Culinary students may graduate with a suite of chopping techniques and wine pairing expertise, but those kitchen skills aren't as helpful when it comes to balancing a budget or navigating inventory.
This makes it tough for chefs to make the entrepreneurial leap: 60 percent of new restaurants fail within the first year, 80 percent don't make it to year five.
That's why Kendall College, the culinary school on Goose Island, is launching a business incubator. The program will offer students, faculty and alumni business skills workshops, connections to mentors and access to capital through undergraduate business classes, a 10 week elective course and a post-grad fellows program supported by Family Farmed's Good Food Business Accelerator and The Hatchery Chicago, a local food-focused incubator.
It's among the first business incubators launched within a culinary school nationwide, and Rob Watson, director of the program, said it's needed.
"Food is the common denominator, it's what everyone understands," he said. "If you bring in somebody who is a great chef or has a lot of experience working in food, really what they end up talking to the students about are the fundamental business skills."
With that in mind, the business incubator will address both traditional business skills--finance, accounting, payroll-- while answering more specific food business questions, such as "How do I find commercial kitchen space? What kind of packaging should I use? Who should I contact at retail outlets? What kind of licensing do I need?"
"If you don’t have someone guiding you, it can triple or quadruple the time that it takes to figure it all out," said Watson.
The incubator will be comprised of three components. First, professors, mentors and partners from the incubator will hold entrepreneurship workshops this fall in related undergraduate business classes. Then, this winter students can enroll in a 10-week business incubator elective (initially with space for about 15 students) which will include one day of classroom work on business management, and one day in the field visiting local incubators, entrepreneurs and investors.
Starting in January, Kendall hopes to choose its first round of Business Incubator Fellows--up to five individuals, likely either alumni or faculty, with established business plans to work with the incubator's partners to commercialize or scale their business. Businesses will be food and sustainability-focused, said Watson, and could range from a food product (a line of hot sauces) to a food truck to a restaurant concept.
The Hatchery will provide students with access to their curriculum, and offer an opportunity to connect their two founding partners: ICNC (a west side incubator with production kitchens) and ACCION Chicago (for access to funding).
"We decided to partner with Kendall because we want to see Chicago businesses succeed," said Natalie Shmulik, food business consultant at The Hatchery, in an email. "Kendall has done such an incredible job equipping students with the skill-sets they need to start their own food businesses. We want to be there to ensure that these businesses continue to grow even outside of the institution."
Family Farmed's Good Food Business Accelerator will give Fellows access to curriculum events and seminars at the accelerator, and give Fellows insight into the level a business needs to be at in order to apply to the accelerator.
"As a leading culinary school with a strong business school as well, Kendall is a natural partner for our work," added Jim Slama, founder and CEO of Family Farmed, in an email. "We share a mutual interest in helping food businesses start up and scale up to fuel local economic growth and create jobs."
We share a mutual interest in helping food businesses start up and scale up to fuel local economic growth and create jobs.
Watson said the Fellows will also receive some sort of monetary award, potentially a scholarship or grant, to get their business off the ground, but the amount is not yet confirmed.
Watson pointed at Kendall alum Mason Edelson, who recently cofounded Graze Kitchenette, a "burgers & bowls" cafe in Revival Food Hall, as an example of what he'd like the incubator to encourage. "We realize that there were a lot of students coming out of Kendall that were very successful, but the process was so one-off," he said. "Formalizing that process is a big part of what we’re trying to do."
"We want to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem at the school that starts to make this a destination for…food entrepreneurs," he added.
