Audio By Carbonatix
Is there a food lover out there who doesn’t think he’d like to cater or open his own eatery or bottle his own hot sauce?
Here are two places that will let you give it a whirl before committing to a retail space.
Why rent a kitchen?
Stacey Webb, who with her husband, Mike, runs the Mise en Place Kitchens
in Tequesta, says the big holdup for many would-be chefs is
all the licensing and inspections and hoops to jump through before
you’re even allowed to turn on a stove.
Instead, she says, get a business license and a liability
insurance policy — both simple to obtain — and try out the field before
you invest in the headaches of a pro kitchen setup.
Webb has worked in test kitchens for several big corporations, so
she has a good deal of experience in guiding others. She also teaches
cooking.
Mise En Place is in the old Cafe Heidelburg, so there was no
build-out necessary, just a good scrubbing and updating of some of the
appliances. There’s both a hot kitchen with four ovens and 18 burners
and a cold prep kitchen with a walk-in. A convection oven is a planned
addition for those who want to bake in volume, and a library of
resources, physical and digital, for chefs/cooks will also be attached.
They’ve dropped the startup rental fee to $25 an hour — or kitchens
can be rented by the month. Webb teaches classes out of the kitchens;
there’s a party area and dining room for staging parties or
catering here as well. Someone from the staff is on the premises at all
times to help out.
Production Kitchen in West Palm
Chrissy Benoit, owner of Havana Hideaway in Lake Worth, and her
sister Ginger have opened a 24/7 production-incubation kitchen in West
Palm, in an industrial park south of the Kravis Center. A number of
cooking classes, winetastings, and other events are already scheduled for the
kitchen set in a bank of modern warehouses.
Benoit needed a kitchen of her own to work out of — the success of her restaurant after appearing on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network sent her volume soaring.
The kitchen will provide a space where “ideas can flow” and
startups can try out their products or learn all the basics of food
safety, purchasing and so on in a real kitchen before launching a
restaurant, she said. Those who want to give cooking lessons could hold
classes or party lessons in the space.
A tasting room accommodates up to 20 people for evaluating foods or tastings or throwing small parties and can be rented on its own.
Various fees apply, depending on what time of day or night you rent; it’s available by the month too.
Mise en Place Kitchens
150 U.S. 1, Tequesta 33469
561-676-8716; miseenplacekitchens.com
The Production Kitchen
1253 Old Okeechobee Road, Stes. B 8, 9; West Palm Beach 33401
(561-833-3585; theproductionkitchenwp.com
