Chef’s Vision Aims to be the Hub for Food Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Queen Esther Teas is distributed in Block Eatz and has become a beverage favorite for locals in the Cape Fear region.

Block Eatz, a food hall incubator, provides a shared space, restaurant and community engagement between aspiring chefs, entrepreneurs and food enthusiasts. Participants have access to a fully equipped commercial kitchen and mentorship from industry professionals. Block Eatz creates a dynamic environment for culinary exploration and aims to be a hub for food entrepreneurship and innovation.

Chef’s Vision is a monthly meetup event intended to bring the local food entrepreneurship and innovation community together for networking, introduction of new concepts, industry insights, brand development and business expansion. The event is held at Block Eatz in the McKeithan Center on the north campus of Cape Fear Community College.

According to VisitNC Economic Studies, in 2022 visitors to New Hanover County spent over $323 million dollars in restaurants, food trucks, breweries and other food and beverage establishments. Local entrepreneurs and small business owners play an important role in supporting the hospitality economy in the Cape Fear region.

Chef’s Vision allows attendees to connect with the local food ecosystem including chefs, foodies, industry professionals and business leaders while tasting the latest food creations from local aspiring chefs. Chef’s Vision at Block Eatz showcases new concepts from chefs providing a safe environment to get feedback and recommendations. The event aims to create a hub environment for the local food system to innovate, collaborate and build relationships.

Featured Chef Presentation

Each Chef’s Vision has a featured presentation from a local chef or food service provider. This creates a platform for chefs to introduce new concepts to a specialized audience for feedback and suggestions. The featured chef also gets to share the vision of their food venture creating opportunities for collaboration, investment and expansion opportunities.

Food Industry Training and Insights

Safety is the number one concern in food service. The food industry is one of the most regulated industries and business owners need support with compliance. Chef’s Vision workshops connect food entrepreneurs with local health officials, industry insights and seminars to support continuing education.

500,000 new food startups launch annually in the United States, and that figure is expected to reach 650,000 by 2030.

Tastings

Aside from safety, product taste and quality is a food entrepreneur's biggest priority. Even if each component of the food service experience is meticulously executed, bad tasting food is the worse case scenario for a chef. Chef’s Vision gives local chefs a platform to experiment with new dishes and test their concept with the group.

Networking

Block Eatz intends to host over 500 attendees at Chef’s Vision events in 2024. This provides the ideal environment for social and business networking, meeting potential collaborators and attracting new investment.

Brand Development

Critical to the success of a food venture is a successful marketing strategy. Brand recognition is key to building an audience for food ventures. Chef’s Vision supports food entrepreneurs with social media marketing, cross sector branding and networking events to build their brand and strengthen the concept.

Food entrepreneurs are the focus at Chef’s Vision events. Creating environments that increase the success rate of food ventures is an important objective of Chef’s Vision.

Sponsorship Opportunity

With over 500 attendees expected to attend Chef’s Vision event in 2024, it creates a great opportunity for organizations to market their products and services. Chef’s Vision offers flexible and affordable sponsorship packages for businesses, organizations and individuals interested in a great lead magnate for their initiatives.

Contact Us

If you are interested in attending Chef’s Vision, becoming a featured presenter, hosting a workshop or sponsorship options contact Aariene at aariene@genesisblockilm.com or email our team at info@genesisblockilm.com.

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Greater Wilmington Business Journal: https://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/insights/girardnewkirk/237