Cooking is an altogether a delicious task. It is indeed a prized and a reputed job too. Well it is a competitive field because every family has at least one person who can cook and with the divorce rates increasing, everyone is trying to become a cook of late.

For some people, cooking is merely a hobby which shows its colors on Sundays, but for some women, it is a regular task to keep them and family going. For at that moment a woman is not a mere cook, she is the feeding hand of the house.

Since the economy of some countries is going to politicians and corruption is ruining things, every family now needs more than a hand to earn because it is difficult for one hand to earn and if not more three hands to spend. Thus comes the concept of housewives earning but from home so that they can manage the home as well as earn.

Well this gave room to many prospects like home tuitions, Tiffin service or imparting cooking skills through classes, painting, embroidery and many such skills. Some have also gone one step ahead and decided to start a catering company, or open their own small food joints or kiosks, and found success with these. If you have the magic or the taste in your cooking then there is nothing to stop it from flowing.

• 5 Ways to Make Money From Your Kitchen
• How Can I Make Money With my Cooking Skills?
• Can You Make Good Money as a Cook?
• What Food Can I Sell to Make Money?
• How do I Turn my Passion For Cooking Into a Career?
• How to Make Money With Cooking Videos
• Easy Food to Sell to Make Money
• Ways to Make Money With Food
• How to Make Money From Cooking
• Starting a Food Business From Home
• How Make Money With a Commercial Kitchen
• How to Become Rich as a Chef
• How to Make Money as a Cook
• Food Careers List
• How to Make Money Cooking BDO
• How to Make Money as Chef
• 10 Tips to Improve Your Cooking Skills
• How to Start a Home-based Catering Business
• How to Start a Retail Food Business
• 5 Profitable Food Business Ideas
• How do Cooking Shows Make Money?
• How to Make Money From Home Cooking UK
• Cooking For Money OSRS
• Culinary Careers That Pay Well

5 Ways to Make Money From Your Kitchen

Everybody needs food, and being able to cook well is a highly sought-after skill. You don’t even have to be a professional chef with your own kitchen. With a quick search for “commercial kitchen rental near me” you can find and rent suitable kitchen space complete with all of the equipment you need in your area! If friends and family are always complimenting you on your cooking, then that might mean you have what it takes to do something with food that people will be happy to pay for.

Here are five ways you can go about earning an extra income from food.

1. Social Dining

The fast-growing social dining phenomenon is really an extension of social networking, only this really is social — you actually get to meet up with the people you communicate with online in real life!

Read Also: Make Money Marketing Environmentally-Friendly Laundry Detergent

And it’s really taken off. There are new social dining platforms appearing all the time. However, it is in the home restaurant niche where the real money is. It is very possible to earn a good profit while developing your skills in the kitchen.

There are specialist online platforms out there to help you connect with people who will pay restaurant prices for your menu. Just be sure that you test out your recipes, as well as your ability to cook and look after a large number of people, before turning your home into a pop-up restaurant.

2. Cooking lessons

If you do try social dining, you might find that a lot of guests are asking about techniques or the preparation of certain dishes, which brings us to our next tip for making money from home cooking — running your own virtual cooking school.

Again, there are plenty of tools online that to help you do this, the most obvious being Skype. With the current trend in celebrity chefs and home cooking, online classes are one route amateurs are choosing to gain new skills.

The secret here is to find the niche that differentiates you from the competition, whether that’s a particular type of cuisine or a specialised skill. Obviously, previous experience in a professional kitchen can help, but if you already have a food blog with a lot of followers, this could be the ideal target audience if you’re planning to offer classes.

3. Your own website

We’ve already touched on the subject of a food blog, which can be the perfect tool for showcasing your knowledge and expertise in a certain area. If you already have one, or are thinking of setting one up, why not go a step further and develop it into a website that can be monetized.

There are plenty of content management platforms out there to help you do that and offer ways for your customers to pay. Once that’s in place, all you need to do is add the revenue streams, such as downloadable recipes, kitchen tools or utensils, cookery books, or even food products that you create yourself.

4. Specialist cooking

At a time when people are more health conscious and careful about what they put in their bodies than ever before, there’s a huge market opening up for specialist food categories, such as gluten-free, vegan, homegrown, or organic produce.

If you’re an expert in one of these areas, then many people will gladly pay you to share that expertise, especially if you have developed innovative ways to help with sourcing, growing, designing, and preparing clever foods from what can often be a limited range of ingredients.

5. YouTube Cooking Channel

Another popular way of making money online is through a YouTube channel. This medium is already cluttered with would-be celebrity chefs, so to succeed here, again, you’ll need a niche, a theme, or an angle. It doesn’t even have to directly focus on the preparation of food dishes.

One idea, for instance, might be to review the best food products or kitchen equipment and gadgets, from chefs knives, to professional-standard bunn coffee makers. That way, you might be able to get sponsorships from producers or manufacturers. The key is to get as many viewers as possible to your channel, as you’ll be relying on ads for your revenue.

You’ll need to enable your channel for monetization and connect your money to an AdSense account in order to be paid. You’ll also need to know, or be prepared to learn, about video and sound techniques to ensure that you get good quality videos.

When used in combination, these individual strategies can provide you with a full-time income. As a newcomer to this field of expertise, it’s important that you persevere with your passion of cooking and keep your long-term goals in mind.

Don’t be put off by a slow start, as miracles do not happen overnight. However, once you gain momentum and begin to build a presence both online and through word of mouth, the results can come thick and fast.

How Can I Make Money With my Cooking Skills?

1. Freelance as a caterer for small events

Connect with other parents in your community and casually drop your cooking prowess into the conversation. Keep your ears open for any special events coming up at your child’s school and offer to cater for a small fee.

You can also grab a pack of 100 business cards from Vistaprint for less than 10 bucks to give your business a professional edge. Then you can approach local small businesses of no more than 10 people (remember, you’re a one-wo/man show) and promote your services.

You may also need a license to operate this business from home so make sure you have the right permit, license and business structure to do so.

2. Get hired as a personal chef

This is the reason why businesses like takeachef, chefdehome, atyourtable exist because the demand exists.

Gone are the days when only the ridiculously rich can afford a personal chef. Indulgent experiences like this are now getting more and more attainable and guess what? You can capitalize on this too if you have rockstar culinary skills.

3. Can you bake?

If your answer is yes then you can start a made-to-order cake business. Once again, you can get your name out there by networking with the parents at your children’s school or the moms in your mothers group.

You can also be extra friendly with people at your local shops or playground. You can even pin your business details on community notice boards around your area. The idea is to make sure that people are seeing your business name everywhere.

4. Be an affiliate for food and kitchen products

Be an affiliate on behalf of brands by promoting the product affiliate links all over your blog or social media. If a visitor clicks through any of your affiliate links and makes a purchase, you get to pocket a small fee.

And of course, the more people buy through your links, the more money you earn!

5. Get paid to write for bigger blogs.

If you find writing enjoyable, you can even pitch your writing skills to bigger food/cooking blogs than yours and you could get paid for your articles.

You would either be a guest writer or a ghost writer. A guest writer is a paid gig with recognition.

Whereas if you’re a ghost writer, you’re just in the background pumping out blog posts for a big blog but of course, you’re getting paid.

Depending on the project, ghostwriters can get paid anywhere between $5,000 to $50,000 according to bizfluent.

6. Publish an eBook and sell it on Amazon or on your blog

It can be about learning how to cook or you could curate your best recipes and put them in an eBook. This could be a great passive income idea even if you just sell your book for $9 each.

If you have about 1500 people in your email list and even if only 500 of them bought it, that’s still $4,500 in your pocket for something that you only have to work for once. Not bad!

Can You Make Good Money as a Cook?

Culinary chefs have opportunities to make more money throughout their careers as they gain kitchen experience or become skilled in making certain foods, like pastries or vegetarian dishes. Promotion as an executive chef, kitchen manager or general restaurant manager also leads to higher salary opportunities, as does working for high-end establishments.

A look at how experience alone can affect a typical chef’s salary, as of March 2019:

• Entry-level: $19,763 – $56,728
• Mid-career: $22,068 – $54,775
• Experienced: $22,800 – $56,472
• Late-career: $24,522 – $61,042

What Food Can I Sell to Make Money?

Your market may vary widely in terms of which foods sell easily. For example, in some places, the easiest food to sell is French Fries. In contrast, other places have good niche markets for organic, artisanal, vegan food trends. You’ll have to research your market to figure out what’s going to sell easily in your area.

