…Since I posted on the blog.

Between preparing Tremonte’s for licensing, all the other starting-a-business tasks, coaching cross country, and taking care of my own family, this fall has been a whirlwind.

Warning: I’m about to get into some fun (to me!) details about food safety paperwork and inspections. If you can’t be bothered to read on, I get it. It’s boring (to most people).

But, if you’re even vaguely interested in this sort of thing, or think that you, one day, might like to start your own cottage food business, read on! Shared knowledge is power!

Speaking of shared knowledge: if anyone is good at setting up online POS systems, @ me. Or email me. Tremonte’s has an email address now: tremontesseattle@gmail.com. Seriously, I am bad at computers and I need help!

As readers of the blog (and my Instagram followers) know, I’ve been building a pop-up bakery under the Washington state cottage food law. This means that I can make certain low risk foods (baked goods!) from my own home kitchen and sell them to the general public. The licensing process involves an application and an inspection.

I’ve mentioned the application in a previous post, so I won’t go into too much detail about all the juicy paperwork here (food labeling! Process flow charts! Sanitation plans! Allergen controls!).

I mailed in my big ol’ packet of paperwork, and lo and behold, I heard back from the powers that be (a WSDA food safety officer), just as promised, on their website, 8-10 weeks later.

And guess what?! My application packet was error-free and approved! It was time to move to the next step of licensing: the inspection.

At this point, it’s probably worth mentioning that, I, myself, once had a job where one of my major responsibilities was preparing a commercial bakery for food safety inspections. So, preparing MY OWN BAKERY for a food safety inspection was kind of an inside job.

Related: I can’t remember what you told me five minutes ago, but I have an encyclopedic knowledge of anything involving food. What did I have for dinner, on New Year’s Eve, in Paris, 24 years ago? Well, it was a medium rare steak, covered in a rustic Comte sauce, and when I sliced through the steak, the blood and the cheese sauce ran together and it was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten. But, I digress…

If you need someone to remember and document all the mundane details of your food processing operation: I’m. Your. Gal.

So, what was the inspection like?

Well, first of all, the WSDA hasn’t updated their practices since deep COVID times, so I actually didn’t have a person physically in my home at all! Although they assured me they’d be back to in-person inspections by the time I renew next year…

Instead, the inspection was done through a combination of a phone interview and the submission of specific photos documenting different areas of my kitchen (and bathroom!).

The photos in this post are the exact ones I submitted.

They wanted to see: an overall view of the food processing area (my kitchen), dry goods storage area (my pantry), refrigerated ingredients storage, finished products storage area, dish washing area, drains, and the restroom.

Prepping the kitchen for inspection really came down to cleaning and organizing. A frenzied few hours of cleaning resulted in my kitchen being as spotless as when we moved into our house. Maybe even cleaner. And I needed to reorganize my pantry anyway, so the inspection was a good forcing function to do just that.

As luck would have it, both my fridge and my dishwasher died within a week of each other about a month before my inspection. Getting the brand new fridge forced me to edit and reorganize. And the brand new appliances looked so fresh and clean for their inspection.

The interview consisted mostly of confirming cleaning, organizing, allergen control, and ingredients tracking processes.

They had some specific questions for me about my products; how and where, and to whom they’d be sold, my order of operations for mixing, baking, packaging, and cleaning. Cleaning, cleaning cleaning.

Truthfully, most food production jobs I’ve had involved just as much cleaning as actual making-of-food. Not the most exciting part of the job, but I think we can all agree, necessary.

I then had a bunch of specific questions for them. That led to some pretty interesting discussions. Well, interesting to me, I should say. I’m not going to go into any more detail here and now (you’re welcome). But, again, if you’re really curious about this process, start a convo with me! I’ll happily get into the weeds about the licensing process, the rules, and (yes) the cleaning!

When my conversation with the food safety officer wrapped, he informed me I was good to go without making any changes to my processes or work space. I received my cottage industry food processing license from the WSDA.

So, now that I’m a BONAFIDE, CERTIFIED, LICENSED food processing operation, what’s next for Tremonte’s?!?

I’m available to sell you delicious Italian treats! In fact, I already have a couple of private events lined up that I’m baking for this December. Dates are getting snatched up, so DM me or send an email if you want Tremonte’s treats for your winter gathering. It’s never to early to start thinking about the holidays!

I am also nailing down a couple of pop-up dates at local cafes. Keep an eye on my events page and the Insta for date and venue announcements.

Soft opening, or maybe I should say soft-popping (since I am a pop-up bakery) will be ahead of Thanksgiving. Need a hostess gift for your Friendsgiving? Want to take the stress out of rounding out your desserts table, next to the pumpkin pie? Or just want something delicious to have with your coffee? Tremonte’s Italian American has your back!