La Cocina: A Delicious Revolution
Can a Nepalese momo create economic freedom? Can Oaxacan plantains help transcend the severe barriers facing women of color and immigrants living in poverty? Can a pho as diverse in flavors as the city itself launch a culinary career? La Cocina’s founding premise is that, by helping empower those who are already hustling to get their food out there—offering access to a shared commercial kitchen and business acumen—they could cut through the red tape needed to grow. Enter La Cocina business incubator, which emerged from the Mission District as a pathway for informal, somewhat underground setups to develop into culinary businesses that support both their owners and the greater community.
It is a reality that women of color and immigrant populations are instigators of economic growth, and yet they are often denied access to loans and financing. This leads many home chefs to seek more informal situations where they might sell tamales out of their apartments or hand-deliver baked goods to neighbors and friends to make some extra cash. La Cocina has developed an innovative way to connect this underserved community with capital and connections to gain economic freedom in the competitive and expensive San Francisco landscape.
Since 2005, this progressive nonprofit has conducted three rounds of applications per year, seeking delicious, unique foods that will withstand the competitive Bay Area marketplace. Qualified applicants are required to provide a business plan. La Cocina works with applicants through a six-month pre-incubation period, where they receive technical assistance to further develop their plans. After that, they have access to an affordable commercial kitchen and ongoing business development support, launching into the next phase of opening their own storefronts, food carts, or restaurants when benchmarks are met.
Emiliana Puyana, Program Director at La Cocina, has a local Mendo connection. She is a long-time friend of the crew of the Big Chief in Laytonville. Each summer you can find her alongside Mat Paradis, Troy Terrill, and (returned to visit this year) Clay Carpenter, cooking up a ridiculously good Cajun feast for the annual Crawfish Boil. Emiliana has serious culinary chops, having learned to cook in her family’s kitchen in Venezuela, followed by the Culinary Institute of America, before settling in San Francisco. La Cocina helped her launch Jarred SF Brine, her business specializing in seasonal pickles, and she has now returned to work for the organization. The staff at La Cocina is as diverse as the clientele, with many members sharing in their history a passion for good food.
If hearing about these bad-ass culinary heroes makes you want to taste their food, stop by one of their many alumni businesses like Los Cilantros in Berkeley, owned by Dilsa Lugo, or Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement in Emeryville, which now employs ten people. Bini’s Kitchen on Howard Street makes Nepalese dumplings called momos, served searing hot and ready to munch. Bini is originally from Kathmandu, and through working with La Cocina, she was able to bring the complex spices of the Himalayan foothills here to northern California.
La Cocina has had a significant local impact, including $15 million in sales last year, incubating 40 businesses, and helping open more restaurants than any for-profit culinary group. But now they are reaching even higher. A capital campaign for the La Cocina Municipal Marketplace is under way.
Gentrification and lack of affordability are dominant factors in the Bay Area economic landscape. This pioneering, women-led marketplace will provide a concentration of low-cost food stalls in the heart of the Tenderloin, one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco, where many residents occupy single rooms with no access to a cooking stove or oven. The Municipal Marketplace will not only serve as a showcase for local entrepreneurs, but it will also function as a community gathering space.
Pushing back on entrenched historical economic inequality is not easy, but this group of chefs, eaters, activists, and entrepreneurs is making it happen—one delicious bite at a time.
Pitch into the Capital Campaign at bit.ly/LaCocinaMM. They are close to meeting their goal. The estimated opening date is Spring 2020. They also have a wonderful new cookbook available at lacocinasf.org/cookbook. Photo by Eric Wolfinger.