With that in mind, though, here are some examples of easy food to sell:

• Candy and packaged snacks that you simply buy in bulk and resell
• Chili or baked beans
• Concession stand foods such as fries, corndogs, nachos, and funnel cakes
• Cookies, pastries, and other baked goods
• Corn on the cob or elote off the cob
• Drinks including lemonade, coffee, and mocktails
• Fresh-baked bread
• Hummus and/or other dips with bread and crudités
• Jams, jellies, and other homemade canned items
• Kebabs / skewers
• Oatmeal
• Pancakes
• Pickles and other pickled vegetables
• Pizza including deep-fried pizza; consider offering both traditional toppings and more unique ones
• Simple salads with just a few fresh ingredients and your own dressing
• Simple sandwiches, such as grilled cheese, done really well
• Tacos and quesadillas
• Toasts, such as avocado toast and bruschetta
• Trending foods, such as meat marinades, açaí bowls, or plant-based protein dishes

How do I Turn my Passion For Cooking Into a Career?

If you have cooking skills then you have just the trick or the magic to win the hearts of many. If these skills are molded with some management and business tactics one can become a shear success. To turn your cooking into hot profits all you need to do is read through and follow the tips because here are some world best ideas.

1. Plan: The first step is to plan and create a project report in writing. Many people miss this step and out of enthusiasm and excitement open up joints which because of lack of planning fail. To prevent financial loss and come up with a strong joint, planning is a must. Plan about the total investment required initially. You need to plan for the right place and the right area to open up the joint.

Target the right customers. Everything is a part of planning and it does not end till someone actually becomes successful. Planning is required even if the project is a small one that is home catering or Tiffin service for ten people. Planning is important because that is a foundation on which you will build your empire and history has so many such cases that depict, improper planning leads to all hell breaking losses.

2. Money: Well to make money you also need to first give it or apply it. Money attracts money and thus without an investment opening up anything is a waste of whatever meagre resources one has. If you have less money, start with something small and build it up. Once it becomes a cash cow, you can make it big to a whole new level.

Keep money in control forty percent of the battle is already won. Secondly, also keep money deposited at hand so that whenever there is an emergency or need you have it thereby un-hindering the operations. For example, it generally happens in the cooking business that we run out of ingredients or cooking gas which is embarrassing as well as bad for the name.

Thus keep money at hand, so that in need it can be utilized and open more opportunities for the business to grow and flourish. Also, business requires constant inflow of cash, the amount may vary but indeed it does require cash inflow. Thus a penny not spent is a penny saved and thus can be utilized in business expansion.

3. Taste: Catering or cooking business requires one more very important aspect and that is development of taste. Every hand has a different taste altogether be it the very same dish with the same very ingredients. Every hand has a unique style of cooking which determines its taste and richness.

In this business you need to set the taste of your hand on the tongues of people so that they come asking for more. The taste should be such that it just clicks the taste buds into coming in for more and more and more. Taste is something which if right will bring in ocean of customers and people who will always be loyal to your joint.

Again, I will point out that irrespective of what level of business is being opened, good and rich taste should be part of the food. Make food as much delicious as possible.

If the food is delicious, its smell will attract and bind the customers. All the foodies passing through the area will be at your joint munching anything you provide them. Awesome smell and awesome taste go hand in hand.                           

4. Quality control: Always have a quality check on the preparation, storage and presentation practices. If all these are being done adequately without any glitches, it is superb. If not, then you might just want to give it a thought, because it will ruin your business otherwise. Everyone prefers hygienic, clean and quality controlled conditions and surroundings.

Having all these will not only make your business flourish but also tie up your customers to you. For example if the cooking conditions are not up to the mark or has glitches then, it is something worth checking out because if any customer becomes ill because of the food then he might not want to come back and will also spread the same experience across.

Also take care of a very important fact that there should never ever found a single strand of hair in the food you just served. A single strand of hair and you are finished. Abide by the health watch and also ensure that your cooking, storage and service is completely hygienic, sanitized and regularly monitored.

In all the hotels, or restaurants, kitchen is a place which is always in a mess which as a matter of fact remains because of its constant use, but tries to keep it as clean and sophisticated as possible. It is a tough task but nevertheless is possible. Manage it in such a way that your kitchen too deserves smiles of people who visit your joint.

5. Innovate: Nail it in your head to innovate. Innovation too has its fruits. Try and develop new taste and new food items which are developed into a unique and delicious taste. Try to bring in the delicacies and successful experiments. Many a times experiments costs too much and fail too, but don’t get de-motivated.

Every unsuccessful experiment is a stepping stone to success and winning. Competition is tough and in order to survive and come up to the top you constantly need to innovate and improve. It is a battle and only the fittest will survive and prosper.

6. Competition: The world is competitive and monopoly is a long gone thing. In order to do more than just survival, certain things need to be followed and complied with. Have a competitive edge but only adequately. Don’t crib about it and cry too. Nothing comes with a silver spoon.

Do smart work and manage things properly. No one is perfect and improvise on those things that your competitor lacks. Go over and make it happen and only a small edge will make the difference.

7. Price: I never recommend prices to be low or high. It depends upon the clientele you are seeking. It is always the type and nature of clientele that you want decides the prices of food items you are serving. If you want a cream and rich crowd, your prices will change automatically and vice versa. But the cost that you will incur in making a food item should actually decide the price.

Keep a profit margin which can cover all your costs and leave you something in hand. Don’t be greedy and try for three hundred or four hundred percent profit from the beginning. Keep a low profit at the start and as and when people get to know your joint and step in increases, you can then increase the prices. Once the person is your customer, unless he is annoyed or bored, he won’t go away.                                                  

8. Cook food with heart: Prepare food and serve them with love and affection. It is something that comes free of cost but will fetch you more money than ever. Add your love, happiness and gratitude to the food item prepared and then serve it. Make the person to whom you are providing the food happy and fond of you. Serve him as if he or she is your kith and kin. Show your gratitude and never become angry.

Even if the customer is annoyed by something give him the reason and immediately apologize if it is your fault. If the person is annoyed unnecessarily, give him or her some room and walk away without getting into a verbal dual. Often patience and a good and positive nature will melt the customer’s anger and give you leverage.

9. Charity: In catering business there is always a loss of food and ingredients. Save as much loss as possible but if you are unable to, then, give the left- over food to kids or beggars who do not get a single meal a day. Do some charity in order to get blessings and improve the society simultaneously. Giving food to a needy is far better than making a person eat who is already full. Charity should not be a rarity but a task regularly taken up and accomplished.

10. Have a good heart: Business is for money making but don’t get so engrossed in it that you become greedy and money minded. Everything if adequate is of worth, else it has its own repercussions. Have heart that stands out for the needy and is gratuitous. Thank God and seek his blessings. Also serve the poor and the rich alike. Don’t compare and create differences.

Often it is seen in businesses that people fight for the pennies which should be avoided if you are running a business. Also give the staff their dues and their share of service charges and tips. Going after such petty issues will only kill your business and create unrest. Stay happy and make others around you too happy and content.

How to Make Money With Cooking Videos

A successful YouTube channel takes a lot of work, but we’ve broken down how to start your YouTube cooking show into these simple steps:

1. Watch a lot of YouTube cooking shows. Check out what others are doing, and see where you could add something new to the market. Form your concept around something you’re confident that you can do well with a unique perspective.
2. Figure out how you will brainstorm, test recipes, film, and edit. Write up a schedule that works for your life and stick to it. Regular uploads (once per week or more) will help you retain followers.
3. Create a story board for each show before you film. Practice talking viewers through the recipe, and think about what shots you want to get of your dish. Consider what will be most helpful and most enticing to your audience.
4. Create social media profiles to promote your channel. For example, post stills of your videos on Instagram, or ask your followers to suggest new recipes on Twitter.

There are two main ways that you can make money from your YouTube channel: video ads and sponsored content.

Getting Ads on Your YouTube Videos

When you gain enough subscribers and watch hours on your channel, you can “monetize” your videos, or allow YouTube to put ads on them. You earn money depending on the format of the ad put on your content, the price of the ad featured, or other factors set by YouTube.

Getting Sponsorships for Your YouTube Channel

If you are able to grow your channel to have several thousand subscribers, product brands may start contacting you for sponsorship opportunities. Generally, a brand will ask you to use their product in your video and will compensate you according to terms set before you create the video.

