People selling home-cooked meals given a pathway to do business legally under California law
Most people love a home-cooked meal, but charge people money for it and you're breaking the law. But now, in California, the law has changed to allow more people to use their skills in the kitchen to earn a living.
Tacos Don Chai is one of the newest restaurants in Martinez. But if it's a dream come true, it's an accidental dream for owner Bryan Gonzalez, who in 2020 was helping manage a restaurant in San Francisco.
"I was left jobless, pretty much, on the day that the COVID announcement was made," said Bryan. "Just hanging out at home. Started cooking, started cooking for friends. My friends really enjoyed my cooking, my birria is special."
Birria is another name for slow-cooked shredded meat. and Bryan's is to die for. His friends encouraged him to sell his delicious brisket tacos, but instead he spent two weekends giving them away for free in exchange for mentions on social media.
"I did, like, 500-600 tacos in the two weekends. So, it was a lot of people and after that, it was just non-stop," he said. "Every weekend, it was just thousands of tacos done at my house."
And he didn't just cook at his Antioch home, he served customers at tables set up in a tropical-themed area around his pool.
"We had people sometimes jump in the pool," he said, laughing. "Yeah, in my backyard. And obviously the neighbors weren't too happy about it because I think somebody ended up calling the Health Department on me."
The Health Department shut him down. But Bryan wasn't the only one doing it. There are lots of people making and selling food out of their homes, they just do it as part of the underground economy. So, a new law, Assembly Bill 1325 signed in July, allows home cooks to come out of the shadows and make a living doing it. Roya Bagheri is CEO of Cook Alliance, the group that spearheaded the legislation.
"Most people are actually unaware that it is illegal to sell food out of your home kitchen," she said, "not recognizing that they're breaking any law when they're just trying to share their food. So, that's why we helped pass this law in California and are working to spread this across the entire U.S."
They're called "microenterprise home kitchen operations," or MEHKO's. Under AB 1325, people can prepare — and even serve — food in their homes and earn up to $100,000 doing it. Of course, they must undergo inspection and certification and are limited to only 90 meals per week.
"It's really designed that they don't have to spend much money, besides what's already in a home kitchen, to be able to create their food and share it with the community in a safe way," said Bagheri.
Health Departments must set up and enforce the certification and inspection program, so many have been slow to implement the law. There have also been concerns from some counties over the issue of food safety. But proponents of the law say it will make things safer by bringing the home cooks out in the open and encourage safer food handling practices. Bryan said he's glad to hear about it, even if it came too late to save his backyard oasis.
"Well, I wish that would have been maybe two years ago, because it was something that I needed. And I feel a little relieved for the people out there, that there's hope for them, you know?" he said. "It's helping people. It's giving people jobs. People are making money. There's great food going around and there's nothing better than a home-cooked meal, you know?"
Cooking food is a universal experience. And now the law says people can put that experience to work for them, and for some, like Bryan, maybe even cook up a dream.
