Shannon Brantley’s fingers were caked in dough.
“I am in the process of making some dumplings,” she told the caller on Monday, Nov. 11. “Can you hold on and I will go wash my hands.”
Brantley, 54, is a chef who was immersed in cooking, testing new dumpling recipes to add to a repertoire that includes Double Bacon, Cheese Burger Dumplings and Outta The Park Hot Dog Dumplings, the latter an homage to the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
But you won’t find her at a commercial kitchen or restaurant. Instead, she’s slaving over a hot stove in her own kitchen, inside her gray-and-white home on a double cul-de-sac in Woodland Hills. On Monday, Nov. 18, she will officially launch Angel City Dumplings, the first home-kitchen mini restaurant to receive a permit from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
She and her husband, Stuart Brantley, own the first Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations (MEHKO) permitted business in L.A. County under the so-called MEHKO program that went into effect Nov. 1.
So far, the Brantley’s home business, and another home business called Vendittis Pizza in Stevenson Ranch, have passed public health inspections and have been permitted, records show. Advocates say 50 more are in the permit pipeline, and the county will see 100 MEHKOs by the end of the year.
The program can help legitimize the sale of prepared foods from the home, making it safe and regulated, the county said. Proponents say the program benefits single moms who care for children and elderly parents and therefore can’t leave the home for work, as well as providing a second source of income for immigrant families on a tight budget.
“A lot of people were doing this underground. They will come out of the shadows, get a permit and pay taxes,” said Roya Bagheri, executive director of Cook Alliance, a nonprofit that supports the fledgling home-cooking business industry in California with classes, grants and chat rooms.
“For a lot of people, they’ve…
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