For many aspiring food entrepreneurs, the biggest obstacle to turning a family recipe into a business isn’t a lack of ambition, culinary skill or even customers. It’s finding somewhere to cook. Or at least, cook legally.
While Nova Scotia’s farmers’ markets are filled with entrepreneurs selling everything from traditional international dishes to locally inspired specialty foods, getting a product from a home kitchen to a market stall isn’t always straightforward. Most prepared foods must be produced in an municipally approved commercial kitchen, and finding one to rent for a few hours or days a week can be surprisingly difficult.
It’s a problem Halifax chef and entrepreneur Justin Andrews knows firsthand. It’s also the inspiration behind Food Web, a Nova Scotia-based technology platform connecting food entrepreneurs with commercial kitchens that would otherwise sit empty.
Andrews first encountered the problem in 2016 while selling baked goods at farmers’ markets.
“I tried to find a commercial kitchen that I could rent only one day a week to prep for the farmers’ market and I just could not find one,” says Andrews. “I got on the phone, I called churches and community centres and cafés that are closed in the afternoon, just asking, ‘Can I rent your space? Can I rent your space?’ Couldn’t find one.”
After experiencing burnout in the restaurant industry, Andrews returned to school, studying sustainability at Dalhousie University. An internship with Farmers’ Markets of Nova Scotia reinforced what he had already experienced.
While interviewing approximately 20 farmers’ market managers across the province, Andrews discovered that access to commercial kitchens was a nearly universal challenge.
“Doesn’t matter where in the province you are, there’s people that are just desperately looking to rent a kitchen one, two, three days a week that aren’t ready for their own full-time lease.”
The solution came from an unlikely place. Andrew’s would like Food Web to be the Airbnb of kitchen rentals.
“Airbnb normalized renting that extra room,” Andrews explains. “What if we normalize sharing your kitchen?”
In 2023, Andrews partnered with software engineer Keegan Francis, securing initial support through a Dalhousie business accelerator to develop what amounts to an Airbnb for commercial kitchens.
Rather than owning kitchen facilities, Food Web acts as the intermediary, allowing restaurants, cafés, community organizations and other licensed food establishments to rent their unused space to entrepreneurs who need access to professional facilities.
The concept is already finding traction around Nova Scotia.
In Halifax, north-end restaurant Almonak rents kitchen space through the platform, while the Halifax Brewery Farmers’ Market makes its kitchen facilities available during quieter weekdays. Other participating kitchens include cafés and food businesses in Dartmouth and shared commercial facilities in Cape Breton.
For kitchen owners, the arrangement creates a potential new revenue stream without requiring additional customers or dining room seats. Owners determine their own rental rates, while Food Web handles the booking process and collects a percentage of each transaction.
“There’s no upfront cost. We only get paid when they get paid,” Andrews says.
At an average rental rate of approximately $30 per hour, Andrews calculates that a restaurant renting its kitchen for just six hours a week could generate more than $9,000 in annual gross rental revenue before fees and expenses. In an industry struggling with escalating food, labour and operating costs, that additional revenue could help cover utilities and other fixed expenses.
While finding an available kitchen is one challenge, paying for it is another.
To address affordability, Food Web has received a $25,000 grant from Feed Nova Scotia, administered through the Restaurants Association of Nova Scotia, with $15,000 dedicated to kitchen rental credits for qualifying food entrepreneurs.
The Food Web Kitchen Credit program allows approved applicants to offset some of their rental costs, potentially providing several days or even weeks of kitchen access, depending on the facility and amount of credit awarded.
According to Andrews, the program is aimed at entrepreneurs who have already taken meaningful steps toward establishing a viable food business.
“We are looking for people that are already at least a little bit operational,” he says, explaining that applicants should have an established business, existing sales or a credible plan to bring their products to market.
The funding is intended to provide some financial breathing room rather than simply subsidize an untested idea.
Applications are assessed by Food Web, with consideration given to ensuring funds reach entrepreneurs across the province, including regions outside Halifax and Cape Breton.
Interestingly, Andrews says many of the successful applicants so far have been newcomers to Canada, reflecting the growing number of entrepreneurs bringing foods from their cultural backgrounds to Nova Scotia’s markets.
For Cape Breton entrepreneurs Raelynn and Renee, the women behind The Pierogi Girls, the importance of accessible commercial kitchen space is more than theoretical.
Their young business specializes in frozen pierogis, a product that requires approved food preparation and storage facilities.
“Without access to an approved commercial kitchen, The Pierogi Girls would never have come to fruition,” the pair explain. “Our pierogis are a prepared product that needs to be kept frozen, so having appropriate space to produce them safely and meet food safety requirements was essential to getting our business off the ground.”
Their search for a suitable kitchen was far from easy.
Before discovering The Whale House, a community food facility operated by the Multicultural Association of Unama’ki-Cape Breton, they spent weeks contacting potential kitchen providers.
The Pierogi Girls actually established their relationship with The Whale House before Food Web expanded into Cape Breton. However, the arrival of the platform has made the process of finding and renting commercial kitchen space more accessible to other aspiring food entrepreneurs while simplifying scheduling and payment administration for the facility.
The Pierogi Girls have also benefited directly from the Kitchen Credit program.
“As a business that is still less than a year old, that additional support to help us get established and grow was so greatly appreciated,” they say.
For the pair, the significance extends beyond their own operation. Having experienced the challenges of finding a kitchen, they hope the platform will eliminate some of those obstacles for others.
“We know firsthand how challenging that initial search and startup can be, so we hope this leads to more local food entrepreneurs turning their ideas into reality, and, of course, more new delicious foods to discover at the market and beyond!”
For Andrews, commercial kitchen rentals are just the beginning.
His longer-term vision is to develop Food Web into a digital resource connecting virtually every component of the food system, from farmers and restaurants to community gardens, grocery stores and food-related nonprofits.
The platform already features an interactive food map, and Andrews envisions a future in which farmers could share tractors, food producers could rent specialized equipment such as dehydrators, and event organizers could book temporary refrigerated storage.
“That’s why we’re Food Web, not Kitchen Web, because we really want to connect the dots,” he says.
With kitchens already signing up from the United States, Andrews is thinking well beyond Nova Scotia. Yet the underlying idea remains rooted in a simple observation; the province has plenty of commercial kitchens, and plenty of people with food businesses they’d like to grow. What has been missing is an easy way to connect them.
It’s a relatively simple concept with potentially far-reaching consequences. For established restaurants, it offers a way to turn unused space into income. For aspiring entrepreneurs, it could mean the difference between a great recipe that never leaves the family kitchen and a viable food business.
And for Nova Scotians who love discovering something new at their local farmers’ market, it might just mean a few more delicious reasons to shop local.
