Catering? A baking business? Making your own salsa?
A new commercial kitchen in Southfield is offering all manner of chefs a place to use the space, ovens, mixers, and more to do it in, all without having to invest in their own equipment and kitchen space before they even get started.
The Culinary Studio, a shared-use kitchen, is the brainchild of co-owners Cassandra Morrison, who has been a personal chef and wanted to expand into catering, and Jo Coleman, who runs a healthy eating and living program. Both have been looking for a kitchen to work from, but since there are only two shared commercial kitchens in the state -- both in western Michigan -- they decided to open their own.
In fact, they're so few and far between, Morrison says her main contact was a kitchen in Chicago. "There are people baking, catering, packaging spaghetti sauces -- that's what we're hoping to do," she says.
Right now, the women are getting through their inspection, with hopes of doing a fun opening after the holidays. Morrison says she'd like to see private events, cooking classes, cooking competitions, and other events in the space.
Among their inquires so far are people interested in baking and catering, but also someone interested in charcuterie -- making sausages and other cured meats. "A lot of people have regular jobs, but may have a dream of one day producing their own cakes, and salsa, and pierogis," Morrison says. "Those are the people that are calling us."
This day and age, home economics is pretty much nonexistent and there's a restaurant on every block, but more and more people are making their own specialty items as part of a larger slow food movement. "We're going back to where food really began, when our mothers and grandmothers and relatives who did all of that from scratch," she says.
The 1,900-square-foot kitchens are at 29673 Northwestern Highway, in the Applegate Shopping center. Chefs have to fill out some paperwork and be cleared by the health department, so she encourages people to visit their website and get that process going. Call them at (248) 353-2500 or e-mail info@myculinarystudio.com for more information.
Source: Cassandra Morrison, co-owner, The Culinary Studio
Writer: Kristin Lukowski
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