Shared Kitchen in Shreveport Creates Some NOLA Buzz

Today in the annals of intriguing ideas, let us all get more acquainted with the Shreveport-Bossier City Kitchen Incubator, a Kickstarter project proposed by a nonprofit shared workspace called Cohab. Cohab, much like Propeller and Beta in New Orleans, offers nascent entrepreneurs and start-up companies office space?along with all the wifi, coffee, and staplers that such a phrase implies?where they can grow their businesses without having to sit at home in their pajamas and slowly watch their dreams come unravelled after hours of perusing Buzzfeed. Entrepreneurs need office space, but perhaps no breed of entrepreneur needs office space more than young chefs hoping to grow their brand and hone their culinary skills.

That's why Cohab is currently raising $20,000 to create a shared kitchen in Shreveport-Bossier City. The logic here is that, lacking startup capital for their own ventures, chefs need access to commercial kitchens so they can get in the habit of preparing food for a living. The money will purchase really pricey items like a gas range, convection oven, fryers, tabletop mixers, food processors, reach-in fridges, and other basic commercial kitchen supplies, all of which should help young, kitchen-less chefs host their own pop-ups and make food to sell for retail.

At this point you're probably thinking, "Gee golly, Eater, this Cohab kitchen sounds swell and all, but Shreveport sure is far away from New Orleans. Why should we care about this?" It's simple, really?the Cohab project has attracted some attention from a local food act that knows what sharing or renting kitchen space is like.

Killer Poboys got word of the Cohab project, and suggested an intriguing New Orleans riff on the whole idea of shared commercial kitchen space. After start-up guru Chris Schultz tweeted about the Cohab Kickstarter project, Killer Poboys responded with this:

@cschultz would be a great use for a portion of an old public market, think Chelsea market, New Orleans style, w/fixed and mobile vendors

— Killer Poboys (@killerpoboys) July 26, 2013

The Killer Poboys Twitter android then suggested a prime location for such a shared kitchen incubator: St. Roch. Killer Poboys added, "Imagining: new school food court, plus commercial kitchen." Sounds great, at least to Naked Pizza and Trumpet co-founder Robbie Vitrano, who latched on to Twitter conversation immediately, adding a pragmatic perspective to the speculative proceedings: "St. Roch would be great" [sic] love help w needs assessment. 1st step. Will be in touch."

Get that rumor mill churning prematurely, everyone! What would Friday be without a little highly speculative gossip gleaned from a brief social media exchange?

· Cohab Kitchen Incubator for Shreveport-Bossier City [Kickstarter]
· Twitter