A new North Idaho company called Kettle Works plans to make soups and sauces for the restaurant industry at a new food-processing plant now under construction in Rathdrum, Idaho.


The 21,000-square-foot production kitchen being built in the Thayer Industrial Park should be done by mid-November, and will begin operations then with about six employees, says co-owner Roger Hough, a Hayden, Idaho, chef. Hough will serve as Kettle Works corporate chef in charge of research and development, and co-owner Bruce Miller, of Coeur dAlene, will be chief executive officer of the new company.


Hough says Kettle Works could employ about 25 people at peak production, a level he hopes the venture will reach within six or eight months after starting production.


Hough says he is in contact with several national and international restaurant chains that use production kitchens to produce large volumes of soups and sauces, so each of their outlets has identical menu items with consistent quality. He declines to name the chains he is talking with because Kettle Works hasnt signed contracts yet to supply any of them with products.


He says Kettle Works either will use a customers recipe to make a product, or will develop a recipe for a customer.


We can make exactly what they want, whatever they make in their own kitchen, but in larger volumes, Hough says.


Hough has worked at the Coeur dAlene Resort, in Coeur dAlene, and most recently was corporate chef at Bayou Brewing Co. in Spokane, where he first became interested in production kitchens.


He says he visited such facilities in Seattle and Portland when Bayou was exploring opening additional locations throughout the region and was seeking a production kitchen to make large quantities of its soups. When Bayous expansion plans didnt move forward, Hough decided to open a production kitchen of his own.


Work on the facility at 1412 Ohio Street in Rathdrum got under way in August. Inland Building Systems Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor on the project.


Hough declines to disclose the cost of the project, but city of Rathdrum building-permit records list the projects value at about $570,000.


The plant will include a test kitchen for research and development of recipes, a large conference room for meetings with customers, and a main production kitchen outfitted with the latest equipment, Hough says.


Recipes will be stored in a computer program, and computer terminals will be placed at workstations throughout the kitchens so workers can access recipes and records. Other technology at the plant will include electronically controlled food safety equipment that constantly will monitor the temperatures in the refrigerators.