They say necessity is the mother of invention; that’s certainly the case for Christine Manning, co-owner with her husband James Houston of the rentable commercial cooking space, manning canning KITCHENS. Christine is also the owner of Manning Canning, a small canning company that produces a selection of award-winning sweet and savoury jams, jellies, marmalades and pickles from locally sourced produce. It is precisely because of her successful canning enterprise that Christine decided to open a commercial kitchen.
“The biggest challenge for me [with Manning Canning] was finding commercial cooking space,” says Christine, who used to do her canning out of a Scarborough location before opening manning canning KITCHENS in Leaside. “There is a real lack of commercial kitchen space in Toronto for small food businesses.”
Christine discovered she was not alone in her struggle to find rentable cooking and prep space. “I talked to quite a few people at farmers’ markets and food trade shows,” she says, including a group called Push Food Forward, who told her the one question they are asked the most often is where to find commercial kitchens. “When I got to a stage in my business to grow, I decided to address the needs of the food community.”
