What fundamental problem are you addressing?
We address the structural imbalance between a growing number of “foodpreneurs” in Basel with innovative ideas and a small budget — and the lack of accessible, professional infrastructure to implement them. For example, many existing catering kitchens are underused and at the same time, founders lack affordable, rule-compliant production locations and access to a supporting ecosystem.
- Resources are available but not connected: In urban regions such as Basel, there are numerous kitchen resources — in restaurants, associations or educational institutions — which remain unused outside operating hours. However, these resources are barely visible and have not been systematically made available.
- Innovation often fails due to infrastructure hurdles: Many “foodpreneurs” (in particular food startups and small producers) fail not because of the product idea, but because of a lack of access to standard-compliant infrastructure, legal clarity or professional know-how. This slows down innovation, diversity and sustainable food systems.
- Lack of interfaces between sectors: Support offers from areas such as design, financing, logistics or law are available, but rarely tailored to the needs of “foodpreneurs.” A cross-sectoral platform that makes these offers visible and accessible can close this gap.
Our Approach: With the prototype digital platform and the “Shared Kitchen Basel” real laboratory, we are creating the basis for a scalable model that makes both supply and demand visible, networks and specifically promotes — and thus systemically contributes to more resilient food systems, conserves resources and promotes their sharing.
Which habits would you like to change or mainstream through which approach?
We want to change the habit that food preneurs and small food producers must set up their own expensive infrastructure to test and implement their ideas. We would also like to question the widespread practice that existing kitchen spaces in cities are often empty by the hour or day without being used. We create with Shared Kitchen Basel a platform that makes shared kitchen spaces visible, bookable and cooperatively accessible. At the same time, we connect foodpreneurs with a broad support network.
What we want to mainstream:
- Sharing instead of owning in the area of production infrastructure: Collaborative use is becoming the normal, recognized alternative to building up your own resources.
- Interdisciplinary support for founders: Foodpreneurs access know-how and services at an early stage that make them more resilient and successful.
- (Eco) -systemic thinking: Cuisine, product development, logistics and sales are no longer thought of in isolation, but as part of a networked, sustainable system.
Through this approach, we want to establish a new culture of sharing, collaboration and resource-saving innovation in the food sector.
What would you like to work on during the booster?
During the booster, we would like to focus on three main areas of work:
- Development of a digital platform (prototype): The aim is to make existing kitchen spaces and support services visible and accessible at a low threshold.
- Interdisciplinary ecosystem development Basel: The aim is to start building a visible, interdisciplinary support network (co-packing, design, law, logistics, etc.) and to design initial partnership models for the use of kitchen spaces. This is the cornerstone for a sustainable, climate-friendly shared kitchen model.
- “Shared Kitchen” needs analysis: The aim is to identify specific needs, hurdles and potential for the joint use of catering kitchens and interest in a networking platform.