The trials of opening a commercial kitchen for rent

[ChefTalk.com]

It all started when a girlfriend brought in the most beautiful danish. She had made them in her baking class...yummy, fresh gorgeous danish. Wow.

Having been interested in baking for multiple years, it occurred to me that I, too, could take classes in baking and so I did. This lead to some catering jobs but I found that commercial kitchen space was non-existent in our little city of Sacramento. This issue lived in my head for 2 years while I continued to take baking and cooking classes. Finally, after hearing the same lament from classmates, teachers and other caterers I thought 'Hey! Maybe I should open one!'

Thus begins a journey that I want to share with fellow culinary nuts.

This blog has started a bit late for me. I'm at the rent-the-building stage but I'll add more about my early days as I go along.

I have a perfectly good career as a contractor for state agencies. I'm an independent contractor and so I go from job to job. It makes a good living and I've done it for 30+ years. I figured I'd do it another 10 years then 'retire' - basically doing another job to round out my golden years. But this commercial kitchen thing was nagging at me.

I figured I should sort of start doing something about it. I signed up for a beginning entrepreneur class. After 10 grueling weeks I had a business plan in place. I priced out equipment, I planned the kitchen over and over, I thought I had it down.

OK, so nothing committed yet. No money, just time. I could still back out. I then decided to try and name the place. I couldn't come up with anything catchy without being stupid so I found a web site where you describe your business and all these people try to name it. The one I chose was Steel Magnolia. My grandma was from the south and she taught me how to cook. This sounded like a perfect name.

But, now what? more to come...


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