EKC Innovation Kitchen enables delivery of transformational project for young people
Kent’s first innovation kitchen has enabled the delivery of a transformational project for young people.
The EKC Innovation Kitchen is the county’s first innovation kitchen, which offers food entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes access to high-end equipment and professional-grade facilities typically out of reach for smaller producers.
Thanks to the Nourish Grant Funding, which is funded by Thanet District Council, a training kitchen in Thanet has been able to scale up its operations and support more young people on their career journey.
The Perfect Place to Grow is a training kitchen and cafe in Margate, supporting 18 – 24-year-olds. Due to high demand for their service, bosses at the Community Interest Company discovered the EKC Innovation Kitchen could help them to take their work to the next level.
Thanks to the EKC Innovation Kitchen, they’ve been able to branch out and create their new ready-meal product – a chickpea masala based on a recipe taught to them by a former trainee from Pakistan.
Kent chef cooks up allergy-friendly innovation in county’s first innovation kitchen
A Broadstairs business owner is blazing a trail as one of the first entrepreneurs to develop a new product inside Kent’s very first innovation kitchen.
Chef Kanndiss Riley, the founder of PRIME EATS, has been busy perfecting a range of allergy-friendly pies and sauces at the EKC Innovation Kitchen, based at The Yarrow in Broadstairs.
The EKC Innovation Kitchen, a £250,000 investment by East Kent Colleges Group (EKC Group), is a cutting-edge facility designed to help food entrepreneurs scale up recipes, test products, and experiment with new culinary techniques.
It’s equipped with professional-grade equipment, typically out of reach for small businesses, and provides on-hand guidance from industry experts Daphne and David.
Kanndiss, who also runs the social enterprise NBE Fitness, says the kitchen has given her the tools, confidence, and professional support to take her homegrown idea to supermarket shelves.