Culinary incubators rent out professional kitchens

Before Claire Cheung, a co-founder of Churro's Twist, opened her new dessert outlet last Saturday, she developed and tested her recipes at Kitchen Sync. This is a "culinary incubator" designed to help and support start-up food entrepreneurs, artisan food producers, chefs or talented home cooks launch their own food business. It provides the chance to work in a shared, fully licensed commercial kitchen on a short- or long-term basis.

Hong Kong is full of people passionate about food, and many are keen to get their food ideas on the map. Getting a licence for a restaurant is a famously tiresome process, and if you have a food product to sell it must legally be produced in a government-licensed food factory.

Like a co-working office space, food start-ups rent "work stations" at Kitchen Sync and get use of professional ovens and equipment, space in fridges, freezers and other storage space.

Churro's Twist is the result of a trip to Beijing, where Cheung fell in love with the "amazing combination of flavours" of Spanish-style doughnuts with Australian soft-serve ice cream or frozen yogurt. She was convinced it could be a hit in Hong Kong, too.

"Our kitchen wasn't ready, and we needed time to develop our recipe, and test ingredients with professional fryers and equipment while it was being renovated and licensed. It was crucial, they really gave us moral support, with the store opening and the renovation, too. You hit so many barriers, you need people who have been through it," says Cheung.

Kitchen Sync was founded in 2013 by food industry veterans Lori and Patrick Granito, owners of the Go Gourmet Group of companies, best known for their catering company and Magnolia private kitchen. in 2005, they opened Magnolia in a two-storey building in Sheung Wan "before it became fashionable", and have a production kitchen nearby.