In many places, it's illegal to operate out of your own kitchen unless it meets specific guidelines. If you can't afford the steep price tag to get you started, a culinary incubator can help get you started.

What is a culinary incubator?

A culinary incubator is a business designed for helping a food business gets started. It's essentially a commercial kitchen you can share with other chefs for a reduced price. The use of a commercial kitchen in a culinary incubator could be $1,000 or less, making it a much more approachable figure.

Instead of having to spend all of your money up front on a kitchen, you can focus instead on getting your name out there, and making your best creations.

Some incubators also allow customers to come in and try new food directly from new chefs and bakers, giving you a possible customer base right away. This is dependent on the individual incubator however, so you'll need to check local availability and how your local one operates.

What you may still need

In a survey focused on US culinary incubators, it was found that only about 48% of them offered commercial baking equipment. Most of them did have ovens, mixers, and other basic equipment, but if you are looking for specific baking equipment, you may want to call ahead of time to make sure that the baking equipment you need is there.

Another thing to consider is the number of stations available. In a culinary incubator, your rent depends on which station or stations you'll need. Most kitchens in the survey had 3 or fewer stations, so if you need a specific station you'll want to book ahead in order to have the station you need for baking.

Drawbacks to culinary incubators

Culinary incubators and their relative, food halls, are relatively uncommon. One of their biggest drawbacks is their lack of availability. People who live in major cities around the world are more likely to have access to an incubator. The biggest downside is having to travel long distances in order to get to one, or that the incubator in your area does not have the correct commercial bakery equipment to meet your needs.

When there is a culinary incubator with a suitable baking station, the benefit to new businesses can be enormous. At the very least, you'll have a commercial kitchen available to bake in, and at the best, you may be able to meet your first customers here.

Many new bakers use this start to go on to open their own stores. A new bakery is much easier to get off the ground when you already have an established customer base, money saved for rent and new commercial baking equipment, and favourite recipes already developed and ready to go.

If you've been thinking about starting your own baking business, but can't afford a bakery right from the beginning, see if there is a culinary incubator in your area. It may be just the sort of start you need.

References:

[FURL]https://www.econsultsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ESI-SharedKitchenReport_2013.pdf[/FURL]