In the decade since its Nibble Entrepreneurship Program started, the Somerville municipal program has given scores of immigrants the opportunity to share their food and culture and enter the food business.
“There’s much more that goes into a restaurant than just opening a door and serving food,” said Tony Baum, program coordinator for the Nibble Culinary Arts program, a part of the Somerville Arts Council. The Nibble program spun out of the ArtsUnion initiative, which was focused on celebrating arts and culture around Somerville’s Union Square, Baum said. At the time, the area was rapidly undergoing development, which was accompanied by income inequality and gentrification. “The ArtsUnion initiative was all about highlighting and celebrating culture and food and restaurants and mostly immigrant-owned or minority-owned businesses in Union Square,” Baum said. Since then, it has expanded into workforce and economic development, including launching Nibble Kitchen in 2019.
Nibble participants range from those with extensive experience in the food business to those with none at all, although they may have “a lifetime of loving to cook, loving to tell stories, loving to host dinner parties,” Baum said. Others have been chefs, line cooks or dishwashers, but never run a food business.
Caryl Lu had worked as a line cook at Sarma Restaurant before she joined the Nibble program this year. She is currently a chef-in-residence at Nibble Kitchen in Bow Market and owner and chef of Sinta Filipino Cuisine.
“[Filipino cuisine] is underrepresented here compared to other major cities,” Lu said. “I lived in Los Angeles for the majority of my life and had the privilege of being surrounded by exceptional food cooked by immigrants like me.”
The Nibble Entrepreneurship program typically takes nine to 15 people each year, with Somerville residents given preference, though it tries to be open to all. Applicants pay a $100 fee and fill out a two-page application available in English, Spanish and Portuguese that asks about their cooking experience and what they hope to get out of the program. The application is intentionally brief and meant as a conversation starter, Baum said, since the goal is not to scare anyone away. “That’s one of the earliest hurdles that we have to overcome is people who, especially in the current political landscape, are not always trusting of a government entity.”
English proficiency is not crucial, and the Somerville Office of Immigrant Affairs can provide translation services.
Participants start with an eight-week crash course in operating a food business. The workshops are taught by culinary entrepreneurs and City of Somerville employees including Baum, who has worked as a manager at several restaurants. Topics covered include social media, marketing, designing and costing out menus, licensing, paying taxes and how to hire staff. There is also a focus on “how to represent your culture appropriately while still serving dishes that will appeal to a broader market,” Baum said.
After the workshop, the Nibble program works with participants based on their goals. More than 65 percent of graduates have started a food business, including by applying for the yearlong chef-in-residence program, as Lu has done. Some run pop-up restaurants, others run catering businesses or host cooking classes or participate in farmers markets. Others want to boost skills to get better-paying jobs in a culinary field, and some focus on showcasing their culture and cuisine.
“We have definitely veered toward entrepreneurship support and business development support in the last handful of years. A lot of that came through Covid,” Baum said. “People suddenly had the time and the bandwidth to explore making sourdough in their apartments.”
Edwin Orellana had about 15 years of experience at several Boston restaurants when he was furloughed from his sous-chef position during the pandemic. “I started cooking a lot at home and teaching my 4-year-old daughter how to make pupusas,” he said, drawing on recipes his mother taught him growing up in El Salvador. “My wife suggested I teach our friends on Zoom and that started Dos Manos Kitchen – virtual pupusa-making classes.” He joined the Nibble program in 2021.
“I knew I could use my experience as a chef in Boston and make unique pupusas with new types of ingredients but didn’t know how to get started,” Orellana said. “I didn’t have experience in running the business, worrying about food costs and labor costs and all of the other things that are necessary. Nibble gave me a low-risk place to try.”
Nibble is a fully funded initiative within the Arts Council of Somerville and is supported by other City of Somerville departments, Baum noted. A grant from MassDevelopment in 2017 provided $61,610 to build the 350-square-foot Nibble Kitchen. The Nibble program works on a profit-sharing model that is meant to make it self-sustaining, Baum said. The program takes up to 30 percent of sales to cover business operations. It doesn’t provide direct financial support to participants. But Lu said “for me personally having the Nibble kitchen and vending from it is the biggest benefit to joining the program.”
Orellana has added pop-up pupusa-making at festivals. He said that “it was a big financial help to have access to a kitchen on a shared revenue basis. I never would have been able to try out my idea for a pupusaria without it.”
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