down and have dinner with more cool people. The friendships we make during the week feel like they have been nurtured for a lifetime.

Favorite Core Program memory:

There are so many. It is all my favorite memory, wrapped into one memory. Some moments are big in volume and full of laughter. Some are just five-second conversations I have with someone that will stay with me forever. The beautiful thing about First Descents is the lack of distractions. It allows every conversation and every moment to get your undivided attention.

Fun fact about yourself:

My favorite movie is “Spinal Tap.”

What’s one thing you can’t live without?

Outdoor adventures, the city and laughing until I’m crying with Big Mo, especially when I have no idea what I’m laughing at.

Name 3 people you’d have over for dinner (dead or alive):

My husband, my daughter, my son and Zoe (has to be 4). Because if I were sitting there with other people I would spend the whole dinner wishing they were there.

Where would your dream vacation be and why?

I kept trying to think of different places I’d like to go. And although there are so many cool places, the answer to this just keeps coming back to be pretty similar to my answer of who I’d have for dinner. My dream vacation is going to be anywhere my family is. It is even just nights when we all just happen to be home at the same time sitting in my living room, laughing and talking. I look forward to those times the most.