The Story, Part 2

By Azuka Nzegwu

Continued from Part 1 …

The Kitchen Wholesaler

So, I started my outreach. Because I am a dot your “I” and cross your “T” kind of girl, I contacted the local restaurant store that sells slightly used and new restaurant equipment. I told them I wanted to create a commercial kitchen in our art gallery.

The guy showed up and looked at the space. He talked about placing some units on the roof. We had a lovely conversation. Or so I thought. He then tells me to call him after I raise $30,000. Until then, there was nothing he could do, and he left.

Cornell Cooperative Extension

As the eternal optimist, I pursued on and thought there must be a way. After all, this is divine intervention, and it is a guaranteed hit. So with that, I called the local Cornell Cooperative Extension, thinking this would be an organic approach.

They have a commercial kitchen, and I inquired because I saw a news story that their kitchen needed more utilization. I downloaded the application and knew I had to take a Food Safety class with the Health Department.

After reviewing the application and talking to the representative, I was overwhelmed. Why do they require a business plan to rent their kitchen? In addition, the representative wanted to know my cooking background, whether I had training, and if I had catered previously.

I just wanted to bake and sell and test the market. At the very least, I wanted a proof of concept to see if there is traction. I needed to create a business plan to rent the kitchen, which would have distracted me.

Score Association

There is Score, which I used in the past. Their advice tends to lean on working in the industry to get experience, and I need to figure out how to explain the Spirit component. I was concerned that all that passion would be gone when I finally got to the business plan.

I was watching the local news and saw a young white, non-college-educated girl with Down syndrome using their kitchen. I wondered if she had a business plan. How can an able body not get it together, but she could? Maybe she had helpers who had produced a business plan for her.

Local Craigslist

So, I searched again for a kitchen that did not require a business plan. Browsing my local Craigslist, I saw an advertisement for a ghost kitchen and was so excited. I talked to the owner, who asked me to come in so he could show me around and learn more about my needs.

When I arrived, I greeted him with a loaf of banana bread, and he showed me the kitchen. The baking station was small and a section of a large kitchen. I also learned that this kitchen is for a catering company.

My initial impression. The baking section has not been in use for a while. The meeting was at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, and things were hard for businesses. The owner needed a certain amount for the rent and wondered if I could afford to pay.

Instead, he advised me to make mini cakes and sell them to gas stations. That was not what I wanted to do. Before I left, he told me that he orders cakes from a vendor, and to maximize his profit; he slices them thin. So, a cake for eight is for 24 people. I left the location wondering what that meeting was all about. I did not hear from him afterward.

Local Restaurant Owner

Then, I met with a local Pakistani restaurateur who offers Indian cuisine. He came over to the gallery to tell me how to tailor my potential kitchen. He was going to sell me their second-hand coffee maker that was hella broken.

He provided a lot of good information, from where to source, how to buy, and pricing. He told me that coffee would be an excellent business in my location. I agreed because we had tried it briefly in the past. However, I did not pursue it because we needed the proper setup.

While the advice was beneficial, it yielded little because I needed the infrastructure. I needed a place to store the insanely large amounts of bananas I would need, including bulk baking items, equipment, and a commercial baking kitchen that satisfies the requirements of the local Health Department. Things were untenable at that point. My head felt like a watermelon.

Part 3 of The Story

The Story of Divine Banana Bread
Story, Part 1, Story, Part 2, Story, Part 3