{"id":321524,"date":"2026-05-18T18:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/321524\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T18:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:17:09","slug":"clovis-culinary-center-local-food-entrepreneurs-thrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/321524\/","title":{"rendered":"Clovis Culinary Center: Local Food Entrepreneurs Thrive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Isaac Dominguez of Cali’s Coffee House sets up his coffee bar inside the Clovis Culinary Center during the spring open house on May 14. Photo by Denine Currie<\/p>\n

The Clovis Culinary Center,<\/a> a nonprofit certified commercial kitchen and incubator space, hosted its spring open house on May 14. From West African fufu to frozen cookie dough, local caterers, food truck owners, vendors and more gathered to showcase their products and discuss how the Center helped launch their businesses.<\/p>\n

We sat down with several of its members to talk about the 24\/7 co-working kitchen.<\/p>\n

Q: Can you introduce your business and tell us what you specialize in?<\/p>\n

Eric Djanie, Djanie Chocolate:<\/a> \u201cWe make chocolate, we make healthy Nutella. We don\u2019t have palm oil in there, less sugar, no artificial flavors, no additives as well, and we\u2019re based here in Clovis. I was born in Ghana in West Africa. Ghana, and our next-door neighbors, grow about 70 percent of the world\u2019s cocoa. So the first time I saw a cocoa plant I was just about eight years old, and I\u2019ve always known that I have a love for chocolate. I work at a hospital, I make babies, I\u2019m an embryologist, so that\u2019s what I do in the day and then when I\u2019m off from that stressful job I make healthy chocolates for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lance Sanchez, Dad\u2019s Cookies<\/a>: \u201cWe started in April of 2020 right at the beginning of the pandemic. I was baking cookies out of my own oven, just like a lot of people were making food and things like that from their kitchen during the pandemic. And I started getting too many orders to do in my own kitchen. My whole house was turning into a bakery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Cowles, Let\u2019s Munch Cookies<\/a>: \u201d I went to culinary school and I used to work at Google and YouTube and I\u2019ve done that whole thing. I developed that recipe as a private chef and I had just been kind of refining it and working on it. So it\u2019s like a 10-year recipe that I\u2019ve poured myself into, and to me a lot of it is in the flavor, in the balance, but the texture\u2019s a big thing for me. That\u2019s why I like it frozen.Taking it from the freezer and putting it in the oven gives it a better texture. To me the crunchy bottom with the shell on top and the gooey inside \u2014 that\u2019s where it\u2019s at. My clients loved it and I was just making it for friends and family, and they all were like, \u2018You should sell this as dough,\u2019 and so finally I started listening to them and that\u2019s kind of why I\u2019m putting it out there today. \u201c<\/p>\n

\"twoEric Djanie of Djanie Chocolate and Alex Cowles of Let\u2019s Munch Cookies show off their products at the Clovis Culinary Center\u2019s spring open house. Photo by Denine Currie<\/p>\n

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Q: How has utilizing the Clovis Culinary Center benefited your business model?<\/p>\n

Rahina Seidu, Afro Spice<\/a>: \u201cThe kitchen supports all businesses. They give each and every one of us a spot to shine, to showcase our business and all that stuff. So I really love the kitchen. I like the people here, they support us. When you start, you don\u2019t know where to go, what to do, who to talk to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alex Cowles: \u201cHonestly, the community here is amazing. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard that answer over and over again, but it\u2019s very welcoming. Everyone\u2019s just like gassing each other up and promoting each other and helping each other out. And it\u2019s just really fun to see. What\u2019s wild to me is I didn\u2019t expect necessarily the quality of food that\u2019s coming out of here. I\u2019m just constantly shocked when I try people\u2019s food, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my god, this is really good stuff.\u2019 So it\u2019s really cool to see what people coming from a culinary background are able to accomplish just from their own home recipes, it\u2019s just wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victoria Vela, Lix Rim Dip<\/a>: \u201cWell, I will say that I started making this about 2020 or 2021. It\u2019s been a few years. They have been telling me the whole time to try and make a business out of it, but I did not know where to start. This past year, I met Kris Marshall (operations manager). She told me about the Clovis Culinary Center and I kind of saw it as, \u2018Hey, you know, she has a lot more knowledge than me about small businesses.\u2019 So I met with her and she told me how I can get started. The process was hard at first when it was just myself, but as soon as I started networking with everyone here, it has been so positive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"dipContainers of Lix Rim Dip, Victoria Vela\u2019s signature product, on display. Photo by Denine Currie<\/p>\n

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Q: In what ways has this space helped accelerate your growth?<\/p>\n

Isaac Dominguez, Cali\u2019s Coffee House<\/a>: \u201cI really like that I\u2019m slowly growing. I feel like you need a good foundation to really last. I really enjoy starting from pop-ups, and then it\u2019s the fact that it\u2019s been building, it just feels more solidified, more legitimate. I feel more in touch with the community, if you could kind of sum it up like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Cowles: \u201cThe kitchen\u2019s open 24 hours a day. So, if I need to come in here at 10 p.m., I can. I don\u2019t necessarily want to, but if I had to, it\u2019s a possibility. Things happen in life and it\u2019s nice that this is available. The fact that I can get in here at any time is really, really helpful. I think a lot of people might think of it as like a commercial kitchen, but it\u2019s really an incubator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hang Ha, Viet-Thai Fusion<\/a>: \u201cFor example, like today\u2019s open house, I can have an opportunity to meet a lot of people who can help me and help my small business grow. That is really good. It\u2019s a really good chance for me to introduce my food, because my business is just me. Those opportunities are really good for me to let people get to know my food.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"commercialHang Ha of Viet-Thai Fusion serves guests at her station. Photo by Denine Currie<\/p>\n

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