One of my ideas to earn some money/fill some time is to look at providing a service with a very specific area of cooking. I would hope to try and sell stuff through local outlets. I'm not looking to promote anything because there's nothing to promote yet, but what I am looking for is some guidance on how I can obtain information about the type of business involving food that I could run from a domestic kitchen. Does anyone have any advice or information?

many thanks.

Hi Heather,

Jack knows a fair bit about the food trade, I'm sure he'll be along to help you out shortly. Before he arrives however you might want to go into a little more detail about what you are trying to do. The more detail you give the more help you are likely to get.

And hats off to you for thinking of starting your own business - it's not always easy to carve out a niche.

I completely agree...good luck on your venture. I would certainly be able to assist in answering your questions... If you don't feel comfortable posting your plans/questions here, then send along a pm...

Jack

thanks both of you - I need to think about a couple of things, but I may very well contact Jack privately.

Hi Heather,

For the benefit of other people who may come here later searching for the same answers try to keep the discussion as public as possible. Moving a discussion into private doesn't aid the community, and I'm sure you have some interesting points to discuss. Naturally if there are details which are personal and can't be posted publically these should be sent in private, but try to keep as much public as you can. I am sure there are many expats in a similair position...

Mark, at the moment I have very little idea of where I will take this because I'm not even sure if one is allowed to sell food cooked in a domestic kitchen. That's the question I wanted answered - or at least a direction to the place where I could get the question answered. It's one of many ideas that I have and I'm not ready to take it any further - It's just one thing of many things that I probably won't do. However, I don't want to be discussing my tentative business ideas publicly.

Hi Heather, well there's your question - can one sell cooked food from a domestic kitchen? It's a good question, and will surely be useful for others in the future. This wasn't mentioned in your original post, so I guess Jack can now jump in and answer it.

Naturally we don't want you to discuss sensitive commercial information in public, we are only trying to get a useful Q&A process going for the benefit of the community. I also propose that we change the subject line of this thread to reflect your question a little better. Subject lines are used by google to locate relevant information. How about "Running a business from a domestic kitchen"?

yes, of course, Mark please change the question - I realise that my original question about domestic kitchens was a little vague. Thanks.

That's a very tricky and grey area. Theoretically, the answer is no! However, I do see plenty of people selling jams, syrups, etc. at the market, and I am sure they are producing those items in a 'domestic kitchen.'

I'll try to get a few more specifics about the gastro laws...
Jack

thanks Jack. I'm looking at providing some specific baked goods that I haven't seen readily available in Switzerland - when I gave some to my Swiss neighbours recently they were quite excited by them.

Feel free to send some over to the English Forum team for sampling But seriously, I presume you've also seen http://www.sugars-online.net/ and that your products aren't the same?

I've spent a lot of time looking at her site and there certainly is a 'cross over' but she's in Zurich and I'm not so I think that there's possibly room for the 2 of us. Maybe I'm wrong. I was thinking of keeping it within a 15 km radius of Schaffhausen because I just couldn't cope beyond that.

although I'm in the Canton of Zurich - I only just make it in by about 500 metres - my area is really Schaffhausen

Perhaps you can try the same approach in Schaffhausen...Make a deal with a local restaurant (after demonstrating your product) to use a part of their kitchen (afternoons between lunch and dinner, or on off-days) to produce your product. Be willing to pay a small rent, or offer them your product to sell in their restaurant... It's worth a try...I am sure you will be surprised by the answers you receive....restaurants are always looking for some creative way to use their capital assests during off times...

good luck,
Jack

Jack, is that how the other business operates? Through renting kitchen space in a restaurant? That's an excellent idea. I'll give it some thought. Many thanks.

Hi Heather... It's just an idea...you'll have to contact Sugars yourself to ask them about how they run their business...

Good luck,
Jack

Hi Heather,

Also worth checking to see if there is a cookery school near you. They will have a "pro" kitchen which should live up to health and safety standards. I know that they are often happy to rent the space out while they don't have courses running for example the Klubschule Migros in Zurich do this occasionally.

I'll join Mark on the quality control sampling!

thank you , Lynn.