When the economy gets tough, people cook (in rented kitchens).
We’ve all seen the lists telling us what the Top 25 Careers to pursue in a recession, but here’s a new idea. Cook. Bake. Boil. Blend. Mix. Create. The tough economy is inspiring creativity in the kitchen.
The ‘œincubator’ kitchen, that is. Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times featured a story about Chef’s Kitchens Co-op in Los Angeles, but there are 60 such incubators nationwide. Why would anyone want to do this?
‘œEverybody has a dream of some kind of food . . . a favorite dish they really think people would love,’ says Bell, a former caterer with 25 years of experience. ‘œPeople are a lot more interested in what goes into their food, the ingredients, the health aspects. By buying from people who are also concerned about that, you can get food of the caliber you would make at home.’
Jeanine and I are constantly coming up with food concepts that we believe the general public can’t live without. Some are good ideas like low-fat trail mix while others have been a bust in our home ‘œtest’ kitchen. Just ask a couple of our friends about the frozen ‘œWaffle Cows.’ That was a waste of a Saturday morning, but it provided all the testers (including us) with some good laughs.
Jeanine would love to own a food business. We’ve dreamed about opening a cheese shop or a Jewish deli (think Zingerman’s), but they’re really just fantasies. It’s an expensive venture to launch and the risks are enormous. Plus, most fail. But we continue to dream. And cook.
So when I see articles like the one mentioned here, it gets us thinking again about the possibilities:
There are dozens of stories behind the bowls and stoves and recipes at Chef’s Kitchens, an incubator for food businesses. Stories of people shedding careers or adjusting to new and unexpected challenges. People with a dream and a cleverly decorated cookie or a family tamale recipe or the goal of owning a restaurant.
A small food business often starts at home — cooking or baking after a day job, handing out samples, asking friends and family for advice. But after that, the home cook must confront the reality of insurance, permits, packaging, marketing. And a kitchen. Selling food from most home kitchens is illegal. Building one can cost tens of thousands of dollars; rental kitchens are scarce.
You would think the recession has hurt the incubator kitchen business, but quite the opposite.
Last fall, Bell says, the economic news left her worried that ‘œthings could get pretty rough’ for her incubator, but that hasn’t happened. In fact, she says, her office is getting more calls, five or six a day, inquiring about the kitchens.
That’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen. I guess it makes sense. When people get laid off, they often reconsider dreams that they might never have the courage to pursue. It’s hard to walk away from a good paying job, but when the economy does this for you’¦ well, some of us just might decide that it’s time to start baking our famous granola cookies for hire. And the incubator kitchen will be there waiting to let us use it by the hour.
How has the economic crunch given more meaning to your dreams?
Photo credit: stock.xchng.
This is a great point, because I think many people are in your boat, Nina. They have a good recipe and they think they should make a go of it in the restaurant business. They don’t realize that it takes more than a few good recipes to make a restaurant succeed.
Most restaurants don’t just fail – they fail within the first year. Prime example: a friend of mine opened a new restaurant last year. He completely renovated the building, stocked it with all kinds of equipment, had the grand opening. A year later? He sold out the building because his restaurant was a huge financial loss. It’s not that he didn’t have a great idea – organic, whole-grain pastas made on site. The market for organic, locally produced food is growing very quickly. His restaurant’s failure had nothing to do with timing or the economy. It had everything to do with the numbers game. Owning a successful restaurant involves quite a bit of luck, and anyone who tells you differently is lying to you (and themselves).
Another downside to owning a restaurant is time. When you own a restaurant, you are married to the business. Forget about having nights and weekends to yourself. Holidays? Forget it. Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day are your biggest days in the industry.
You also have to consider high employee turnover and the fact that your employees are guaranteed to steal from you. It’s just a cost of doing business. So unless you’re doing your inventory yourself and going over the profit/loss statements with your own eyes, you should expect to get ripped off.
So why do so many people want to open restaurants? On my first day of culinary school, with only one or two exceptions, each person in my class said that they were going to school because they wanted to own their own restaurant because they were passionate about food. That’s great and all. But that passion only goes so far if you’re unprepared to take the huge financial risk that owning your own restaurant entails. I still have grand ideas of opening my own restaurant. But I know it’s YEARS down the road – I need to be able to absorb a huge financial loss before I can even consider taking the leap.
I like the idea of having a food co-op so people can stick their toes in the water to see if they really want to dedicate 100% of their time, energy, and money to jumping into the food business. I wonder, however, if this really gives them a complete picture of what it really takes.