The bigger your base of viewers, the more attractive your channel will be to brands looking to promote their products.

Moving from YouTube to Network Television

After working on YouTube full-time, some users find even more success by transitioning to network television. For example, Hannah Hart, host of the YouTube cooking show “My Drunk Kitchen,” now has a Food Network show called “I Hart Food.”

If you are willing to put in the time and are innovative enough to attract a following, YouTube could take your cooking career outside of the restaurant and into the spotlight.

If you want to explore opportunities for more creativity in your cooking career, consider starting your own YouTube cooking show. This endeavor could help you hone your skills, earn some money, and may even change your career. Having a successful YouTube channel is a big time commitment, but your dedication could take your cooking career to the next level.

Easy Food to Sell to Make Money

here are the top foods that are easy to make that you can sell for a profit. 

1. Cookies

Cookies are easy to bake, involve inexpensive ingredients and can have a market anywhere. You can literally create dozens of different types of cookies and see which one sells best. Cookies are great to sell around schools or wherever there are young kids. 

2. Tacos

Tacos are really popular among the Latino population as well as anyone else looking for an affordable meal. Tortillas, shredded cheese, sour cream, lettuce and tomato are easy to find. When it comes to meats, start out with affordable ground beef and chicken. 

3. Sandwiches

Sandwiches are easy to make and travel well. You can try a variety of sandwiches and see which ones sell best. You can sell sandwiches around office parks during lunch hour. 

4. Cupcakes

Much like cookies, cupcakes are easy to bake and have a big audience of potential buyers. Also, you can try a number of different cupcake recipes to see which ones sell best. 

5. Fruits

If you don’t want to prepare food, you can sell fruit around an office park or anywhere that offers foot traffic. You can try a variety of common fruits such as bananas, apples, and oranges. Also try some more unique fruits such as dates, blueberries, and watermelon slices. 

Ways to Make Money With Food

Clearly, there’s money to be made by exploiting your cooking skills. Here are nine solid ways to make a pretty penny from food-related entrepreneurship.

Create a Food Product

Let’s start out with the obvious. Launching your own product is the most direct way to profit from your love of good food. Whether it’s specialty popcorn, maple candy, beef jerky, sourdough bread, salsa, pickle relish or BBQ sauce, your product needs a hook to stand out. Try taking the all-natural route and making your product 100% organic.

Start a Food Blog

If you’re passionate about food, launching a food blog can be a great way to profit. Pick a specific niche and monetize your posts with affiliate links and a few ads. If you need some inspiration to guide your efforts, check out Touch of Yum to see how a robust food blog really works.

Enter Recipe Contests

If you have a bunch of killer recipes hanging around your kitchen, you can potentially monetize them by entering recipe contests. You could either compete against other cooks directly in cooking showdowns or submit your recipes to online contests. Storied dishes such as the Reuben sandwich came to prominence as a result of recipe contests.

Publish a Recipe Book

Another smart way to make a mint from your accumulated cooking knowledge is by publishing a book of recipes. Nowadays, it’s easier than ever to publish books on a budget. You can take advantage of physical book publishing services like Lulu or simply release your book as a digital download for PCs and tablet.

Create a Cooking Show

Preparing and cooking food at a high level is something that is best taught in a visual manner. You can easily create a cooking show on your local cable access channel and monetize it with local business sponsors. Alternatively, a YouTube channel that boasts AdWords ads and affiliate links can be even more lucrative.

Mobile Events Catering

Whether it’s a food cart or a traditional buffet-style catering business, delivering your grub onsite to consumers can produce great profits. Once you’ve built a name for yourself, you should be able to land plenty of gigs catering weddings, civic gatherings and sports events. The hardest part is selecting just one niche to focus on.

Sell Utensils & Accessories

There’s more to creating outstanding food than raw ingredients and technique. Like an experienced woodworker, a good chef needs plenty of hardware to achieve their visions. You can make some decent scratch by selling cooking equipment online or out in the real world. Alternatively, you could design and sell your own gear to consumers.

Become a Food Photographer

In the world of food, presentation is everything. As a result, high-resolution photos of meals and other tasty concoctions are a big part of the marketing equation for everything from cooking magazines to grocery labels.

If you’ve got digital single-lens reflex camera, like the Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera and DIGIC 4 Imaging with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (aff) and a knack for capturing food in its best light, you can make some serious money.

Teach Nutrition Class

One can make a positive difference in the lives of others and earn a healthy side income at the same time by showing them how to eat right. Teaching nutrition classes at your local community center or church can be a great way to share your love of delicious, healthy food with your fellow citizens.

Earning Well through Eating Well

Obviously, there are quite a few ways to create thriving businesses that revolve around food. These days, eating well and living well are viewed as being the same thing by quite a few people. Given this new reality, the sky’s the limit as far as monetizing cooking, recipes and food in general is concerned.

How to Make Money From Cooking

If you are blessed with culinary skills, there are lots of great ways to make money cooking at home. Whether you’re a trained professional, a just a cooking enthusiast, you’d be surprised how many ways you can monetize your tasty talent.

1. Teach Cooking Classes

If you’re a skilled chef or have knowledge of specialty cuisine, you could offer to give cooking classes.

These days, you have quite a few options.

In-person classes have a personal touch that gives you one-on-one time with your students. This is an especially great option for couples looking to have a fun date night.

However, you can also teach a live online class over Skype or Zoom. However, the best option is to create a self-paced video course. This allows you to create your course once and sell it over and over to customers all over the world.

2. Start A Cooking Blog

Blogging is one of the best ways to share your cooking expertise with like-minded people. However, I don’t think it’s any secret that there are lots of cooking blogs online, and thus, the competition is pretty stiff.

No worries, all you have to do is find a way to make your blog unique or entertaining.

Keep in mind that starting a blog will take a lot of effort in the beginning as you build your site, write blog posts, and attract a consistent audience.

However, if you stick with it, you can create a site that brings in a nice amount of passive income from advertising, affiliate marketing, or selling your cookbooks or courses.

Seriously, there are tons of bloggers out there that make six or even seven-figures per year through their blog.

3. Create And Sell A Cookbook

Writing, publishing, and selling a cookbook may seem like an overwhelming task. However, in today’s digital world, it has never been easier to create and sell your own book. If you are constantly getting requests for your recipes, you might consider selling them in a nice cookbook for your biggest fans.

If you already have a solid social media following, you are off to a great start. Companies like Amazon have a great platform for authors looking to self-publish their own books.

4. Start A Cooking Instagram Account

“You eat with your eyes first” is a popular quote among chefs.

This is absolutely true.

When we aren’t dining at nice restaurants or cooking with fresh ingredients, people enjoy looking at pictures of amazing food.

Instagram is the perfect platform for cooks looking to create a social media following for their business.

In addition to gaining followers, you can also monetize your account with sponsored posts and affiliate marketing.

5. Cook Specialty Items And Cuisine

Do you know how to cook a rare or specialty type of food?

This could be an opportunity to make some great money.

For instance, if you’re a trained pastry chef and know how to make the perfect mille-feuille, you could offer your tasty treats to local businesses.

Since specialty foods are usually difficult and time-consuming to make, local coffee shops might prefer to purchase them for their guests rather than make them in-house.

You don’t have to be a chef or even own a restaurant to make money from food. In fact, there are many ways to earn extra cash by selling your culinary skills. Cooking for friends and family is a great way to earn extra income. It doesn’t take much effort, and you can charge whatever you think is fair.

6. Sell Food Online

If you’re looking to sell food online and make money from cooking, consider starting with Amazon’s FBA program. This allows you to set up an online store where customers can purchase your products directly through Amazon. Then, Amazon handles shipping and customer service.

7. Become an Event Hostess

If you love cooking and enjoy entertaining guests, then becoming an event hostess might be right up your alley. As an event hostess, you will be responsible for planning and executing events such as birthday parties, weddings, baby showers, and more. At the same time, you can make money from cooking.

8. Be a Personal Chef

If you’re looking for a flexible job where you can work at home, consider being a personal chef. This career option allows you to cook meals for clients who need help with meal preparation and make money from cooking.

Starting a Food Business From Home

For the person who enjoys cooking or baking, learning how to start a food business from home is a great way to combine a hobby with a career. Like other businesses, a home-based food business requires a lot of research and planning to start. However, you will require additional permits, inspections and marketing strategies before being allowed to make a sale.

Below are some things to consider when starting a food business from home.

