A home-based food movement has been heating up in California, with home cooks turning their beloved family recipes into small businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When most people get laid off, they update their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s. James Houlahan preheated his oven.<\/p>\n
“It’s pretty brutal, and since nobody’s hiring, I just figured I need to make a job for myself,” he said.<\/p>\n
So the San Francisco Bay Area resident went back to a family recipe and decided to take a risk, with a whisk. He started making pavlovas, a light, meringue-based Australian dessert, crisp on the outside and soft in the middle.<\/p>\n
“It’s something my mom and I always joked about whenever we’d bring a pav to a party, this thing kills,” Houlahan said. “So we figured, someone’s gotta make a business out of this.”<\/p>\n
So he did, out of his own kitchen in Alameda.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And that’s not a loophole. A 2019 law called MEHKO, or Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation<\/a>, allows people to cook and sell food right out of their homes. Since then, more than 1,000 of these home kitchens have opened across California, operating under a growing but still patchwork system.<\/p>\n There are rules: food must be made from scratch and sold the same day. Not every county is on board, but there is now a push to expand it statewide.<\/p>\n Roya Bagheri, the executive director of The Cook Alliance<\/a>, the nonprofit behind MEHKO, said the law is gaining momentum across the country as other states consider their own versions.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The cost of getting something like a food truck or a brick and mortar restaurant is so high, this creates an access to enter the food industry,” she said.<\/p>\n A study by the group showed more than a third of home kitchen operators have used MEHKO as a stepping stone into something bigger.<\/p>\n But for some, the law is still a little undercooked. Jot Condie, president and CEO of the California Restaurant Association<\/a>, warned that some counties may not have the resources to take it on.<\/p>\n “If they don’t have the budget, there may not be a rigorous inspection procedure, and that is a huge concern for us,” Condie said.<\/p>\n As for Houlahan, he’s betting on his own kitchen and his mother’s name: Marianne’s Pavlovas<\/a>. And his customers, like Flora Tso, are already sold.<\/p>\n “Nowadays it just gives us more choice,” she said.<\/p>\n \n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n