{"id":28818,"date":"2023-10-19T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/?p=28818"},"modified":"2024-01-15T16:15:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T22:15:00","slug":"kitchen-incubators-what-they-are-and-why-you-might-use-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/food-entrepreneurship\/kitchen-incubators-what-they-are-and-why-you-might-use-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Kitchen Incubators: What They Are & Why You Might Use One"},"content":{"rendered":"

The early stages of business development or expansion can be an exciting time, but also a challenge. Perhaps you’ve got a great idea for a food business, but you’re finding it difficult to come up with startup capital<\/a> or find a suitable facility. And if you don’t want to go it alone, how do you find a place with business guidance or peer networking in addition to kitchen space?<\/p>\n

A kitchen incubator could be an option.<\/p>\n

The kitchen incubator\u2014sometimes called incubator kitchen or food incubator\u2014involves shared commercial kitchen space that’s typically rented by the hour or by the month. The idea appeals to a variety of small business owners and aspiring business owners, whether they’re startups honing their vision or more experienced entrepreneurs who are trying out a new idea and want to mitigate their financial risk.<\/p>\n

Read on to find out more about how a kitchen incubator works.<\/p>\n

What Is a Kitchen Incubator?<\/h2>\n

By definition, a kitchen incubator offers users a kitchen space as well as access to professional development and business advice\u2014a reflection of the word “incubator” in its name. Kitchen incubators typically include access to packaging equipment as well.<\/p>\n

Primary services include access to space and equipment; information about business planning, marketing\/advertising, distribution, regulations, food safety, and access to capital; and business assistance, including technical assistance with certifications, product development assistance, and connections to buyers and consumers. Of course, your access to and the quality of these services is dependent on your continued paid membership and the expertise of an incubator\u2019s staff. That can make a more formal education, like you could get from Escoffier, a more reliable route to gaining the skills and knowledge you need to run a business.<\/p>\n

Kitchen incubators are different from ghost kitchens<\/a>, which are shared kitchen facilities whose purpose is entirely devoted to space and equipment but not to business development. Ghost kitchens tend to focus on or appeal to businesses doing takeout and delivery orders, and may house multiple businesses or just one. These more established companies may not have as much use for the business development services an incubator can offer.<\/p>\n

Incubators also differ from accelerators, which typically appeal to larger businesses and offer startup capital in return for future equity in a company.<\/p>\n

In practice (and on Google), the term “kitchen incubator” is often blurred with other phrasing, used interchangeably with the terms shared-use kitchen, shared commercial kitchen, cloud kitchen, and commissary.<\/p>\n

A true incubator kitchen is much more than just shared space, however, so if the idea appeals to you, make sure to perform your due diligence when researching a space.
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Findings from January 2020 report: “U.S. Kitchen Incubators; An Industry Update”<\/h3>\n

A January 2020 industry report<\/a> on U.S. kitchen incubators grouped them in the “shared use food facility” category, adding that kitchen incubators “offer business incubator services to provide startup food businesses with professional development and training.” The report surveyed shared kitchen operators in 2019 across the U.S.<\/p>\n