New Year's: New Orleans Food Incubator

By JULIETE ROSSANT [Note to readers: a 2004 Tsunami is forthcoming.] Incubators in the dot.com boom era weren't for eggs or preemies. They were places where start-up companies could get support, including funding from investors, for their businesses. (Anybody remember the indie movie Startup.com? Read the BBC review.) I have always wondered why their weren't incubators for food products, since it is expensive and risky for a chef to launch a new sauce or chocolate without major funding and advice. And successful food products have the potential to earn chefs more than restaurants or books or other activities. It turns out that out of 800 incubators in the US there are 20 exclusively dedicated to food, according to Charles D’Agostino, executive director of the Louisiana Business and Technology Center at Louisiana State University. Business New Orleans reports that Greater New Orleans Inc. has replaced the former New Orleans Regional Chamber of Commerce and MetroVision and is spearheading economic development for the ten-parish region. Among its efforts is a food business incubator to help local chefs and restaurateurs grow their dreams. The LSU Food Science Department, in cooperation with the LSU AgCenter’s test kitchen, will provide expertise in recipe development and consistency. Besides startups, some restaurants and chefs have also shown interest in using the incubator. D’Agostino said a number of restaurants that make their own sauces and other products in-house say they want to rent space on a part-time basis to free up their own kitchens. The New Orleans incubator should be up and running with kitchen space somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 square feet by 2005. Will fancy food fairs of the future be stocked with more and more New Orleans food products? Move over, Paul Prudhomme, Emeril Lagasse, and Susan Spicer. Let's see more incubators all over the country during 2005: Happy New Year, Foodies. Previous articles: Paul Prudhomme Magic Growth World Series Chefs Serve Baseball Motley Fool Mulls Over "Frankenfish" (or Emeril's Notches on B&G Foods)