For home cooks & aspiring chefs
Your family's recipes
deserve an audience.
The dishes you grew up on, the techniques passed down through your family, the food people always ask you to bring to the party — Lore gives you a place to share it, and a way to make a living doing it.
My lola's pancit has been at every family gathering for forty years. Now neighbors who've never met her can get to taste it too.
Lore chef, Coachella Valley
Why lore exists
Food is how families keep their stories alive.
Every home cook carries something irreplaceable — a grandmother's mole, a father's jerk seasoning, a recipe written in the margin of a cookbook held together with tape. These aren't just dishes. They're memory, culture, and love made edible.
Lore was built so that food like this could find its community — straight from the kitchen where the recipe lives.
How it works
Three steps from home kitchen to open for business
Get your MEHKO permit
California's Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation permit lets you legally cook and sell food from your home. We'll walk you through the paperwork, guide you through workshops, and help you prep for your kitchen inspection — it's simpler than you think.
Build your Lore kitchen
Add your menu, set your pickup days, upload photos of your dishes. Your kitchen page goes live immediately for neighbors to discover and order.
Cook, fulfill, get paid
Accept orders on your schedule. Customers pick up from your home. Lore handles payments and deposits your earnings — no invoicing, no chasing.
Understanding MEHKO
The permit that makes it all legal
AB 626 created the Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) permit in California, allowing home cooks to operate a small food business from a residential kitchen. Riverside County has opted in — making the Coachella Valley one of the best places in the state to start. And you won't figure it out alone — Lore guides you through every step of the application process and hosts workshops to set you up for success.
View our full MEHKO & IFSI compliance disclosure →Cost: ~$100–200
Application fees vary but are well under $200 — far less than a commercial kitchen lease.
Timeline: 2–8 weeks
Includes a home kitchen inspection. You can start building your Lore profile while you wait.
Cook from your home kitchen
No commercial space required — your own kitchen with your own equipment, just with a permit.
Food safety certification required
A Food Handler Card (~$15, a few hours online) or Food Manager Certification.
County permit offices
Find your county's MEHKO application page.
Riverside County
Dept. of Environmental Health — Food Facilities
Los Angeles County
Environmental Health — MEHKO Applications
San Diego County
Department of Environmental Health
Alameda County
Environmental Health — Food Program
Santa Clara County
Department of Environmental Health
Not in Coachella Valley, California?
Lore is starting in the Coachella Valley and expanding across California. Leave your email and we'll notify you when we reach your area.
Your earnings
You keep 85% of every order
Lore takes a 15% platform fee — that's it. No monthly subscription, no listing fees, no per-transaction charges beyond that. The more you cook, the more you make.
- ✓ Set your own menu prices
- ✓ Choose your own pickup days and cutoff times
- ✓ Payouts every week via direct deposit
- ✓ Full order history and earnings dashboard
- ✓ Cancel or pause anytime, no penalty
Example: a typical Sunday pickup
Ingredient costs not included. Most Lore chefs run 30–45% food cost, leaving $120–150 profit on a pickup like this.
Why Lore
Everything you'd have to build yourself — already built for you.
Selling food on your own means juggling orders over text, chasing Venmo, and hoping people find you. Lore handles the infrastructure so you can focus on cooking.
Built-in customer discovery
Post on Instagram and hope for shares
Your kitchen is searchable by neighbors the day you go live
Order management
Track orders in a notes app or group chat
Automated order intake with caps, cutoff times, and confirmations
Payments
Collect cash or chase Venmo after pickup
Stripe-powered checkout — customers pay upfront, you get deposited weekly
Reporting & earnings
Guess at your numbers at tax time
Full earnings dashboard, order history, and downloadable records
MEHKO guidance
Navigate the permit process alone
We walk you through every step — inspection, certification, paperwork
Grow at your pace
No structure to scale or slow down safely
Set your max orders, pause anytime, adjust your menu weekly
Common questions
Answers for curious home cooks
Do I need any cooking credentials or professional experience?
No professional degree required. You need a valid MEHKO permit, a Food Handler Card or Manager Certification, and food you're proud of. Lore welcomes home cooks of all backgrounds.
Can I cook multiple cuisines or change my menu?
Absolutely. You can update your menu anytime — add dishes, remove items, or run seasonal specials. Many Lore chefs rotate menus weekly to keep regulars excited.
What if I only want to sell on weekends?
Your schedule is completely up to you. Set pickup days that work for your life — once a week, twice a month, whatever fits.
How does pickup work — do customers come to my home?
Yes. MEHKO is a home-based model, so customers pick up from your address during your pickup window. You set the window and a cutoff time for ordering.
What happens if I get more orders than I can handle?
You set a maximum order cap per pickup slot. Once the cap is hit, the slot shows as sold out — you're never surprised by a hundred orders on a Sunday morning.
Is my home address public on my Lore page?
Your neighborhood and city are shown publicly. Your full address is only shared with customers who have a confirmed, paid order — never to anyone just browsing.
Get early access
Turn your Sunday cooking
into a real income.
Whether you already have your MEHKO permit or are just beginning the process, we'd love to work with you and help you get there.
Tell us a little about yourself. We're building our first cohort of Lore chefs in the Coachella Valley and will be in touch personally.