Choose Your Niche

Decide what kind of food you want to sell and how. A variety of food-related business options include catering, meal delivery services and baked goods. You can focus on specific niche markets, such as catering weddings, meal delivery for new moms or baked goods sold through local coffee shops or stores.

Conduct Market Research

It is very important that you do your research before starting your at home food business as the food industry is very competitive. Go to business networking events such as those run by the Small Business Development Centers, SCORE, and your local Chambers of Commerce. This gives you a great opportunity to pick the brains of local business people in the food industry and see what works and what doesn’t.

Clippy McKenna, founder of Clippy’s, a maker of food condiments, says that if you can’t perform more comprehensive market research, use your friends and the people you know to test your food recipes on. Every bit of feedback you can get is helpful.

Prepare a Business Plan

While a business plan doesn’t have to be extra formal, it does help you take a vague idea for your at home food business and make a more concrete plan for accomplishing it. It is essential if you need financial backing, to convince your investors of your overall business strategy and financial outlook.

If you need help writing a business plan, you can use the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website or work with SCORE, a network of working and retired executives who freely share their expertise.

Licenses and Permits

You will need to check your local zoning rules to make sure that you are allowed to run a food business out of your house. Otherwise, you may need to look into renting professional kitchen space. Next, you will need to make sure that your cooking facilities pass all state food cleanliness requirements. Check with your state for more specifics.

In general, this will mean that you will have to make sure that your business kitchen is clearly separated from your personal kitchen and that you are not using the utensils in your professional kitchen for personal use.

Take some state required food handling courses to help you better understand all the requirements. Lastly, you will want to get a business license and a resale license which will allow you to buy ingredients wholesale tax free.

Purchase Your Equipment

Purchase your food making equipment and ingredients from suppliers such as kaTom restaurant Supply, INC. or General Hotel & Restaurant Supply. This is dictated by the type of food you’ll be making but can include items such as bowls, baking dishes, mixers, spoons and other utensils and measuring items.

These should be stored separately from your personal items as should the food ingredients as well. If you will be selling your goods through stores, purchase packaging materials to wrap your food items.

If your state has labeling laws, use a computer to create ingredient labels to stick to your food packages. You can check with your state’s Department of Public Health for more details. If you will be working as a caterer, purchase serving trays, bowls and other items that look nice for public events.

Promote Your Business

Tap into your group of friends that you had try your food and mentors that you made from going to your business networking events. According to Erin Fuller, executive director of the National Association of Women Business Owners, this was how she was able to get her first client. According to Stephen Hall, author of From Kitchen to Market, hand out free samples of your food at local fairs and farmer markets.

Also, consider using social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram or an e-commerce business with a platform like Shopify. Put up a lot of pictures of your products and perhaps include recipes that use your food.

Lastly, be prepared to pitch directly to supermarkets and focus groups. They want to see that you have a focused plan and strategy of how your food product will fit on their shelf space.

How Make Money With a Commercial Kitchen

There’s money to be made in the restaurant industry but many owners overlook a few key aspects that could turn their losses into gains. Check out these 10 tips to make your restaurant profitable and stay that way for years to come.

1. Know Your Operational Costs Well, Specifically Food and Alcohol
The average food cost for a traditional restaurant should be around 29-32%. Typical combined costs for varying types of alcohol are slightly lower, around 21%. The more aware you are of these costs, the better you can set menu prices to maximize profit without charging your customers too much.

Profit margins tend to be highest when your menu prices are around between $15.00 and $25.00. Buy local, fresh food; it tastes better and is cheaper than its frozen counterparts. Work closely with your vendors to make sure you are ordering the correct amount of food to eliminate waste and ensure cost effectiveness.

You can reduce the ingredient costs of your most expensive menu items by offering a similar lower grade option when available.

This will pass savings on to the customer while maintaining or increasing your profits. Don’t forget to keep your books organized, forecast your sales realistically, and order appropriately for different days of the week.

2. Determine Your Role in the Organization and Hire Appropriately
Overworking yourself can easily turn that dream of owning a restaurant into a nightmare. You can’t open the restaurant, cook the food, greet, serve, bartend, clean, run the books, and close the restaurant on your own.

Make sure you have a chef, manager, bartender, and wait staff you can trust. Delegate the tasks that you don’t need to, or don’t want to do so you can concentrate on making your restaurant profitable and have some work/life balance.

3. Have a Good Front of House
First impressions are important. Have a polite host or waitperson introduce themselves to customers and welcome them to your restaurant. Seat them quickly and use welcoming and inviting gestures.

Don’t forget to open and close the door for them and thank them on their way out. Your customers deserve nothing but the best treatment and a little kindness can go a long way in terms of positive reviews.

4. Know Your Customer and Cater Your Restaurant Accordingly
Take a good look at your surroundings and main customer base. If you are in the middle of Southern BBQ country, offering small portions and fancy dishes you can’t pronounce may not be your best option.

If you have something on the menu that is not selling, re-work the dish or remove it from the menu. Catering to your audience’s tastes can maximize revenue and turn the average newcomer into a repeat customer.

5. Create and Execute a Marketing Plan
Everyone needs to advertise! You need to get customers in the door and satisfied before you can build a good word of mouth business. There are plenty of advertising options depending on your budget: TV, digital, print and radio are just a few. Try joining a local chamber of commerce.

It’s a great way to mingle within the community by meeting local business owners and potential customers. Operate a booth at community events and offer samples of popular menu items. Make sure everyone in town knows where to get the tastiest food and the best dining experience.

6. Build a Digital Presence by Starting a Website and Social Media Pages
If you don’t already have a website, create one. Your website should be easy to find and contain your menu, hours, address, and phone number. Social networking sites like Facebook, Yelp, Google+, Twitter, and Foursquare are popular among many different generations as a means of communication and information gathering.

They’re also free. This is a great way to connect with your customers through interaction, polls, and responses to reviews. Your customer is already talking about you and checking out what new restaurant they want to try next. Don’t miss the opportunity to join them.

7. Offer a Takeout Menu
This is a great way to make sure your kitchen stays busy without taking up additional table space during busier hours. With more hectic schedules and shorter lunch breaks, many people do not have time to go out and dine.

Open up your restaurant to them by offering takeout so they can enjoy your dishes at their own convenience. Generate more revenue by accessing this previously untapped market.

8. Train Your Staff and Make Sure They Know Your Product
Make sure your staff is well trained. Weekly meetings are a must and staff must be kept up on how you want your food served. Allow them to taste whatever the specials of the night are and ensure that they can answer any patron’s questions about a menu item.

Utilize suggestive selling to upsell appetizers, drinks, and desserts. This will enhance the overall dining experience, increase revenue by creating a higher total ticket, and provide your staff with more tips.

9. Offer Specials and Coupons
Everyone loves to feel as if they are getting a good deal. Offer coupons or discount cards in addition to daily specials. Try offering free or discounted items in return for writing reviews or filling out surveys online. It’s a great way to get new customers in the door and as long as their experience is great they will surely return.

10. The Customer Is Always Right
Customer satisfaction is your number one priority. If a customer leaves feeling unsatisfied they may never come back and will likely share negative reviews with friends and family.

If you need to, comp a meal, offer a free round of drinks or better yet, a free item and a discount card for their next visit. This ensures a great experience and entices them back to spend additional revenue. Their repeated business will be guaranteed to offset the original discount.

How to Become Rich as a Chef

Many talented chefs across the country work long hours in stressful environments for little pay. While the love of the game is what keeps most culinary masters motivated, that won’t pay the bills or build a nest egg. That’s why savvy chefs with an enterprising streak should develop multiple side income streams.

Any of the following ideas can make a competent chef a mint over the years when executed wisely.

Operate a Few Pop-Up Restaurants

In recent years, “pop-up restaurants” that exist for anywhere from an evening to a week or more have exploded in popularity. They provide customers with a novel dining experience that established eateries can rarely match.

For chefs, pop-ups allow for quick profits without the fixed costs associated with long-term establishments. They also make it easy to gauge the viability of a restaurant concept.

Create a Line of Food Products

Easily one of the best ways to make money from your culinary reputation as a top chef is by creating an array of retail foodstuffs. Opting for a canned or jarred product is the smartest way to go. Boutique mustard, salad dressing, peanut butter, salsa and sauerkraut are all popular items that can sell in droves if you market the product intelligently.

