Learn, Cook and Succeed at Kitchen24. Toronto’s food incubator space!
Posted: August 2, 2017
Categories: GoodFoodBites / Opportunities
Learn. Cook. Succeed.
The team at Kitchen24 dreams of creating a platform for people to create dishes they are passionate about is coming to reality. Kitchen24 is Toronto’s up and coming unique food incubator space. Kitchen 24 space is 28,000 sq ft and can accommodate 70-80 people a day and provides the tools and services people need to succeed in their new food business ideas. Kitchen24’s mission is to create “a place where all Foodies can connect, collaborate and create new food innovation”. As soon as you enter the door on your tour, you will sense this creative collaborative atmosphere as you can feel the energy, sense the passion and see how quickly Kitchen24 is coming to life.
Sustain took a visit of Kitchen24 last week and gained a deeper understanding of what the kitchen entails and how it will benefit culinary entrepreneurs, community members, and new innovative business ideas. Kitchen24 has a variety of different work spaces such as a cooking studio, event space, conference area space, area for chef battles, food photography studio, prep areas and an accelerator space for specialty equipment. Other perks of Kitchen24 is that they can accommodate pop up restaurants, have access to caged storage for daily rentals and have specialty equipment such as a 60 ft fridge, a deep cleaning washing area, a dry storage and small blast area as well as a space that may be used for a kosher kitchen, private demo space or area for gluten free cooking.
This will be a cooking studio.
The space at Kitchen 24 is?
- A place to start and expand your food business
- Collaborative space for chefs, caterers, passionate foodies and those who just want to learn new skills!
- Space to test your new products
- Increase knowledge and skills from master chefs
- Demo area used for cooking classes, workshops, test products and filming.
- Communal lounge to socialize and network with other members
- Accommodates pop up markets or restaurants
- Affordable (limits start up expenses)
- Sense of community
- Gain Business skills and experience
- Accessibility for all
The owners of Kitchen 24 previously had a catering company where they had assisted some customers to use their kitchen for start up reasons as they had nowhere to cook. Steve and his partner enjoyed their time at the company but wanted more opportunity to arise for people such as these. They put an add on Kijiji for a common kitchen to rent and had over 300 inquiries. After a year of market research in the US, they realized there is nothing quite like this concept in Toronto. Kitchen24 was built entirely on what they had learned in that year and their high hopes are to contribute to people’s dreams and watch them succeed.
Kitchen24 is also looking at opportunities to offer college internships and allow students to work with master chefs. In addition, they are searching for ways to collaborate with community groups and members within the GTA. The Business development director has already reached out to many of Toronto’s social services, women’s shelters, and youth organizations. Kitchen24 is keen to work with marginalized community members to support cooking passions, provide cooking classes with families and see what opportunities are available within this space. On certain days, they are willing to donate their space, find volunteer chefs and locate donated food products in order to make this initiative happen!
This will be a walk-in fridge and storage area.
Becoming a member? What does this entail?
- Kitchen24 will provide YOU the tools and services to succeed in your desired business
- To become a member, you can book a tour online with the business director to first see the space
- Require a food handlers certificate and liability insurance
- Comply with Kitchen24 rules and respect other members and those using the space
- Receive 2 shelves (dry or freeze, fridge area) or pay an extra fee for a caged shelf
- Required to clean up your work area, but they will take care of the rest- they will have additional staff who will deep clean all your tools after you are finished.
- Membership comes in the form of 3 months, 6 months or 1 year. If you become a member for a year, the price is much lower (almost half price drop).
Want to just rent space for a day or two? It is possible! Kitchen24 just requires a minimum of 4 hours to work in their space and the rental fee is $25 an hour. You can visit their website for more details on becoming a member, booking a tour and learning how Kitchen 24 can help you!
This will be a specialty kitchen (eg. kosher, gluten free, etc).
When is this amazing space opening?!
The soft opening will be on August 15th. The grand opening will be at the end of September or start of October. Keep an eye out for promotional materials on our social media platforms!