JULY 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 73
CALVERTON INCUBATOR COOKING UP A STORM
BY CLAUDE SOLNIK
At around 9 a.m. on June 15, Samantha
Sherman, owner of The Hampton Grocer,
arrived in a rented kitchen at Stony Brook
University’s Food Business Incubator at
Calverton. She soon left with the latest
batch of The Hampton Grocer granola.
“I baked 300 pounds of granola in an
hour,” Sherman said after finishing. “I
do all of my production out of the incubator’s
kitchen. It’s a great space with
large ovens.”
While restaurants often faced a financial
famine through much of the pandemic,
the university’s incubator is, if not in the
midst of a feast, as busy as ever. Shared
kitchens have cropped up across Long
Island, giving culinary entrepreneurs
a place to work, including this kind of
culinary central.
“It’s incredible how many new companies
have come in,” said Elaine Peterson,
senior vice president of Alpha Honey
Health, which has used the incubator
since 2020. “The incubator’s there to
help us succeed and link us with a network,
whether it’s labels, marketing or
retailers.”
Don’t ask what’s cooking in Calverton,
unless you’ve got some time to listen to
the answer.Yvonne Schultz manages
the incubator, used by 64 companies,
including 23 with dedicated space.
Businesses using the incubator, focusing
on foods and beverage, offer pickles,
cocktail mixers, dips, honey, a dizzying
array of baked goods, pet treats, and
much more.
“The incubator brings a sophisticated,
high-quality kitchen space that we can
use,” said Peterson. “You have to have the
cleanest level of kitchens. That kitchen
has to be pristine.”
Companies work in spaces including a
shared-use commercial manufacturing
kitchen divided into five areas, each with
its own equipment. There’s a baking area,
gluten-free kitchen, packaging area,
storage, and operations space. Add to
that walk-in refrigeration, freezer space,
blast chillers, dishwashing station, a produce
washing sink, and mobile steel tables.
“They try to build a community, to connect
people,” Stacy Malinow, who leads
Bliss Pastries, said of camaraderie and
cooking space. “With the pandemic,
it’s been hard. Everyone cooks in their
kitchen and stays by themselves.”
Juliet Day, owner and chief baker at
Baked By Juliet, launched her business
in June 2020 and began working at the
incubator in January, making scones
and cookies.
“A lot of them have been in this industry
a lot longer than I have,” Day said of fellow
entrepreneurs. “They are very willing
to give advice and suggest resources
I wouldn’t have known about.”
Malinow said Schultz has provided
support throughout. “Yvonne helped
with baking information, vendors, finding
a company for packaging, general
knowledge,” she said. “She gave me a lot
of advice.”
Each entrepreneur has a story to tell.
Day got a crash course in business after
her culinary studies were put on hold. “I
planned to go to pastry school,” she said.
“Then the pandemic happened. Things
shut down.”
During the pandemic, Sherman saw demand
grow for granola, which she built
into a business. “I started selling granola
as part of gift baskets I delivered,” Sherman
said. “The granola business was
flourishing. I decided to laser focus on
granola.”
Malinow began doing gluten-free
baking in 2005 when her daughter was
diagnosed with celiac disease. “I decided
to take things into my hands and develop
things she would want to eat,” she said.
“People told me, ‘You should start a
business.’”
Bliss Pastries was born, making gluten
free chocolate cookies, brownies,
chocolate chip cookie pies, and muffins.
Malinow bakes in the incubator’s
gluten-free kitchen. “They don’t taste
gluten free,” she said. “People don’t feel
like they’re eating something different
than everyone else. Everyone wants to
eat them.”
Margaret and Bruce McDonough developed
dog treats for their dog after
becoming dissatisfied with what was
available. Talk Treats To Me began doing
business at the incubator in February
2020, making bottom round beef,
beef liver, and chicken breast treats.
“People said, ‘Could I get some of that
for my dog?’” said McDonough, whose
wife has since passed away. “We said,
‘OK.’”
Each company has a niche, often serving
specialized tastes or providing
fresh, high-end, or healthy products.
Alpha Honey Health imports Manuka
honey from New Zealand. The company
describes it as high-end, providing
taste and health. “They use helicopters
to get the stuff,” Peterson said.
Encouragement from the incubator
and entrepreneurs helps, but so does
recognition and the satisfaction of
seeing product sell out. Malinow said
Taste New York’s center in Dix Hills
increased its orders after selling out.
Bliss Pastries recently delivered baked
goods to a Taste New York kiosk at
Moynihan Train Hall in Manhattan.
"Many of these entrepreneurs have
gone on to be very successful and have
added — and continue to add — so much
to Long Island’s food culture and vitality,"
said Peter Donnelly, associate vice
president for technology partnerships
at Stony Brook University.
Alpha Honey Health, meanwhile, just
won a triple-star superior taste award
from the International Taste Institute
in Brussels, Belgium. “As people
emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic,
they have a greater appreciation for
healthy living," Peterson added.
While each businessperson is doing
their own thing, even during the
pandemic, an incubator can provide
a sense of truly being in this together
– and sometimes helping one another.
“The incubator’s a very nice community
of people,” Bruce McDonough said.
“People are for the most part very supportive.
They’re trying to work hard
and get things going.”
Honey Health
MAIN DISH
“I decided to laser focus on granola,”
says Samantha Sherman.
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
