"communal kitchen" news and stories

Some people daydream about their fairytale wedding, or about competing on American Idol, or hitting a hole-in-one at St. Andrews. Me, I daydream about opening a catering boutique, or a dinner party academy, or a mail-order business selling homemade artisanal something or other. None of these fantasies will come to fruition.

But some of you might really want to do something like this. Market those peanut butter-and-bacon cookies you've perfected, or teach the world to recreate Guadeloupian delicacies in their own kitchens. If the only thing that's stopping you is the (very) high price of tailoring your home kitchen to sanitation-law specifications, you might research whether there is a communal kitchen rental space in your area.

In many cities, there are now commercial-grade kitchens available for rental by the day, week, or month. Most provide some kind of dry and cold storage. Otherwise, the offerings vary; in some, like Mi Kitchen es su Kitchen in NYC, you can teach a cooking class, while at others, like Shared Kitchens in the Atlanta area, you can only cook products that will be packaged and sold (different licenses govern each, and laws vary by state). Commercial Kitchen Rental, a blog, lists a couple dozen all over the country. Depending on the needs of your budding business, this could be something that will greatly reduce your overhead and allow you to launch at last.