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Pâtisserie Melanie & The California Homemade Food Act's Affordable Path to Artisan Food Operations
Six years ago, if you wanted to make and sell cookies, tamales, or jams, you had to have access to a commercial kitchen. Even your kid having a lemonade stand in your front yard was technically against the law.
But, on January 1st, 2013, that all changed with the California Homemade Food Act. Benefiting from this law are artisans who make small batch goods and sell at farmers’ markets, at locally owned shops, or selling pastries through local cafes. Or, like pastry chef Melanie Dunn, opening small storefronts in work-live zoned homes.
Dunn is a former schoolteacher who trained over summer breaks at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She now runs Pâtisserie Melanie out of a shop on the bottom floor of her home in a unique live/work area of Hillcrest, and says that the California Homemade Food Act gave her the ability to share her passion for pastry with San Diego.
She makes everything by hand in her home kitchen upstairs. And when she says “by hand,” she means it literally. She doesn’t use any mechanical mixers or tools, turning the dough herself to create delicate layers.
“When making bread by hand there is a feeling of an action that goes back so many years. There is something special about the human hand connecting with dough,” she said.
She might not be able to continue to make everything this way as her business continues to grow, but she appreciates the connection it gives her to the craft.
“When the California Homemade Food Act, known as cottage food operations, was enacted in 2013, it created a path for a small home-based food business to sell certain non-perishable food items, such as cookies or granola,” explained Jessica Northrup of the County of San Diego, Land Use and Environment Group.
“One of the biggest benefits of Cottage Food is that there are very low startup costs in comparison to those of a restaurant. Cottage Food Operators have the flexibility to either sell directly to their customers or sell their products at a local restaurant or market,” she said.
There are two types of permits under the law. Dunn has a Class A permit, which allows her to sell out of her home. A Class B permit would allow someone to sell to other establishments, like coffee shops and grocery stores.
The California Homemade Food Act only covers certain foods that are shelf stable, like muffins, peanut butters, and tortillas. These limitations mean that Dunn can’t do anything with cream, like eclairs or classic tarts.
Dunn says, the limitations have helped her become more creative. While Dunn’s croissants might be the best in San Diego, she also specializes in more regional French pastries, like Kouign-Amanns, a buttery muffin-shaped pastry from the Brittany region of France.
“Being able to sell out of our home gave Melanie an opportunity to establish her brand and grow her customer base, as well as get all her production processes down, so we can be ready to make the jump to a larger space with a commercial kitchen. If you look at the text of AB-1616 (the cottage food law), it was intended to do just that: lower the barriers to entry for businesses,””said Dunn’s husband, Axel Schwartz, who co-owns the Pâtisserie with his wife.
“I’ve heard lots of stories of food establishments going out of business because they ran out of cash while trying to work out the kinks of their business model,” he added. “Signing a lease can be daunting, as are all the startup costs to either buy or build out a fully permitted establishment. Now that we’ve already worked out a lot of the kinks, we are actively looking to open a second location that will expand our options of what we can offer the public.”
Artisan food makers can find out more about the cottage food act at sandiegocounty.gov, and you can taste the results at Pâtisserie Melanie, located at 3788 Park Boulevard, Suite 4, in Hillcrest.
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