BHE&I Club Tours Kitchen Incubator

By John Huggins | jhuggins@lanarkil.com

On Thursday, August 23, the Kitchen Incubator of Northwest Illinois in Sterling, Illinois hosted the monthly meeting of the Blackhawk Hills Entrepreneurs & Inventors Club (E & I Club). Club members took a tour of the facility and were given an overview of the equipment and services available, and benefits provided to a start-up business.

The Kitchen Incubator has been open for two and a half months and already has three clients. The facility is actually an incubator within an incubator, located in the Sterling Small Business and Technology Center off LeFevre Road.

The Greater Sterling Development Corp., the City of Sterling, and Sauk Valley Area Chamber of Commerce created the kitchen incubator to rent out to those who want to start a food-related business, such as baking or catering, but do not have the resources to open their own facility. It also gives them access to knowledge from the incubator’s manager, Krista Morthland. Krista has 12 years experience with food safety, having worked as a health inspector.

The 3,000 square foot facility has three separate food preparation rooms. These rooms feature a tilt skillet braising pan, a tilt kettle, a ten-burner range, 140 quart mixer, 30 pan rotating oven, and many other industrial grade pieces of kitchen equipment. A walk-in freezer and walk-in cooler are also available. The incubator also offers food service sanitation manager certification classes.

For more information, rental rates, or schedule of classes for the incubator call 815-626-COOK.

The Thursday, September 27 E & I Club meeting will be held at the New Morning Glass Studio in Mount Carroll at 6:30 p.m. located at 113 W. Market St in the downtown area, has been in operation since 1985.

For information about the E & I Club call Blackhawk Hills at 815-625-3854 or visit www.eandiclub.org.