I am going through the steps necessary to begin baking and selling wholesale baked goods to coffee shops and restaurants. I received my food sanitation certificate in the mail today, and I am contacting insurance companies about liability insurance. Today, I experienced first-hand what many of you have written about on this site. I spent the morning on the phone with the health department trying to find out what is required to be licensed in Chicago. Long story short, I called about six different phone numbers and spoke with as many individuals, none of whom seemed to comprehend what I was asking. Each person gave me a new phone # and branch of the department to call . . . many of them, I discovered while on hold, shared the same call center staff. Talk about a runaround!! I finally put an end to the madness when the last person gave me the phone number of the first person I spoke with. I explained how the first person was not helpful and only seemed to read me a script of information that did not apply to me (like the number and size of dumpsters I needed outside of my establishment) since I am will be rentling commerical kitchen space, not opening my own establishment. This last person then proceeded to tell me that there is no way I can have a homebased baking business in Chicago even if I am baking in a licensed commercial kitchen. After asking why repeatedly, she finally said that I can't bake there and then bring product home and deliver it to another establishment the next day. Mind you, I never said I was going to do this. She went on to say how she deals with complaints, and last week alone had received 2 complaints about people selling food from home. Finally, after saying "Let's assume that I am not going to bring the product home for later delivery, what license do I need?", she finally said "Well, you're done then, you don't need a license." I don't know if this is correct or if she said this out of frustration. I may pursue this again, with a different person (hopefully).

Question: For those of you who bake in a commercial kitchen, either for wholesale or retail sale, how do you handle the issue of delivery to your customers? Do you immediately deliver your product; do you leave it at the commercial kitchen until later, or do you take it home and deliver it the same or next day?

In Delaware, I must legally leave the product at my licensed kitchen until the time of delivery. All baking, decorating and storage must be done there.