Home kitchen operations flourish following new law

Yanira Majano's recipes for homemade pupusas have generated business for her family dating back to her mother's restaurant in El Salvador to her own home kitchen in San Diego, where she sells meals directly to customers.

A resident of the Rancho Peñasquitos neighborhood, Majano prepares the Central American nation's national dish composed of gluten-free, corn flour tortillas stuffed with fresh vegetables, spices, cheese and various meats.

"Pupusas are typically served with curtido and red salsa," she said. "Curtido is a cabbage slaw marinated with apple cider vinegar and fresh herbs."

She named her business Love Pupusas, which operates from noon to 6 p.m. every day, similar to a restaurant.

And also like a restaurant in a commercially-zoned area, diners can visit her private home and take orders to go. Cuisines also vary, ranging from El Savadorian food to Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches, barbecued meats, Thai food and Indian food.

Majano is one of about 300 Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations (MEHKO) throughout California. In 2018, state legislators adopted AB 626, which allowed counties to opt in by permitting residents to open home restaurants upon satisfying food safety licensing, application and inspection requirements.

The law initially capped annual earnings a home kitchen operator could earn at $50,000. Additionally, there was a stipulation that no more than 30 meals per day and 60 meals per week could be prepared. That changed in July when AB 1325 was adopted and raised the annual earnings cap to $100,000 and the number of weekly meals to 90.

State law stipulates that a MEHKO can operate out of a residential building, including a house, apartment or other owned or leased space, where its operator primarily lives. In addition to takeout, some home kitchens are allowed to host dine-in customers.

Roya Bagheri, a lawyer and executive director for the Cook Alliance, advocated for the bills and works to provide aspiring home cook operators with resources to get up and running. She said the revised legislation helps small restaurateurs keep up with cost of living increases along with creating opportunities for those needing to work from home.

"For some people, it's supplemental income. They do it when they need to make extra income to continue to afford to live," she said. "Some people are doing it as full-time income because they're homemakers. They're single moms who still need to be home to help take care of kids and still be able to earn an income out of their homes. It's really helpful."

Bagheri said home kitchen enterprises can also be a steppingstone toward expansion.

Majano opened Love Pupusas in May 2022, a few months after San Diego County adopted a two-year pilot program for home kitchen businesses. She left behind a career as an internal auditor in the banking industry to run her home restaurant, which she'd like to expand in the near future.

"It's opening a lot of doors for me and something I'd like to do is start selling at farmers' markets or get a food truck and then eventually my own small takeout location," Majano said.

San Diego County is part of a small handful of counties so far that have opted into the home kitchen enterprise program along with Alameda, Santa Barbara, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Imperial and Solano counties. Riverside County was the first statewide to implement the program.

In November, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to make permanent its pilot program. Prospective home kitchen operators within the county must pay an initial $646 permit fee and an annual $322 renewal fee to stay in business. They must also take an extensive food-handling training course and pass an in-home inspection.

"So they'll submit their standard operating procedures, we'll review those, and then we'll go out to their home and verify that their setup is in compliance," said Ryan Johnson, chief of departmental operations for the county's Department of Environmental Health and Quality. "And if everything is good, we'll issue their health permit, and then every year after that, we'll conduct a routine inspection of their home."

El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells voiced concerns regarding the recent home kitchen vote. He could not be reached for comment, but recently told the San Diego Union-Tribune that from a practical perspective, he would have trouble with neighbors setting up a restaurant in his house and that he would be worried about how the county would monitor operations.

Johnson said roughly 70 home kitchens are operating within San Diego County and his staff is prepared to hire additional personnel to meet the demands of more businesses.

Bagheri said there have been no reports of food-borne illness involving home kitchen operations.

Permitting costs vary between counties, with Santa Clara County -- which launched its MEHKO program earlier this year -- for example, charging $635 for an annual permit, though such costs have been waived through 2024. Riverside County charges $651 for an annual permit.

While many operating requirements are laid out in the state law, counties and cities can have variations when it comes to policies on food storage. All counties ban home kitchen operators from handling the service or sale of oysters and raw milk products, just to name a few commonalities.

Los Angeles County could be among the next to opt into the state program with its Board of Supervisors voting in October to direct the Department of Public Health, in collaboration with county counsel and the Department of Economic Opportunity, to draft an ordinance that would authorize the permitting of home kitchen operations.

Becky Schlikerman, a spokesperson with the health department, said county officials have reached out to Riverside, Santa Clara, San Diego and San Mateo counties to ensure L.A.'s draft ordinance aligns with established best practices for equitable, safe and accessible microenterprise home kitchen operations.

"Public Health believes that MEHKOs, if operated in compliance with state law, can positively integrate into the community and local economy," she said.

California is among the first seven U.S. states to permit home kitchen permits, the first being Wyoming in 2015, said Erica Ewing Smith, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, who has advocated for such programs.

California law also stipulates that each home kitchen operation can only have one full-time employee, the licensee, though family members and other household members can help, including with making deliveries.

Delivery via third-party apps such as DoorDash or Uber Eats is prohibited, according to the state legislation.

Foodnome, on the other hand, is a web platform that doesn't facilitate deliveries, but allows patrons to order food from a participating MEHKO online and shows their address only after a purchase has been made. Akshay Prabhu, founder and CEO of Foodnome, said home kitchen enterprises can help increase access to food as populations become more and more suburban. He pointed to the Inland Empire as an example.

"Sometimes, you have to drive 45 minutes to get to the grocery store," he said. "So I think distributed networks of food and decentralizing our food system for more resilient economies in the long run."

Majano's mother, 85-year-old Martha Martinez, helps her daughter out in the kitchen whenever she can.

"She loves to make the curtido," Majano said, adding: "When you cook and you have so much passion, everything tastes much better."