Mid-Continent Public Library’s Culinary Center Is Now Open!

Kansas City, MO – Mid-Continent Public Library has officially opened the doors to its much-anticipated Culinary Center, located inside the Library’s Green Hills location (8581 N. Green Hills Rd., Kansas City, Mo.). The innovative new Center features a teaching kitchen for food and nutrition-focused classes for the public, as well as commercial kitchen space for local startup food businesses.

“We are thrilled to finally welcome the community into our space and can’t wait to get cooking!” said MCPL Culinary Center Director Xander Winkel. “The mission of the Culinary Center is to enrich the community through food education and to support small businesses, and after many months of gathering all the right ingredients, we’re ready to start serving up these services!”

The Culinary Center will begin offering classes to the public in June on a variety of topics and catered to foodies of all ages. All programs are free to attend, but registration is required. From technique-focused programs like Food Preservation Basics, Beginning Culinary Knife Skills, and Outdoor Cooking 101, to recipe-centered classes like Make Your Own Chili Powder and Rubs, Healthy Caribbean Cooking, and Flour Power: A Kid’s History of the Tortilla, the Culinary Center will offer cooks of all interests and skill levels a chance to gain hands-on knowledge about food preparation, nutrition, and foodways (eating habits and culinary practices of people, regions, or historical periods).

The other half of the Culinary Center’s service—commercial kitchen space for local startup food businesses—is also now available. For a minimal rental fee, businesses can use the four commercial kitchen spaces, including two incubator kitchens, a shared equipment kitchen, and a prep kitchen. Each comes equipped with a variety of features—range tops, convection ovens, conventional ovens, freezers, coolers, etc. Scholarships to cover kitchen rental fees are also available to those who qualify.

“Our commercial kitchen spaces are an ideal resource for any food business without a current brick-and-mortar presence,” said Winkel. “For folks who have a catering or food truck business, the Library’s Culinary Center can serve as your home base. It’s also great for those who have a home cottage food operation now and who want to grow into a commercial food business. The goal is to provide the space and tools that are often a barrier to entry for many aspiring ‘foodpreneurs.’”

The MCPL Culinary Center is a unique resource for the Kansas City northland, which was part of the inspiration for the facility.

“One of the goals for this project has been to fill a community need that Library leaders recognized a number of years ago,” said Erin Kennedy, MCPL’s Strategic Projects Manager. “The Kansas City metro has a few resources for food education and local food business support, but many are costly, and few are located north of the river. The Library’s mission is to enrich its citizens and communities by expanding access to innovation and information, and the Culinary Center is one more way we achieve this.”

More information about the MCPL Culinary Center and its services can be found at mymcpl.org/Culinary. To inquire about renting commercial kitchen space, and to learn more about available scholarships, email Culinary@mymcpl.org.