Starting up Small Catering gig - Cooker advice

I believe there is a company out of Ontario by the name of Mule tuff smokers..they look very similar to the Diamond Plate smokers..Might save you a drive to the states. they sell on ebay.. just do a search for bbq smokers. Hope this helps.:lol:

Big H said:

I believe there is a company out of Ontario by the name of Mule tuff smokers..they look very similar to the Diamond Plate smokers..Might save you a drive to the states. they sell on ebay.. just do a search for bbq smokers. Hope this helps.:lol:

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Sorry but Mule Tuf is out of Missouri.

I stand corrected..Thanks for catching that BubbaBones. I would not want to mislead anyone. Not quite sure how I got it so wrong..I am in the market for a new smoker and have been looking at a ton of web sites and photo's an got confused..My bad.

TOPS BBQ said:

Catering for friends & family - No need to meet any HD rules.

Catering for any private party for $$. Otherwise known as a Private "Chef" - If all prep and cooking take place on-site (no need for sinks...etc).

Catering to the general public - HD inspections, permits, sinks...etc shall be implemented.

Note: Every municipaliality has different requirements and you should check in with them for verification as to how they run their show.

Good luck!

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Welcome to my world...:lol::lol::lol: Take a look at the Q Kitchen by Cookshack...not sure how much you want to spend but it may suit your needs. Good Luck! :biggrin:

Q Kitchen...

Excellent information here, folks. I will be following your progress Jay as I have been thinking that once I move into some sort of semi-retirement in a few years, I might like to take up some Q'ing for $$. Nothing like a full time catering operation, but more along the lines of a private chef, preparing food at home (or in a rented kitchen) and serving private parties. Something that would keep me out of my wife's hair and can bring in a few $$ on weekends.
Will be doing a major rebuild on my deck and cooking area in the next year or so, and would like to incorporate whatever builds are needed to have the approved food prep and cooking areas built in from the start.
Let us know how your plans progress and what issues you have with the health dept. Knowing our governments up here, I am anticipating more red tape in Ontario than in other places.

JD McGee said:

Welcome to my world...:lol::lol::lol: Take a look at the Q Kitchen by Cookshack...not sure how much you want to spend but it may suit your needs. Good Luck! :biggrin:

Q Kitchen...

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Saw that at the Royal. Nice but doen't have the three sinks needed for HD.

I started selling diners to people at my job and my wife's job once a month. Helped pay for my competition habit and I got lots of practice.

Bigmista said:

I started selling diners to people at my job and my wife's job once a month. Helped pay for my competition habit and I got lots of practice.

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Same here...all our practice meats are sold to the folks at my (former) work...we get to play and practice for free...

jcfontario said:

Excellent information here, folks. I will be following your progress Jay as I have been thinking that once I move into some sort of semi-retirement in a few years, I might like to take up some Q'ing for $$. Nothing like a full time catering operation, but more along the lines of a private chef, preparing food at home (or in a rented kitchen) and serving private parties. Something that would keep me out of my wife's hair and can bring in a few $$ on weekends.
Will be doing a major rebuild on my deck and cooking area in the next year or so, and would like to incorporate whatever builds are needed to have the approved food prep and cooking areas built in from the start.
Let us know how your plans progress and what issues you have with the health dept. Knowing our governments up here, I am anticipating more red tape in Ontario than in other places.

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I don't think you would ever get anything approved if you are cooking on your deck

You have two issues you need to consider when it comes to smokers. One is the need to have something that will take care of itself for the long cooks overnight. That gives you options like pellet cookers and Old Hickory CTO etc. The other thing to consider is cooking on-site for the quicker meats. There you can have stick burners like the Tucker and the other offsets. Ideally, you can cook at your 'commercial' kitchen all the meats and then finish on-site with your stick burner for the eye candy. For commercial kitchens check out local churches and fraternal lodges to use their facility in exchange for doing some cooks for them. We do 3 feed the hungry cooks for a local church and they let us use their commercial kitchen.