Urban Horizons Kitchen offers emerging food companies affordable space in a fully licensed commercial kitchen. The state of the art, 4000 sq ft kitchen is available on a per diem or monthly basis and fees are competitive for longer-term rentals. It is ideal for bakers, caterers, and food and beverage manufacturers in need of of equipment and unable to afford a commercial kitchen. We are located in the Bronx New York area. Contact Marcus Gotay at 718-839-1198 or mgotay@whedco.org
August 3, 2010
Is It Too Late to Open a Cupcake Business
Cupcakes on the bubble?
My girlfriend loves to bake. And her cupcakes are to die for. She was thinking about selling cupcakes by setting up a table at the nearby Metro Station (we live in the Washington D.C. area). Aside from whether or not she can get away with selling this way without some sort of street permit (we are going to look into this) we know that she will have to rent a commercial kitchen to be within the law.
What we don’t know is whether the whole cupcake thing is a passing trend.
She was all excited about this until I showed her an article in Slate about the cupcake bubble:
The current recession, which started in late 2007, laid the groundwork for the recent proliferation of cupcake stores in American cities. Lots of people know how to make really tasty cupcakes, which are simple products with cheap basic ingredients. Baking cupcakes doesn’t require a large amount of capital investment, and it’s relatively easy to scale up without hiring lots of workers. It takes about as much labor to produce three dozen cupcakes as it does to make one dozen. Meanwhile, storefronts in heavily trafficked areas became cheaper with the decimation of local retail. And so in the past year, casual baking has turned into an urban industry.
So, we’re thinking it’s still not to late to start out with cupcakes and then add another product like granola or cookies. Then we could transition into these new products as people lost interest in cupcakes. She wanted to just get started at the metro, but then find a cheap storefront since rents are down…just like the Slate writer Daniel Gross says.
So, what do you think?
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July 10, 2010
Piegate! PA church gets into trouble for selling pie
Have you ever purchased cookies or baked goods at a church fundraiser? Well, technically, those baked goods were sold illegally. That’s because by the laws in most jurisdictions, food that is sold to the public must be prepared in a “certified commercial kitchen.” The average bake sale, of course, runs under the radar of the local health department.
However, sometimes people do get into trouble for baking and selling without having their kitchen officially inspected and passed by a health department official. Take the case of “piegate” as reported by the Wall Street Journal. A church in Pennsylvania got into trouble when health department officials inspecting the churches kitchen spotted some pies that were not baked in the kitchen but brought from home by some “little old ladies.”
Sold for $1 a slice, homemade pies have always been part of the Lenten fish-fry dinners at St. Cecilia’s, located in this tiny city near Pittsburgh. Similar dinners are held in church basements and other venues across the country this time of year.
The problem is the pies are illegal in Pennsylvania. Under the state’s food-safety code, facilities that provide food at four or more events in a year require at least a temporary eating and drinking license, and food has to be prepared in a state-inspected kitchen. Many churches have six fish fries a year, on Fridays during Lent. St. Cecilia’s has always complied with having its kitchen licensed, so food made there is fine to serve. But homemade goods don’t make the cut.
Forced to not sell the home made pies, people instead bought and donated store bought pies (which no doubt paled in comparison.) The publicity wound up making the annual fish fry a big success ironically.
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Health Department Requirements for Commercial Kitchens
People who rent commercial kitchens know that in most jurisdictions it is illegal to cook and sell food from your home kitchen–other than small scale bake sales for scouts, church fund raisers and the like.
The local Health Departments want to make sure that cooks are following the proper guidelines for the safe handling of food. This to prevent dangerous pathogens such as salmonella from making people dangerously sick. The things they look for are adequate cooling and freezing temperatures for the storage of meat and other perishables inside refrigerators. They also demand that preparation tables and other surfaces are clean and capable of being thoroughly cleaned to prevent bacteria from growing. They look for proper ventilation.