SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Entrepreneurs with pots and pans in hands and signs urged county leaders to pass a law to allow microenterprise home kitchen operations Saturday afternoon.
If passed by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, the law would allow small business owners to cook from their homes rather than rent out a commercial kitchen.
It’s a law that passed in California in 2018, but each county has to adopt the law individually.
“There are so many people already doing this informally and this would allow them to come out of the shadows - get permitted through the health department. Do it all in the right way and be able to make an ancillary income," said Roya Bagheri, co-lead for the San Diego MEHKO coalition
She added the law would be a great economic opportunity for business owners and wouldn't present competition for sit-in restaurants.
The law would also positively impact cooks like Erlene LaCorur. She’s already ready to go if the county votes in favor of the law.
“Here is the letter from my permit—my seller's permit—everything that is needed. So the only thing I would need now is the MEHKO permit to start doing it legally out of my home," said LaCorur.
She said she doesn’t want to open a traditional restaurant. Instead, she wants to keep it family-style and fresh.
”I currently rent a commercial kitchen and that would eliminate the rent, the insurance that I have to put into that if I could have the kitchen in my home then that would be money in my pocket," she explained.
Cooks would only be allowed to make $50,000 per year and could make 60 meals per week.