Sell Ready-to-Cook Meals for Families

If you’d like to get into the catering field, targeting busy families is a wise move. Outfits like Sous Kitchen prove that this business model is a viable approach. Develop roughly a dozen different “meal packages” that include appetizers, salads and entrees to appeal to an array of consumers. One package could focus on Mediterranean fare. Another could be centered around traditional barbecue.

Build a Food Subscription Service

You don’t need to crank out homemade preserves to make a fortune in the boutique food business. Rather, you could package up various high-quality products to create food baskets with a theme and mail them out to customers on a monthly basis. If you hail from an area with a great agricultural reputation like Michigan or Vermont, use your region as a theme.

Launch a Cooking Channel on YouTube

A YouTube channel can be a revenue bonanza in the right hands regardless of its subject matter. You could create your own version of a Food Network program by putting out a series of spectacular cooking videos. As always, experiment with different topics that will appeal to various audiences and see what connects. Publish often to get enough data to work with for analytics purposes.

Publish a Niche Cookbook for Foodies

Nowadays, creating your own book is easy thanks to platforms such as Amazon Publishing and Lulu. All you need is a free desktop editing suite like Scribus, a solid PC or laptop and a reliable DSL or cable web connection. Use a Nikon DSLR or even your own camera phone to snap the right pictures. Failing that, Creative Commons is a great resource for royalty-free media.

Teach Cooking Classes in Person or Online

Imparting your knowledge to others is the easiest way to make some side scratch when you’re not behind the oven. Organize a few community cooking courses and charge a few bucks per person to attend. If you want to really make some money, you could use a group chat on Skype to teach lessons for a variety of students all over the world.

Operate a Local Food Truck or Cart

Whether you’re a kebab maestro or a bratwurst wizard, a food cart or truck is always a good way to bank serious cash. The key to sustainable profits is zeroing in on the right environment for your business. Annual festivals are always a great place to rake in the money as long as you match your specialty to the event in question.

Start a Regional Food Festival

If you don’t mind forming a few LLCs and filing plenty of paperwork, launching a food festival can be pretty lucrative for founders. Making a festival a cash bonanza is all about gauging public interest and responding to that call. Before you launch a food festival, make connections with property owners and security professionals to ensure that your festival is well received and garners a positive reputation.

Grow and Sell Produce to Localvores

If you plan out your garden in advance, you can easily grow thousands of pounds of produce every summer. As a local chef, you’re in a good position to know what local restaurants and consumers want. Take a survey before you plant butternut squash or rhubarb in great numbers to ensure that your plot returns significant profits at the end of the day.

Develop a Custom Tool for Chefs

When you’re in the kitchen all day long, you get a real feel for the deficiencies of most cooking gear. Maybe you’ve got an idea for a spatula that won’t mar a good hamburger in the making. Or perhaps you’ve got an idea for a wisk that creates the perfect omelette. Either way, it’s easy to find a manufacturer to take your concept from the drawing board to Amazon.

Become a Niche Dietary Consultant

If you’re a great chef, you know the exact nutritional qualities of every meal and each ingredient in it. That puts you in the catbird seat insofar as advising certain customers on the right meal plan for their dietary needs. That’s why setting up a dietary consultancy business makes so much sense for a chef. Talk to actual dietitians in your area to figure out a game plan that won’t break any laws.

Start a Restaurant Business Consultancy

Nearly every restaurant that’s launched each year will fail quickly due to the naivete of the owners. A smart restaurateur leverages the know-how of a good chef who’s in tune with the local food industry trends to ensure their success. Position yourself as an expert on what works and what doesn’t to help entrepreneurs figure out budgets, menus and so forth.

How to Make Money as a Cook

The new gig economy offers a chance to utilize other skills that you already hold. If you have talent in the kitchen, cooking as a side-hustle may be an option for you. Many professional chefs are using websites to find extra shifts to make money by cooking for short-staffed restaurants.

Others cook as private chefs or cater small events. The choice is up to you to find the right side hustle for your schedule!

Food brings all groups of people together in all settings. This is an exciting concept for cooks who want a taste of several venues and cooking capacities.

Temporary Line Cook

Temporary cooks prep, cook, and plate food under the instruction of a head chef. Temporary line cooks also coordinate with other permanent employees, such as other line cooks and kitchen staff.

Temp line cooks must have the appropriate skills to adapt to a new working environment and learn a new menu in a short period. The possibilities are endless for line cooks—you can work at your favorite franchise or work shoulder to shoulder with chefs in high-end bistros.

Personal Chef

More and more people are hiring personal chefs to cook them meals when they are too busy. In fact, due to COVID-19, personal chefs saw a boom in opportunities. To be a personal chef, you will supply your tools and most likely the ingredients, so factor those costs into your pay rate.

Your clientele will vary based on your availability and interest. Some clients may want ongoing contracts, while others may only require one-off arrangements.

Event Catering Worker

When event catering companies are short-staffed, they rely on temp banquet servers and cooks to complete their catering staff at a moment’s notice. These events can range from weddings to parties to corporate events.

Food Careers List

Explore a variety of positions within the food industry, including kitchen, server, front and back-of-house careers.

Baker

Responsible for foodservice establishment’s bakeshop. Ensures products produced in the pastry shop meet quality standards established by the pastry chef and executive chef. In smaller establishments, the baker also might be responsible for pasta items.

Banquet manager

Plans and oversees parties, banquets, conventions and other special events hosted or catered by the restaurant. Responsible for soliciting banquet business and ensuring customer satisfaction with all booked events.

Coordinates and supervises the execution of all banquet functions to ensure the restaurant adheres to client  specifications  and that the function runs smoothly and efficiently. Possesses knowledge of food production and service and is able to perform all positions in banquet operations to supervise, direct and train banquet personnel.

Bartender

Responsible for setup, maintenance and operation of the bar. Takes drink orders from patrons or servers and prepares and serves alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks according to standard recipes.

Mixes ingredients for cocktails and serves wine and bottled or draught beer. Rings drink orders into register, collects payment and makes change. May also wash and sterilize glassware, prepare garnishes for drinks and prepare and replenish appetizers.

Beverage manager

Oversees management and profitability of bars, lounges and other beverage-related outlets.

Broiler cook

Responsible for grilled, broiled or roasted items prepared in the kitchen of a foodservice establishment. Portions food items prior to cooking, such as steaks or fish fillets. Other duties include carving and portioning roasts, plating and garnishing cooked items, and preparing appropriate garnishes for broiled or roasted foods. Responsible for maintaining a sanitary kitchen work station.

Bus person

Serves water, bread and butter to guests and refills glasses as needed. Removes dirty dishes between courses. Clears, cleans and resets tables after customers leave.

Catering manager

Responsible for all catered functions from origination to execution, including delegation of responsibilities. Works on a consistent basis with sales personnel to generate new business and maintains contact with clients. Responsible for handling customer complaints and rectifying problems.

Responsible for planning rental of tables, video/audio equipment, game equipment and linen. May book or recommend entertainment bands, speakers or specialty acts. Responsible for decorations, flowers and photographs.

Counter server

Responsible for providing quick and efficient service to customers. Greets customers, takes their food and beverage orders, rings orders into register, and prepares and serves hot and cold drinks.

Assembles food and beverage orders, checks them for completeness and accuracy, and packages orders for on-premise or takeout. Collects payments from guests and makes change. Maintains cleanliness of counters and floors.

Dining room manager

Supervises dining room operation and coordinates foodservice activities. Supervises and trains employees, confers with food preparation employees and other personnel to plan menus and related activities.

Estimates food and beverage costs and requisitions/buys supplies. May review financial transactions and monitor budget to ensure efficient operation and that expenditures stay within budget limitations. Maintains payroll and bookkeeping records.

Executive chef

The department head responsible for a foodservice establishment’s kitchen/kitchens. Ensures kitchens provide nutritious, safe, eye-appealing, properly flavored food. Maintains a safe and sanitary work environment for all employees.

Other duties include menu planning, budget preparation, and maintenance of payroll, food cost and other records. Specific duties involve food preparation and establishing quality standards, and training employees in cooking methods, presentation techniques, portion control and retention of nutrients.

How to Make Money Cooking BDO

Black Desert Online is an MMORPG where players can indulge in various tasks, including combating, housing, farming, fishing, trading, castle battles, and siege events. To carry out different functions in the game, players will need to have a considerable amount of money at their disposal.

Cooking

Start cooking food from scratch and sell it for profit. There are a plethora of dishes available to cook in the game. The higher the rarity of the dish, the more profit it can generate. Some dishes that are easy to cook and have a decent profit margin include Pickled Vegetables and Lean Meat Salad.

