Jackie Krentzman is a Bay Area-based writer and editor.  

When the pandemic hit in 2020, Clovis resident Lance Sanchez was working as an audiologist at a hearing aid company. When the company shut down, he began looking for ways to fill his time. A lifelong cookie baker, he started baking large batches out of his home for family and friends.

“I was a weekend cookie baker warrior who always thought that I would retire from my career job,” says Sanchez. “Then I started baking, and my daughter Haivyn suggested I launch a cookie company.”

Dad’s Cookies has become a beloved local brand. Sanchez went from baking a few dozen batches a week to more than 2,000, sold at stores and pop-ups in Fresno County and beyond. Even Fresno State University chipped in, commissioning a pistachio white chocolate with a red velvet brownie center as its official cookie.

But there wouldn’t be green and red Fresno State-branded cookies today if it weren’t for the Clovis Culinary Center, where Sanchez got his start. He is one of 130-plus members of the center, a city program that launched in 2018. At the time, Clovis was looking for ways to spur small business development. A few years earlier, the state had passed the California Homemade Food Act, which allows entrepreneurs to make food in their homes to sell directly to consumers or to third-party operators such as grocery stores.

“Overnight, peoples’ kitchens essentially became commercial kitchens,” says Clovis Business Development Manager Shawn Miller. “But there were a bunch of limitations — certain food items that you’re not allowed to use in a home kitchen, such as food that requires refrigeration. So, we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to launch a business incubator focused solely on the food business?’”

The city formed a nonprofit to run the center because, as a government entity, it couldn’t seek certain U.S. Department of Agriculture grants. At first, the center struggled to attract a dozen cooks and bakers. But then came the pandemic.

“That changed everything,” says Miller. “We weren’t even able to keep up with the demand.”

Many residents in the Clovis-Fresno area had lost their jobs or were temporarily furloughed and needed an income. Auzzie Lewis was one of them. Her passion was creating charcuterie boards, and her husband suggested that she start a catering business. Lewis quickly outgrew her home kitchen and moved her operation to the Clovis Culinary Center. Her catering company, The Grazing Table Events, grew so rapidly that within two years she was able to move into her own brick-and-mortar kitchen in Fresno.

“I have a slight obsession with cheese, and I love putting unexpected flavors together,” Lewis says. “But I didn’t really know how to run my own business until I joined the center.”

Today, the building is always bustling — often 24 hours a day. Cooks tend to come during the day, while bakers come at night. Users pay a modest fee, ranging from $12.50 an hour for prep space to $40 an hour for the full kitchen or baking facilities during daytime hours. Members pay $75 a month for storage and can rent out the space to run private cooking classes.

The range of businesses is vast. They include bakers, chefs (who make ready-to-eat meals, frozen foods, sauces and jams, and dried foods like beef jerky), beverage makers, and even pet food producers. About half run catering and food truck/mobile vendor businesses. The center has become an economic boon for the region. Miller estimates it has created around 1,000 jobs in the county.

But members are buying much more than just the space and use of equipment. Clovis partners with the Valley Small Business Development Center to help provide one-on-one support to the members on everything from navigating the thicket of county and state food regulations to creating a business plan. The culinary center also offers seminars on how to set up a booth at a farmer’s market and negotiate contracts with grocery stores.

Sisters Nancy Vang and Suzy Lowe, whose Hmong parents emigrated to the U.S. from Laos in the 1970s, began creating desserts with Asian flavors out of their home in 2020. They soon discovered that there were no local companies doing this, so they turned their personal passion into a business, Saint Goods.

Vang says that the culinary center was invaluable. The sisters learned how to create a business plan, acquire licensing and permits, file business taxes, and purchase insurance.

Gaining insights from the other members also proved pivotal. Vang says they learned from other bakers how to source materials and which local farmers’ markets were good fits.

“Every day there I am by successful chefs, and coming from no culinary background, I learned so much just by watching and through casual conversations,” she says. “As my skills grew and confidence grew, I got to the stage where I felt ready to launch my own business.”

Business Development Manager Shawn Miller says an unintended benefit of the Clovis Culinary Center has been community-building.

“I’ve never seen a wider variety of just different people in one room at one time,” he says. “We have a whole bunch of people that come from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds, all with the shared goal of making food and launching their own business.”

Lewis marvels at the community she experienced at the center.

“It’s like we became a family,” she says. “You are working long hours, and everyone becomes friendly and is eager to help each other. Starting your own business is scary, and that mutual support made all the difference.”