Chef Chantay Skrine is dicing onions for her collard greens. Skrine, owner of Sweetay’s LLC in Binghamton, N.Y., is at work in a shared commercial kitchen on the campus of Cornell Cooperative Extension Broome County. The past two years have been demanding, but her presence here signals a major step in the growth of her food-based business.

“Being able to utilize the kitchen here at the CCE has been awesome because I'm able to work with some amazing people.”- Chantay Skrine

This episode of Cornell Cooperative Extension's ‘Extension Out Loud’ podcast charts Chantay's journey from home to commercial kitchen and beyond. Amy Willis, Food Systems Project Coordinator, and Katie Matsushima, Food Development Specialist, of CCE Broome County join the conversation to talk about the full range of support her team provides to help Southern Tier chefs successfully scale up a food-based business.

“We always like to say, ‘What do you want to make? Do you have a business plan?’ We always just try to take a second to make sure that we can understand the bigger picture,” says Matsushima. The bigger picture often includes licensing and legal requirements. Combined with a scarcity of available commercial kitchens in Broome County, successfully navigating this landscape requires support and guidance.

“You start at home you grow, develop a base, customers. you start developing those smaller pieces. And then it's time to really scale” -Amy Willis

CCE Broome County offers a unique environment to support home processors who are ready to scale up production. The commercial kitchen is adjacent to the farmer's market. This means that fresh, local produce is available to aspiring chefs. Combined with CCE staff who can help navigate the many challenges facing small food-based businesses the odds of making a successful transition are dramatically increased.

Download this episode transcript (pdf)