New Los Angeles County Program Permits Cooks to Sell Food From Home

When Armbay Zakaria started serving Syrian and Circassian dishes from his home kitchen in 2022, he never expected his venture, Nawal, to attract food influencers and media attention. But after a complaint led to its closure, Zakaria is getting a second chance through a new L.A. County program designed to legitimize home-based food businesses. The County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health's Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation program focuses on helping home cooks follow their culinary passions and build businesses. At a launch event on Oct. 26, there were 150 people in attendance, and 12 MEHKO applications were turned in. Zakaria started Nawal with a focus on serving the Solano Canyon community and named his home restaurant after his mother. His brother, Dotee Zakaria, was the one who thought of working right out of their home instead of trying to open a restaurant or food truck. Zakaria says his brother thought it was best to "just go full gorilla." As time passed, word got around about the brothers' home eatery. Newspapers, websites, and food influencers were coming to taste the food at Nawal. Then, after a complaint, the brothers' home eatery was forced to close. At the time, L.A. County did not have an approved program for home kitchen-based restaurants.

Assembly Bill 626, signed in 2018 by then Gov. Jerry Brown, created the new designation of MEHKO for retail food. According to city documents , the program was authorized by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in May of this year. Permits for the program will be given out by the Environmental Health Division of the L.A. County DPH.

The COOK Alliance, a non-profit formed in 2018 championed the program. Lauren Wolfer, COOK Alliance outreach and advocacy director, says the non-profit started as an advocacy group that works toward coalition building all over California. The alliance sponsored and was part of writing the legislation for the creation of the MEHKO designation through AB 626. The alliance currently offers support to MEHKO operators in the form of COOK Academy . "Through this program, we are also dispersing $1.5 million in state funded equity grants," Wolfer says. "For each participant in COOK Academy, when they graduate they get a $3,000 grant to either start or scale their MEHKO business, and they're also eligible to get three units of college credit." James Dragan, L.A. County DPH branch director, says there are various goals with the MEHKO program. One of the main ones is to create and empower entrepreneurship. He says helping underrepresented communities like women, immigrants and people of color to enter the formal economy with low costs in startup. "Ultimately, the MEHKO promotes business growth and can also help expanding access to fresh, healthy food in the communities that may lack grocery stores or restaurants," Dragan says. Monitoring home cooking areas begins with the application for the program. There are initial inspections at the time of application for a MEHKO. According to Dragan, these are done to make sure the proposed menu items and the kitchens used can support one another. This is followed by the annual inspection focused on health and safety standard compliance of the MEHKO. The specific areas include:

Proper food handling

Safe food storage

Adherence to kitchen safety protocols and standards

"Additionally, Public Health would respond to any consumer complaints and investigate those complaints and resolve those issues that may come up from those complaints," Dragan says. Once a resident receives a permit, they can make, keep, and serve food to the public. MEHKOs can sell a maximum of 30 meals a day, a maximum of 90 meals a week, and can earn a maximum of $100,000 gross annually. The initial permit review fee is $597. The program has a subsidy for up to 1,000 permittees that waives the initial application review fee. The subsidy is available until June 30, 2026, or until funds are finished. For people looking to check out local home kitchens, there is LAHomemade , a site that provides information on various MEHKOs. The Yelp-styled map currently has locations, including the Thai Night Market in East Hollywood, the El Sereno Night Market in North Hollywood, and the Avenue 26 Night Market in Whittier. Initial permit applications should contain a completed application packet and be sent to the EHD. Additional information can be found in the DPH MEHKO fact sheet .