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The Daily OrangeEntrepreneurs perfect recipes in test kitchen | Local culinary program to aid economic development
By Max Woolley
Posted: 4/2/08, 11:31 PM EST Section: News
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"It's giving (opportunities to) small entrepreneurs who may never have had an opportunity to come out and be successful," said Dave Evans, director of Nelson Farms. "It gives them an opportunity they have never had before."
The new kitchen opened its doors for business March 26 at the South Side Innovation Center (SSIC) on South Salina Street.
The program is helping anyone from the community who would like to commercialize a product from a home recipe, said Lynne Foster, the newly hired product development coordinator for COMTEK, as the employees have dubbed the community test kitchen.
The program is a joint effort between Syracuse University and Nelson Farms at the State University of New York at Morrisville. The program is an expansion of the entrepreneurship program at SSIC.
The test kitchen was established in response to requests at the SSIC and the Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (WISE) program for help in commercializing homemade food products.
"They were getting requests like, 'I make this great sauce or cake or pie, and I'd like to put it on the market. Can you help?'" Foster said.
With the aid of a $30,000 grant from the Central New York Community Foundation, the SSIC fulfilled the need.
The test kitchen was started to give people an outlet for their ideas. Anyone in the community can propose a recipe to develop into a commercial food product. The test kitchen the helps the entrepreneur work through creating a commercially viable recipe capable of being scaled to production.
"SUNY Morrisville came to us for a grant to get equipment for a test kitchen located at South Side Innovation Center, started by Syracuse University," said Peggy Ogden, director of the CNY Community Foundation.
"It's an incubator for neighborhood entrepreneurs," she said. "The importance of the SSIC is that on the South Side there is not a lot of economic development, but there are a lot of people with good ideas."
Though the program costs $100 for the first two days of kitchen work and $25 for every day after, the program provides comprehensive help for those attempting to commercialize their product.
The process starts by submitting an application to SSIC detailing the food to be created.
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