Sizzling Affair

There is always the option of setting up a commercial kitchen at home, but it’s expensive and not easy to meet the health requirements. Some people rent space in someone else’s kitchen during a restaurant’s off hours.

The two licensed and inspected commercial kitchens inside are stocked with the equipment needed to produce professional quality food and baked goods. Multiple stations inside the kitchen can accommodate several clients at one time. A scheduling app makes sure that each chef has enough room to work. The facility is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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A storage area provides dry storage and spaces for refrigerators for cold storage. And a packaging room offers a variety of ways to package food, including canning, blast chilling and vacuum sealing.

For people who dream of becoming chefs or opening their own food vending business, just getting started can be daunting, Piscitelli says. But Sunshine Kitchen isn’t only for experienced chefs. As a food business incubator, it welcomes anyone from raw beginner with a dream to an experienced person trying to move business to the next level.

Space can be rented in increments of six months, with a requirement to use the kitchen for at least eight hours a month at $15.50 an hour. As the client uses the kitchen more, the price per hour drops.

“If you are just starting out, we can make it easier. We can provide the forms to fill out and walk you through it,” Piscitelli says. He can also answer questions about cottage food industry laws and other technical questions. Chefs who use the kitchen also help each other out. It helps keep the newcomer from taking big risks and making mistakes.

Classes in food handling and food safety are offered as well, with a ServSafe food manager class and exam on March 4.

Business classes are offered by Indian River State College, along with help in developing a small business. Adjacent to the Sunshine Kitchen is the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Indian River Research and Education Center, also known as UF/IFAS-IRREC, Cooperative Extension, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Horticultural Research Lab.

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Food trucks can also take advantage of having a commercial kitchen to work in, or they can use it as their base for state inspections, a place to dump their wastewater from food preparation, and even rent parking space and keep the truck there.

A few years ago, Mike Nattis of Port St. Lucie started a raw nut and seed-based snack business he named GaVi’s Goodness after his two daughters. Some of the snacks, which incorporate granola, are in bars; others are balls. He mills his own cashew and almond flour, mixes his ingredients, and when ready, drops balls directly into the plastic clamshell packaging. When everything is packaged and labeled, he stores it in plastic storage bins.

Nattis heard about the kitchen when he was at one of the farmers’ markets. He talked to Piscitelli about renting space in the kitchen.

“I was ready, chomping at the bit, to get to the next level,” Nattis recalls. “I needed to go there now.” When the kitchen opened for business in October, Nattis was there. Now he goes twice a week to make his snacks and says he’s there more often for holidays.

“It gives me a big, beautiful clean place to work. It’s fantastic — I love it,” he says. “It gives me the opportunity to use a licensed commissary (commercial kitchen) in town. And it gives other people a chance to succeed, whether they are an entry level business or an established business.”

A lot of cross-networking among chefs goes on, he says. “If Matt needs a platter, I can provide him with it.”

Sunshine Kitchen, once it gets going, is expected to be a source of jobs. “I think the kitchen will provide an economic boost to the county because there will be new businesses and they will create jobs,” says Tracey Callahan, owner of The Traveled Chef.

Ed Skvarch, IFAS Cooperative Extension director, has been keeping tabs on the activities and partnerships of commercial kitchens south of the Treasure Coast.

“Sunshine Kitchen’s story is just beginning,” he says.

See the original article in the print publication