My first memory of an incubator came from kindergarten when our teacher set up a glass box warmed with lightbulbs and filled with eggs. We watched in wonder as industrious chicks pecked their way through shells. The warm, protective space offered those fuzzy creatures a better chance at survival.

While incubator kitchens, industrial, stainless steel-outfitted work spaces, are considerably less warm and fuzzy, their function isn’t all that different from those chicks’ first home. In these certified kitchens, fledgling food businesses can test their wings without having to bear huge financial risk. For affordable fees, entrepreneurs can rent facilities to whip up food products they want to take public. Small businesses can “grow” into success with the help of the incubator kitchen.

While the state Health Department doesn’t have official records of just how many incubator kitchens exist in Hawaii, there are at least several on Oahu, including facilities at Pacific Gateway Center in Kalihi, the Waimanalo Homestead Community Association center and now the Papakolea Community Development Corp.’s community center, at Papakolea Community Park.

After 15 years of research, planning and building, the Papakolea kitchen was opened to the community a few weeks ago with a celebration for which food was made in-house.

“It felt pretty magical to be in the kitchen,” says Davit Soo, 21, a Papakolea resident and culinary student at Kapiolani Community College, who made Sweet Potato Kalua Pork Cakes there. “I think this will be amazing for the community. It’s all about opportunity, and this is one.”

Indeed, top priority is for the kitchen to create economic opportunities for Papakolea families.

“The desire was to provide a place for family-based caterers from Papakolea,” says Puni Kekauoha, executive director of Papakolea Community Development Corp., which focuses on economic development for residents. “We want Papakolea caterers to be anchor tenants.”

At the center, area caterers will find assistance in developing business plans, technical support and information on health regulations and state permits.

Plans for use of the $300,000 certified kitchen, funded by the Kahiau Foundation Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation, include programs focusing on health, wellness and education for keiki and kupuna.

Adrienne Dillard, executive director of Kula No Na Poe Hawaii, who oversees those programs in Papakolea, wants to use the kitchen to prepare food for kupuna who frequent the center. She also has plans for a concession run by children attending after-school programs there. A garden-to-plate initiative could be folded into the concession project.

The kitchen will also be rented for private functions, club fundraisers and to food truck vendors. Funds raised would benefit the center.

The Papakolea community is collectively creating policies for the kitchen, which will formally open in January.

Though there are different ways to run an incubator kitchen, Papakolea seems to have an approach similar to the Waimanalo Homestead Community Association, which opened its kitchen in 2007. Both groups share a focus on economic development, says association president Paul Richards.

Since the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands owns land comprising Waimanalo and Kaiona beach parks, the association hopes homesteaders will get first priority to run beach concessions. That means readying prospective vendors with the kind of business support Papakolea is set to provide.

At PacificGateway Center, hundreds of businesses have passed through the Kalihi incubator kitchens since the center opened in 2003, says executive director Tin Myaing Thein.

The facilities are also used by church groups for fundraisers, families holding weddings or other large functions and organizations that want to feed the homeless. State law requires that such food be prepared in a certified kitchen.

“All kinds of people are doing different things,” Thein says.

Gerry Nakashima, owner of Cold Fyyre artisan ice cream, has produced his product at Pacific Gateway for four years. He says the incubator kitchen made his venture much easier to launch.

“It’s a blessing to have a place like this to get started,” he says.

Kekauoha says folks outside the Papakolea community are already asking to rent their kitchen.

“Lots of people are calling, from as far as Kapolei. There’s a huge demand,” she says.

But those folks will have to get in line behind residents like Cecilia Silva, 79, who moved to Papakolea in 1946.

Silva was one of the few folks to use the kitchen at the celebration several weeks ago. She was invited because she’s been feeding the community for decades.

“I cook every first Thursday for the lomilomi group at the center — meatloaf, Hawaiian food. And when I’m asked, I cook for the kupuna group — stew and luau, and chicken long rice,” she says. “I started catering in 1961 with my brother for a family that lived next to the park. Eventually it went on and on.”

For the longtime cook, the new facility is dazzling.

“We’ve never had a kitchen beautiful like this. It’s new and clean and big,” she says. “I wish everybody who loves to cook can make a family gathering and cook in this kitchen. It was donated to us. Use it and enjoy it.”