Foodpreneurs are tipping the scale

    Local farmers and food entrepreneurs have a new home in the city: two commercial kitchens to develop, grow and expand their craft-food businesses.

    Operations manager Kira Selah is surrounded by Kitchen Connect’s gleaming stainless processing equipment. The commissary is equipped to produce everything from granola to hummus. Photo: Jeffrey Bosdet
    Operations manager Kira Selah is surrounded by Kitchen Connect’s gleaming stainless processing equipment. The commissary is equipped to produce everything from granola to hummus. Photo: Jeffrey Bosdet

    Kitchen Connect is the latest piece in the local food security puzzle, a commissary kitchen where foodpreneurs can rent space to create a variety of value-added food products, from soups and sauces to meal kits.

    “That’s the biggest piece that differentiates us from other commissary kitchens,” says operations manager Kira Selah. “We have the traditional commercial equipment, but we also have all this processing equipment, and that’s what is going to allow people to scale their businesses up.”

    This is the first commissary in the region with the infrastructure in place to produce hazard analysis and critical control points certified products, she says, noting HACCP certification is a requirement for food processors wishing to sell their products through larger retailers. “It’s all part of our integrated food hub. FarmHub distributes food from local farmers, and now we have the kitchen to bring in the processing power.”

    Facilities for all

    Kitchen Connect falls under the Victoria Community Food Hub Society’s umbrella, a community-based charity that also oversees the South Island FarmHub.

    The pandemic pushed both projects forward, with the FarmHub launching in 2020, a rapid response to the pressures farmers faced when restaurants suddenly closed and sales dried up. FarmHub gathers food from local farms, operates an online retail market and delivery service, acts as a wholesale distributor and offers affordable local food to schools and charities through a Farm Bucks subsidy program.

    The FarmHub warehouse is literally next door to Kitchen Connect, which means foodpreneurs can easily order and receive raw materials from more than 30 local farms for use in their products, right in the same facility.

    Kitchen Connect provides commercial kitchen space for small businesses and farmers, with a mandate to foster the local food economy and offer business development, training and support to charities and community groups, too. And with other food non-profits in the building — notably the Food Security Distribution Centre, run by The Mustard Seed and Food Share Network, to rescue and redistribute food — it’s well positioned for collaboration.

    Local farms and “aggregators” like South Island FarmHub supply foodpreneurs with fresh local pro-duce. FarmHub currently works with more than 30 local farms. Photo: Jeffrey Bosdet
    Local farms and “aggregators” like South Island FarmHub supply foodpreneurs with fresh local produce. FarmHub currently works with more than 30 local farms. Photo: Jeffrey Bosdet

    Food Prep and Processing

    Victoria has always been a hotbed of entrepreneurial spirit and a city that’s famous for its local food products — whether dumplings, samosas, nut butters, bean dip, hummus, tortillas, granola, vegan cheeses or artisan crackers. Many of these foodpreneurs started small, bouncing between full-time jobs, after-hours kitchens and farmersʼ markets, before eventually building their own commercial kitchens.

    Securing commercial kitchen space has long been difficult for small food producers, and the demand for commissary kitchens has skyrocketed in recent years as restaurants, bakeries and other food businesses struggle with high rents and startup costs while customers shift from dining out to ordering in.

    Shared commercial kitchen space lets restaurants and grocers offer takeout options and branded products, gives food trucks and caterers prep areas, and lets home cooks launch their own small businesses.

    When we met in early August, Selah, a Red Seal chef and trainer with years of industry experience, was completing the permitting process for the new Kitchen Connect commissary in Vic West and touring prospective clients around the impressive 2,150-square-foot space.

    She had already fielded inquiries from more than 50 potential clients, from food-truck operators to farmers looking for space to wash and package fresh produce or create value-added products. While the kitchen is not designed to accommodate pop-up restaurants or takeout/delivery services, Selah says she expects to have regular anchor tenants and bookings from caterers and seasonal small businesses when the kitchen is fully operational.

    The kitchen has gleaming stainless-steel prep tables, large commercial stoves, freezers, washing stations and lockers for dry storage. Six food production and processing lines are available, with rental rates starting at $35 per hour, plus additional fees for specialized processing equipment and cold storage.

    But unlike most commissary kitchens, the Kitchen Connect space has been designed specifically for food processing, with some impressive equipment not found elsewhere. There is a Kreuzmayr Chamber Pasteurizer that can pasteurize 300 one-litre containers (from yogurt to jarred sauces), a Silverson Blending Station (like a giant emulsifying blender for making up to 300 litres of hummus or salad dressing) and a Unifiller machine to neatly portion and fill containers. There are plans to install a vacuum sealer for Phase 2 of the project and, if demand warrants, a canning or bottling line.

    “With this equipment, a small hummus producer could scale up from 100 litres to 300 litres in the same amount of time,” Selah says.

    Foodpreneurs can buy an optional full-time, part-time or seasonal membership that offers priority booking and secured shifts, a 25-per-cent discount on equipment and storage fees, and access to bulk purchasing and sales. The shared kitchen is also available to charities and community groups, at subsidized rates, says Selah, who envisions families catering reunions and weddings or groups processing food for fundraisers. “Folks can absolutely rent the space for private use — as a charity, we encourage community groups,” she adds.

    The Rise of For-Profit Kitchens

    Beyond the non-profit model, there are other companies offering commercial kitchen space, letting entrepreneurs test drive their products and build a customer base before branching out into a bricks-and-mortar business.

    Cafe Malabar was born in the Victoria Public Market’s Coho Commissary. From left, Vaidehi, Karma Tenpa (co-owner), Tenzin (sous chef) and Kiran Kolathodan (co-owner). Photo: Coho Commissary
    Cafe Malabar was born in the Victoria Public Market’s Coho Commissary. From left, Vaidehi, Karma Tenpa (co-owner), Tenzin (sous chef) and Kiran Kolathodan (co-owner). Photo: Coho Commissary

    Chefs Kiran Kolathodan and Karma Tenpa are hoping that launching their new Cafe Malabar from the Coho Commissary kitchen in the Victoria Public Market will help build a following and enough investment to open a stand-alone restaurant. “We knew about Coho Commissary from Vancouver,” says Kolathodan of the business that has six mainland locations and opened its Victoria kitchen in 2022. “We chose this space to start our business because it’s a good place to showcase our food.”

    The Coho Commissary operates 24/7 and accommodates a range of food entrepreneurs including Circle Canning, run by chefs Paige Robinson and David Mincey. Mincey says the kitchen is a good fit for producing their pickles and condiments, especially during their busy summer canning season.

    “The big advantage is being able to book the time you need, when you need it,” he says, noting there has long been a chronic shortage of commercial kitchen space in Victoria.

    “It’s good to have a new facility,” he says. “It’s giving people more options.”

    Growing the Local Food Scene

    Kitchen Connect is just one of a dozen regional food processing and innovation hubs to open across the province, part of the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture’s Food Hub Network plan to “encourage greater food security and local business growth.”

    And whether it helps to nurture new ideas or keep old ones alive, Kitchen Connect and Coho Commissary may be the missing links that help get entrepreneurial dreams off the ground and their food products out to a wider world. “We want to be the stepping stone between the farmers market and getting into the supermarket, from the food truck to the restaurant,” says Selah. “We want people to grow out of this space.”

    More on this subject: When it comes to feeding the foodpreneurs, it’s Farm or Die.