‘We’re not trying to disrupt the industry’: How a Y Combinator-backed food hall startup is bringing a ghost kitchen alternative to the Peninsula  

When COVID-19 hit and restaurants began closing down left and right, Mountain View resident Divyang Arora and his startup co-founders saw it as a call to action. Two years and a trip through the famous Y-Combinator startup accelerator later, he's now CEO of Byte Kitchen, a startup helping independent restaurants scale up and get their dishes offered in other communities. 

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Flavor over funding: How San Mateo’s KitchenTown is remaking the food industry

By Monica Hruby What’s the vibe like when you cram 36 food startups into a warehouse off the 101 in San Mateo? A bit like the floor of the stock exchange: loud, busy, a little messy, but with a wall of ovens to add some literal heat to the shouting and crashing of dishes. This is KitchenTown, the Peninsula’s food industry incubator that in three years has grown to include a cafe ...

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Passion meets fruit: How a biologist with an MBA created Palo Alto’s Essentique

Mandana Navi likes to cook. Like many a chef she started out in her own kitchen, testing out recipes and sharing her results with friends, before taking the plunge and going into business. But her recipes are a little different than yours. Shampoo. Conditioner. Skin cream. All of it made from natural ingredients. All of it formulated by Navi herself in the lab she designed in the back of her shop. Navi ...

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