How FoodStars Is Helping Food Startups by Providing Commercial Kitchen Space

FoodStars launched in 2015 to support this rising demand, They now operate over 50 kitchens and are home to a diverse range of businesses, from food start-ups to well known caterers, restaurant brands and retailers.

What need do commercial kitchens fill that aren’t well covered by other facilities? Let’s take a look.

Online Food Production

Taking orders online and delivering across London’s capital is no easy task. With restaurants that try it via sites like Deliveroo, the challenge is how to create and deliver sumptuous meals both to restaurant diners and for online orders alike. One approach, using two separate teams, competes for space, people and ingredients to produce restaurant dishes and meals for delivery. Alternatively, one team attempts to provide excellent meals to waiting patrons in the restaurant and for outside deliveries too. Neither solution works especially well.

With a dedicated kitchen to rent in London and the aim of producing exotic meals or healthy, nutritious ones to gym enthusiasts, a logical separation is possible. One kitchen and a singular focus to create the best meals to package and deliver enables start-ups to avoid a split focus.

Catering for Events

Another example of having a great focus is with Dayan & Webb who offer catering to companies for special staff events or corporate events where the company is keen to impress. Their selective menu includes easy to consume dishes either when mingling at a party or when sitting down to eat. Tasty nibbles like seasonable canapes and mini sliders provide delicious food options with no in-house catering required. Dayan and Webb were one of the members who joined FoodStars from their inception and have expanded along with the kitchen space provider.

On Demand Help During Busy Periods

Managing the demands of a restaurant during busy periods is problematic. Whether running a restaurant with its need to provide timely, aromatic cuisine to waiting diners or trying to produce the highest food quantity for a month long event from a home kitchen, each situation has its challenges.

The beauty of the flexible arrangement to rent the use of a kitchen for a month allows entrepreneurial spirits a way to share their cooking with local people. FoodStars isn’t only for long-term clients who produce and deliver health foods like the Gym Food start-up; it’s also for the people who see an opportunity that needs filling.

TV & Film Production

Depending on the shooting location and the size of the production, it’s not always possible to get large food trucks on-location to feed the cast and crew. Finding a local commercial kitchen to rent is usually only possible with a long-term lease and takes forever to arrange.

Renting a kitchen for a month is an ideal way around the problem that provides all the culinary resources necessary while maintaining a lower cost basis. Businesses that wish to support the film and TV production niche market can do so without needing to sign long-term lease agreements. Keeping capital requirements down for a small start-up enables more businesses to get off the ground without the need for a bank loan to get started.

By bridging the gap between home kitchens ill-equipped for commercial use and commercial kitchens that aren’t accessible for limited periods, start-ups like FoodStars are leading the way for foodpreneurs to take the leap into business. Whether as a long-term home or as a stepping stone from the home kitchen to a commercial one of their own, renting a kitchen over a limited period for business use offers many advantages not previously available.