Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | April 17, 2017 | wbjournal.com The former executive chef de cuisine at Niche Hospitality has left his job in order to help up-and-comers learn the ropes of the restaurant industry C hef Cornelius Rogers took Niche Hospitality devotees by surprise when he announced last month he planned to leave the restaurant group in favor of a job at the Worcester Regional Food Hub. "I'm super excited to work for great organizations that do a lot of good," Rogers said. "Five years ago ... I would have seen myself at a fancy famous res- taurant, not starting up small businesses for the Food Hub." The former executive chef de cuisine at Worcester-based Niche, Rogers had been growing steadily under the tute- lage of Niche Executive Chef Steve Champagne. Rather than continue that career tract, Rogers decided to help the growing Worcester restaurant scene develop its next generation of talent. "It's time people in our industry give back more," Rogers said. Restaurant incubator The Worcester Regional Food Hub provides a commercial kitchen for budding entrepreneurs looking to start or expand their small businesses. "Many entrepreneurs find the barri- ers to starting a new business to be insurmountable," said Janice Yost, president of the Health Foundation of Central Mass, which operates the food hub. "The ability to rent the kitchen on an hourly basis enables them to test the market for their special creations without having to go in debt." Rogers will be the food hub's kitchen operations manager, managing the day-to-day operations of the commer- cial kitchen incubator program as the primary point of contact for tenants. "Neil's experience in the food industry, with many successful ven- tures, will add greatly to the kitchen's mission to incubate and launch new businesses," said Timothy Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, which operates the food hub along with the Regional Environmental Council of Central Massachusetts. Finding more tenants One of Rogers' first tasks will be to expand the number of food hub tenants beyond its current eight. "Being someone seeing it from the outside is a good thing," Rogers said. "People think they can open a restau- rant right away, but it takes a year. You need to draw out a concept, cost it, make samples, move slowly toward a final result." In addition to his own personal and professional connections in the food industry, Rogers plans to draw on the networks of the Worcester chamber and the Regional Environmental Council to attract new entrepreneurs. The first food hub tenant was the Regional Environmental Council's YouthGROW, which is an urban- agri- culture-focused youth development program in the city of Worcester, and also the purveyor of the popular local BY SARAH CONNELL Special to the Worcester Business Journal Training Worcester's next chefs Neil Rogers only non-restaurant business experience came when he worked the grill department at Shrewsbury discount department store SPAGS as a young man, but he plans to draw on his extensive culinary expertise to increase entrepreneurship out of the Worcester Regional Food Hub. P H O T O / N A T H A N F I S K E

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