How to Make Money as Chef

The more successful passive income streams you have, the more income you make as a chef. Let’s dive in.

1. Blogging

You have probably already seen this one but we are not talking about traditional blogging methods. The goal is not to blog about your day, but about things people are actually searching for in search engines related to topics that interest you. Blogging can be an excellent way of earning a passive income as a chef.

In fact, there are food bloggers who make thousands of dollars monthly blogging about food. You can create a food blog about topics that interest you, or share food ideas like recipes, cooking lessons, preparation tips etc.

Once you increase traffic to your blog and establish an audience, you can monetize it and make money from it. With quality content and the right strategies, a monetized food blog can help you earn over $1,000/month. 

Building a blog and getting it to the monetization stage is not easy. You will need to upload quality content frequently to generate traffic and grow your audience. With the right strategies, you can turn your blog into a passive income source that earns thousands of dollars every month.

Some of the ways you can monetize your blog include placing ads, affiliate marketing, selling digital and physical products etc. With the knowledge gained from your first blog, you can create other food blogs from existing niches in the food industry, monetize them, and earn more passive income.

2. YouTube

Cooking is such a visually appealing trade and video is an incredible medium to share your culinary passion with your audience! As a chef, sharing your cooking tips in the form of videos is an incredible passive income opportunity. There are people who prefer to watch food preparation as opposed to reading a recipe.

Moreover, having a YouTube account is a great way of showing your culinary skills to many people around the world. With the right niche, content, and a few strategies, you can monetize your YouTube channel and earn over $1,000/month.

For example, you can start a YouTube channel that teaches people how to prepare pastries, home cooked meals, healthy foods, just choose a niche you love or specialize in. Make sure to let your personality shine and make people want to follow you, otherwise it’s easy for food-content to become a commodity (you will just be providing another recipe among others).

Building a successful channel is not easy, especially in the food niche. You need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4k hours of watch time within the last 365 days for your channel to be eligible for monetization.

You can learn these and other tips of turning your channel into a passive income stream from the Project 24 course. Having a food blog and YouTube channel enables you to make more money passively.

3. Podcasting

Podcasts are still gaining in popularity. As a chef, you can record podcasts, post them for your audience to listen to, and make money. Many celebrity chefs record podcasts and make lots of money from them. With the right strategies and content, you can build a successful podcasting business that can help you make thousands of dollars every month.

You can record and post podcasts that teach people about different recipes, preparation methods, cooking courses or provide interviews with other chefs. Once your content starts to generate traffic and your audience grows, you can monetize your podcasts and earn a passive income. 

Building a podcast business is not easy. Getting your podcast to the monetization stage requires you to create time off your busy schedule to record, edit, post, and promote your podcasts. With the right content and a few more strategies you can learn from Project 24 that includes a course on podcasting, you can earn good money.

You can monetize your podcast by placing ads, affiliate marketing, selling products and more. You can also earn income through membership fees and donations.

4. Selling eBooks

You can earn a decent income off selling eBooks e.g. recipes, cooking courses, ingredient breakdowns etc. The best part? Creating and making eBooks available for sale is actually very easy and can be made highly passive. You can choose to create your own eBooks (e.g. if you want to share your own recipes) or, you can outsource the services of ghostwriters to do the work for you.

All you need is to identify a niche topic, write popular content or the kind of content you would like to read, and promote it to your audience once you are ready to sell your book. So long as your content is compelling and you have an active audience willing to purchase your content, you can earn extra monthly income. 

Platforms like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) allow you to write, upload and sell your eBooks fairly easily. You can also sell it on your own website using the eCommerce widget Ecwid to make more money in the process (since there are no commissions on your sales with Ecwid).

If you choose to have your eBook written for you, you will need some financial investment to have your book written, edited, promoted etc., once it is completed, uploaded, and starts selling, you can start to enjoy passive income.

5. Creating Niche Site

A niche site is another passive income idea ideal for chefs. It is typically a blog designed to serve a specific audience or answer specific questions about a niche. As a chef, you can create a niche site that offers information on a niche in the food industry, monetize it, and make money from it.

For example, instead of blogging about ‘Indian Food Recipes’, you can target your niche further to “Spice-Free Indian Food Recipes” or “Healthy Indian Food Recipes.” That way, your content attracts an audience that is more targeted, reducing competition from other blogs on search engines.

According to Project 24, if you can grow your audience and hit 30k views on your page every month, you should be earning $1,000/month from your niche site (following their methodology). A successful niche site can actually earn over $7,000/month following the Project 24 method after 24 months.

It’s important to remember your audience visits your site to search for information about a specific topic so it should offer quality content that is well researched and clear enough to appeal to your audience. With a sound audience, you can monetize your site (through ads, affiliate marketing, selling products, sponsorships etc.) and start earning passive income.

6. Affiliate Marketing

As a chef, you can promote and sell products (e.g. cooking products, kitchenware, ingredients etc.) to your audience. Your audience can be on just about any platform from a blog to YouTube, a podcast, niche site or other. You earn a commission on sales made through your link. With the right product and marketing strategies, you can earn good income as an affiliate marketer. 

For example, you can promote and sell things like kitchenware, cookery, ingredients, kitchen products, cook books and more from affiliate programs (like Amazon Affiliates, Commission Junction (CJ), Affiliate.com, PeerFly etc.), and earn a commission on every sale made through your links. 

Although affiliate marketing sounds easy and lucrative, it requires time, patience, and expertise. To become a successful affiliate marketer, you have to identify a viable product (one you actually use and like is best), promote it to your audience, and create content about it.

As an affiliate marketer with a large audience, your audience trusts you so it’s important for you to promote products you are well knowledgeable about or use frequently as a chef (or other niche you choose to cover).

10 Tips to Improve Your Cooking Skills

You don’t have to go to cooking school to become a better cook. There are lots of easy, small things you can do every time you cook to get better, more professional results. Here are our top 10 tips for improving your cooking:

1. Choke up on your chef’s knife. For better control, choke up on the handle to the point of putting your thumb and the side of your index finger onto the side of the blade right above the handle. Speaking of chef’s knives, invest in a good one (and keep it sharp). The longer, wider blade of a chef’s knife will give you speed, control, and confidence.

2. Start with the best ingredients. Imported Parmigiano-Reggiano is so much better than domestic parmesan that the two can hardly even be compared; excellent chocolate makes all the difference in a cake; and fresh homemade breadcrumbs are a world apart from packaged crumbs.

3. Use your hands. Hands are extremely sensitive and sophisticated cooking tools. You can develop this sense of touch by paying attention to how different foods feel at different degrees of doneness, even as you’re checking them with a thermometer, a toothpick, or a knife. Meat, for example, goes from being very soft when it’s rare to quite firm when well done. Touch can also indicate when a cake is baked, if a dough is kneaded enough, and whether a pear is ripe.

4. Switch to kosher or sea salt, and don’t be stingy with it. Kosher salt and sea salt have a much better flavor than ordinary table salt. Though food shouldn’t taste salty, going to the opposite extreme and using little or no salt in your cooking results in food that taste flat. Even if a recipe suggests an amount of salt to use, your ingredients—as well as your palate—may be different enough from the recipe writer’s to necessitate adjustments.

5. Don’t crowd the pan when sautéing. Be sure you can see the bottom of the pan betwee the pieces of food. Too much food will lower the temperature of the pan, creating a lot of steam, meaning you won’t get good browning. It’s also important to dry food before sautéing it and to make sure the pan is good and hot.

6. Reduce liquids to concentrate flavor. If you’ve braised meat or vegetables, take the main ingredient out when it’s done and reduce the sauce a bit more before serving. When you deglaze a pan, be sure to reduce the added liquid by boiling it over high heat. Reduce homemade stocks before use, too.

7. Bake pie and tart crusts longer than you think you should. Pastry doughs taste much better when cooked long enough for the sugars in the crust to caramelize. You’re going for brown, not pale blond.

 8. Let roasted meats rest before carving. Without a rest to let the meat’s juices redistribute, your roast will be dry.

9. Add a final splash of acid (vinegar or citrus juice) to almost any vegetable or meat dish or fruit dessert at the last minute to perk up the flavor.

10. Trust doneness tests over the timer’s buzzer. When you try a recipe for the first time, look to those descriptive words you’ll find in a good recipe: “bake until golden brown” or “boil until reduced by half.” Don’t be so concerned that the time it takes to reach the desired state is more or less than the time suggested by the recipe.

