You may be aware of events in February that saw the Chicago Dept. of Public Health destroy food product of entreprenuers working at Kitchen Chicago.  Video captured an instpector destroying thousands of dollars of food deemed unsafe.  This event was part of a larger shift in City policy regarding shared-use kitchens such as ours.

As the owner of Logan Square Kitchen, I’m working with Alexis at Kitchen Chicago and Tonia at Splice Kitchen to engage City officials to discuss our business model and help create policy that better addresses kitchen incubators and their clients.  Currently, one type of food business license exists:  Food Retail Establishment License, which costs $660 for two years.  The Departments of Business Affairs and Public Health are working on a new type of license for the new emerging food enterprises in our City.

We arranged for officials from the Licensing, Health and Law departments to have an orientation tour of our facility on April 28, 2010.  We also provided a Kitchen Incubator Overview to this group and the Alderman of our Wards: Burnett, Colon, and Waugespeck.  This document provides a brief overview and recommendations from the three incubator owners.

We’re looking forward to a continued dialog to create regulation with appropriate oversight of our business activity, that also suppports emerging food entrepreneurs in tough economic times.