A veteran Calgary chef is bringing new hope to people hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, offering a recipe for success in the food service industry’s struggle for survival.
Herbert Obrecht operates a shared commercial kitchen space called Culinary Coworking, renting out spots to businesses involved in food preparation and sales.
“They come in maybe for four hours, six hours, 10 hours — whatever they need,” he said.
Obrecht has recently expanded — tripling the size of the space — because of increased demand during the pandemic.
Among those renting at the facility is Conner Kadziolka, who runs Sprout Society, a business making and delivering plant-based meals to people’s homes.
“I was going to be a teacher and now I’m chopping tofu,” Kadziolka said.
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Kadziolka had been getting all set to start his first teaching job in early 2020, but then the pandemic hit.
“It led to kind of a definite pivot, because there was no prospect of work at the time,” Kadziolka said.
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Obrecht also offers a bit of cooking coaching to those renting space.
“I have a really big book of things not to do, so that kind of helps them — they do not make the same mistakes that I did,” he said. “And it’s nice to be able to say I helped them along.”
Among the clients not needing many tips is Steve Szostak, who grew up in the kitchen.
“(It) started when I was young, in my sister’s restaurant, at (age) eight,” Szostak said.
Szostak runs Smoke N BBQ, a business specializing in smoked meat.
He had opened a full-service restaurant a few months before COVID-19 hit, which left him with no choice but to shut it down.
“With the pandemic, we just couldn’t sustain the overhead that we had,” Szostak said. “So having a spot like this, we can have a smoker, we smoke (the meat) overnight and then we put it into our food truck.
“The future’s bright.”
Kadziolka has been steadily expanding his business.
“Growing from a one- or two-person team, cooking out of our own kitchen to a team of seven to eight,” he said.
Kadziolka said he may eventually take up teaching, but for now, “this is my dream come true.”
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