How to Start a Home-based Catering Business

If you’re ready to start cooking, here are the steps to starting your home-based catering business.

• Decide what type of catering you want to do.
• Contact your state occupational licensing or health department to learn what permits you need and any laws you need to abide by.
• Set up your business structure. To protect your personal assets from the business, consider setting up a limited liability company. Or, if you’re working with someone else, set up a partnership. You’ll need to name your business before setting up your business structure and getting licenses.
• Contact your city or county about obtaining a business license and obtain liability insurance to protect your business if someone gets sick.
• Write a detailed business plan.
• Marketing plan and materials.
• Create your menu. You can make your life easier by having a set list of items from which clients can mix and match to create their event menu. 
• Buy professional cookware, dishware, utensils and other food-preparation and serving tool.
• Contact vendors to obtain your food and supplies wholesale. Give them flyers so they can promote your business to their customers.
• Develop a system for collecting and responding to testimonials and referrals.
• Consider offering discounts for referrals.

How to Start a Retail Food Business

For the person who enjoys cooking or baking, learning how to start a retail food business from home is a great way to combine a hobby with a career. Like other businesses, a home-based food business requires a lot of research and planning to start. However, you will require additional permits, inspections and marketing strategies before being allowed to make a sale.

Below are some things to consider when starting a retail food business from home.

Choose Your Niche

Decide what kind of food you want to sell and how. A variety of food-related business options include catering, meal delivery services and baked goods. You can focus on specific niche markets, such as catering weddings, meal delivery for new moms or baked goods sold through local coffee shops or stores.

Conduct Market Research

It is very important that you do your research before starting your at home food business as the food industry is very competitive. Go to business networking events such as those run by the Small Business Development Centers, SCORE, and your local Chambers of Commerce.

This gives you a great opportunity to pick the brains of local business people in the food industry and see what works and what doesn’t.

Clippy McKenna, founder of Clippy’s, a maker of food condiments, says that if you can’t perform more comprehensive market research, use your friends and the people you know to test your food recipes on. Every bit of feedback you can get is helpful.

Prepare a Business Plan

While a business plan doesn’t have to be extra formal, it does help you take a vague idea for your at home food business and make a more concrete plan for accomplishing it. It is essential if you need financial backing, to convince your investors of your overall business strategy and financial outlook.

If you need help writing a business plan, you can use the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website or work with SCORE, a network of working and retired executives who freely share their expertise.

Licenses and Permits

You will need to check your local zoning rules to make sure that you are allowed to run a food business out of your house. Otherwise, you may need to look into renting professional kitchen space. Next, you will need to make sure that your cooking facilities pass all state food cleanliness requirements. Check with your state for more specifics.

In general, this will mean that you will have to make sure that your business kitchen is clearly separated from your personal kitchen and that you are not using the utensils in your professional kitchen for personal use.

Take some state required food handling courses to help you better understand all the requirements. Lastly, you will want to get a business license and a resale license which will allow you to buy ingredients wholesale tax free.

Purchase Your Equipment

Purchase your food making equipment and ingredients from suppliers such as kaTom restaurant Supply, INC. or General Hotel & Restaurant Supply. This is dictated by the type of food you’ll be making but can include items such as bowls, baking dishes, mixers, spoons and other utensils and measuring items.

These should be stored separately from your personal items as should the food ingredients as well. If you will be selling your goods through stores, purchase packaging materials to wrap your food items.

If your state has labeling laws, use a computer to create ingredient labels to stick to your food packages. You can check with your state’s Department of Public Health for more details. If you will be working as a caterer, purchase serving trays, bowls and other items that look nice for public events.

Promote Your Business

Tap into your group of friends that you had try your food and mentors that you made from going to your business networking events.

According to Erin Fuller, executive director of the National Association of Women Business Owners, this was how she was able to get her first client. According to Stephen Hall, author of From Kitchen to Market, hand out free samples of your food at local fairs and farmer markets.

Also, consider using social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram or an e-commerce business with a platform like Shopify. Put up a lot of pictures of your products and perhaps include recipes that use your food.

Lastly, be prepared to pitch directly to supermarkets and focus groups. They want to see that you have a focused plan and strategy of how your food product will fit on their shelf space.

5 Profitable Food Business Ideas

Here are 5 food business ideas, including many with low startup costs.

Meal Planning

A professional meal planner helps people eat healthily over a set period of time. This works especially well for people on a diet who are trying to lose weight. The planned schedule for their meals can minimize snacking and unhealthy impulse eating. This role is similar to a dietitian.

Fitness Food Prep

Another excellent business idea is a combination of meal planner and nutrition coach. Preparing food in advance for the likes of athletes and bodybuilders is something of a niche. You would need to have potential clients lined up in advance. If you are already a part of the health and fitness world with contacts at gyms and fitness centers, there is definitely an opportunity for a food prep business.

Organic Food Shop

There has been a huge surge in the popularity of organic items in recent years, so an organic food shop could be the perfect business idea for you.

Yes, supermarkets and chain stores sometimes have small organic food sections or offer a few such items on their shelves. But a store dedicated to such products will always be more attractive to shoppers seeking organic groceries.

Berry, Apple, Pumpkin, etc. Picking Farm

As a farmer with any of these crops, you can create different business plans. First you can distribute your harvest to restaurants, farmers markets or other food-related businesses. Additionally, you can have people come to your farm and pick the crops themselves.

This is especially profitable with seasonal events such as Halloween or Thanksgiving.

Cake Decorating Classes

Have a cake shop? One of the best ways to supplement your income is by offering cake decorating classes. These classes are inexpensive for you to conduct and very popular for foodies who want to learn one more trick of the trade.

How do Cooking Shows Make Money?

There are plenty of ways to do this, but the first crucial step is to learn all the secrets of the most successful YouTube channels.

Once you do that, you’ll have the necessary knowledge to monetize your cooking channel and start generating revenue from ads run against your content.

As amazing as that sounds by itself, the money-making opportunities don’t end there.

Creating cooking content for YouTube means practicing your techniques and recipes frequently. You’ll spend lots of time testing dishes, brainstorming plating techniques, talking to cameras, and thinking about each step in your recipe.

Here are some skills to work on before you start your channel:

• Basic cooking technique: Of course, you need to know your way around the kitchen if you want others to watch you cook.
• Teaching: Practice how to break down your recipes into easy-to-understand steps.
• Problem solving: Cooking YouTubers spend hours or sometimes days perfecting recipes. It’s important to know how to fix a dish that just isn’t working.
• Likeability: Think of this as the “it” factor. How can you use your personality to get viewers to like you?
• Filming and video editing: Viewers will be impressed with a professionally presented video that is enjoyable to watch.

Moving from YouTube to Network Television

After working on YouTube full-time, some users find even more success by transitioning to network television. For example, Hannah Hart, host of the YouTube cooking show “My Drunk Kitchen,” now has a Food Network show called “I Hart Food.”

If you are willing to put in the time and are innovative enough to attract a following, YouTube could take your cooking career outside of the restaurant and into the spotlight.

How to Make Money From Home Cooking UK

If you have experience in the culinary field, you consider yourself a foodie, or you love experimenting in the kitchen there are plenty of options out there that allow you to earn money in the UK while sharing your love of cooking with others.

1. Sell Cooking Class Subscriptions Online

If you’re comfortable in front of the camera and enjoy doing cooking demos, why not create your own cooking class subscription to sell online? Video tutorials are popular because they help you connect with your audience and people are all about video.

They’re simple to create, and you don’t need a big investment upfront besides a laptop, video camera, or smartphone, and video platform like Uscreen. Create subscription services for your online videos to keep viewers coming back and to create an ongoing source of revenue. You can even release teaser content on a site like YouTube or TikTok and encourage viewers to join your subscription site.

2. Earn Money as a Recipe Writer

Food and recipe writing is an art form. Recipe writers must capture all the steps, ingredients, and details of a dish so readers can replicate the meal successfully. Believe it or not, many cookbook authors employ recipe writers to explain and detail the important steps in recreating dishes.

To get started, post your services on Fiverr or Upwork. If you’re experienced with a special way of cooking (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free) or another niche cooking style, writing recipes is an in-demand service. You may also want to offer photos of their recipe creations as well. In fact, I know of one gal who creates new recipes and shoots videos for bloggers for $300 a pop!

In addition to Fiverr, there are other paid writing opportunities where you can craft and list your recipes and even food writing. You may find gigs to write articles for print magazines like Eating Well and Cuisine at Home. Solve a problem, share a food tip, or review a favorite meal, food product, or restaurant. There are many opportunities for writers with a passion for culinary arts!

3. Become a Food Blogger

Passionate food writers can also earn money by creating a food blog. The market for food and recipe blogs is vast, and if there’s a niche, food style, or area you’re experienced with, your writing is in high demand.

Food blogging couple Lindsay and Bjork at Pinch of Yum shared their income reports from 2011-2017 as their blog grew from a hobby to a full-time business. On one of their last income reports, they earned over $70,000 in one month!

Food bloggers can make money through ad networks like Google Adsense, AdThrive, Mediavine, and Ezoic. But they can also earn money through affiliate marketing, product sales of courses, printables, cookbooks, and subscription services, as well as brand sponsorships. 

4. Sell Gourmet Goodies

Small food makers can apply to sell their wares via Goldbely, a carefully curated food lover’s delivery service. This shop sells the top treats from around the country as they’re created by local artisans, iconic shops, and go-to food joints.

Think Joe’s Pizza from New York, Danish Kringle pastry from Wisconsin, or King Cake from Gambino’s in New Orleans. These treats are shipped to buyers around the US so they can enjoy the taste of home or their favorite destination.

5. Become a Personal Chef

If cooking is your passion and you love feeding others, working as a personal chef may be your calling. This may mean offering your services for a special event, cooking daily meals, catering, or frozen meals.

When you’re a personal chef, you can set your own prices, work for the number of clients you prefer, and specialize in your own style of cooking. When it comes to becoming a personal chef, word-of-mouth marketing is key. Plus, you’ll want to set up your own website, business cards, and social media accounts.

Cooking For Money OSRS

Below are 5 quick methods on how to make money with cooking in osrs.

1. 1-tick cooking karambwans: 520K per hour

1-ticking karambwans is the fastest method to train the cooking skill. Efficient players can make up to 800K Exp per hour doing this method!

Note: your profit and exp per hour will be lower depending on your cooking level. You need 93 cooking to Karambwans.

2. AFK cooking Karambwans: 200k per hour

Not many players can stand click-intensive methods and the vast majority of the osrs playerbase loves AFK skilling and moneymaking methods.

Those players can still cook Karambwans as they provide the biggest cooking profit currently in the game (alongside dark crabs).

3. Cooking Dark Crabs: 200K per hour

Dark crabs currently give the same amount of profit as karambwans, however they come with a higher cooking level required and you will only stop burning them once you have 99 cooking with the cooking skillcape equipped.

4. Cooking Raw Sharks: 165K per hour

For the old school players that want to feel nostalgic, cooking raw sharks is still a profitable method in osrs. You’ll make about 165K per hour through afk cooking.

5. Cooking plain pizzas: 160K per hour

And last but not least, pizzas! Cooking plain pizzas is a bit different that regular cooking methods as you’ll be combining ingredients instead of just cooking a fish on a range or fire.

The ingredients you’ll need are: pizza base, tomato and cheese. You’ll be able to make 9 pizzas per inventory.

This method is definitely not as afk as the other methods listed here but it does yield the lowest requirements as you stop burning the pizzas at 68 cooking already.

Culinary Careers That Pay Well

Here are 13 culinary positions that pay more than $30,000 per year. Note that the salaries below were populated using data from Indeed Salaries:

1. Pastry cook

National average salary: $34,749 per year

Primary duties: Pastry cooks create, prepare, decorate and present cakes, cookies, pies and other confectioneries. They are responsible for preparing desserts for a restaurant, bakery or catering company.

They must be familiar with traditional confections and design new ones to display, sell and bring to events. Pastry cooks are often creative and precise. They should have excellent time management skills and be able to follow complex directions.

2. Culinary specialist

National average salary: $34,890 per year

Primary duties: A culinary specialist provides food service to military executives. They are responsible for designing menus, ordering ingredients and supplies and overseeing dining facilities. Culinary specialists might also be responsible for maintaining records and allocating a budget. They are highly organized and excellent problem solvers.

3. Caterer

National average salary: $40,408 per year

Primary duties: Caterers are responsible for the food service provided at events. They work closely with clients to determine their budget and needs, and then they negotiate with vendors for ingredients, seating and other necessities. Caterers prepare, present and serve food to guests, and they also set up and break down tables, chairs and food service stations at events. Caterers should be skilled in customer service and time management.

4. Purchasing coordinator

National average salary: $42,771 per year

Primary duties: Purchasing coordinators oversee the orders for any ingredients, supplies and other purchases that a culinary establishment makes. They work closely with vendors and often negotiate contracts. They also schedule regular deliveries, manage purchasing orders and track shipments. Purchasing coordinators should be excellent communicators, highly organized and able to transition between tasks easily.

5. Wine sommelier

National average salary: $43,440 per year

Primary duties: Wine sommeliers work closely with management to develop a wine list and recommend food and wine pairings. Sommeliers also suggest wines to diners based on their meals and personal preferences. They often train waitstaff on the available wines, including how to describe, store and serve them. Sommeliers also negotiate with vendors, manage budgets and organize events.

6. Restaurant bar manager

National average salary: $44,228 per year

Primary duties: Restaurant bar managers oversee the daily operations of a bar in a restaurant. They work closely with other management staff to develop a budget and order supplies. Restaurant bar managers are responsible for hiring, training and overseeing bar staff. They also typically manage the bar’s inventory, ensure that any licensure is current, schedule promotional events and negotiate contracts with vendors.

7. Sous chef

National average salary: $46,888 per year

Primary duties: Sous chefs are assistants to the head chef. They are responsible for overseeing food preparation, managing inventory, designing menus, training kitchen staff and planning schedules. Sous chefs may also act as support for other kitchen staff if needed. They handle customer concerns and oversee the kitchen workflow, sanitation and storage procedures.

8. Nutritionist

National average salary: $47,572 per year

Primary duties: Nutritionists are nutrition experts who help their clients meet their dietary goals. They might work directly with clients or in healthcare, education or long-term care facilities. They develop meal plans, help clients track their progress and teach the public about nutrition. Nutritionists should have an understanding of research methods and stay up to date on trends and research.

9. Restaurant manager

National average salary: $48,205 per year

Primary duties: Restaurant managers are in charge of the daily operations of running a restaurant. They create budgets, manage the restaurant’s finances and work closely with vendors to order supplies, ingredients and other necessities.

Read Also: Making Money With Technology-focused Media

Restaurant managers are also often involved in marketing and networking to build the restaurant’s brand. They may write schedules and are usually involved in hiring and training staff.

10. Food safety specialist

National average salary: $63,631 per year

Primary duties: Food safety specialists make sure that food is packaged and stored correctly. They write safety manuals and perform audits or inspections to verify that storage facilities, prep stations and cooking surfaces are properly maintained. They also work with food distributors, processors and packing facilities and give presentations on food safety protocols.

11. Food and beverage manager

National average salary: $70,745 per year

Primary duties: Food and beverage managers work closely with the restaurant manager to oversee the restaurant’s daily operations. They help design menus and ensure that food and beverages are stored safely.

Food and beverage managers also oversee the hiring, training and scheduling of staff, and they are typically responsible for the customer service experience as well, including interacting directly with customers and handling any concerns.

12. Food technologist

National average salary: $72,381 per year

Primary duties: Food technologists are food scientists who manufacture food products and develop methods for preserving and processing food safely. They are responsible for overseeing safety protocols and revising recipes to meet customer demand. Food technologists also monitor the effects of additives, write reports, work with factory processes and launch new products.

13. Private chef

National average salary: $81,686 per year

Primary duties: Private chefs usually work with individual families to prepare their meals and oversee their nutrition. They often work closely with the family or household to understand their dietary needs, and they are responsible for shopping for ingredients, preparing food and cleaning up after meals. Personal chefs often specialize in particular dietary needs, such as paleo, vegan or vegetarian diets.

Summary

Catering business is a tedious job and one needs to constantly manage and upgrade things in order to become the leader. Keep a keen eye to innovation and learn from the experiences of yours as well as the others.

Always improvise and have a good heart and mindset towards things. Be prepared for surprises and fun that comes with it. Don’t ever get de-motivated and try harder every time to succeed and come out victorious.

To turn your awesome and delicious cooking into a profitable business, go out with a good and positive heart and make people happy because it is not only men whose stomach holds the key to love.