Built to Feed Ambition: Inside Hudson Kitchen with Djenaba Johnson-Jones

Djenaba Johnson-Jones | Photo Credit Legndzonly Photography

In a bright commercial kitchen in New Jersey, stainless steel counters stretch wide under clean overhead lights. The air carries the warm scent of spice and flour, and the steady hum of mixers sounds like work getting done. This is Hudson Kitchen, an 8,000-square-foot home for food entrepreneurs turning recipes into real products, ready to meet the market.

But Hudson Kitchen was not born from a perfect plan.

Djenaba Johnson-Jones, the founder of Hudson Kitchen had been in a corporate role and was actively planning her exit. She knew she was ready for a change and was exploring what the next chapter could look like. At the time, she thought it might be a fitness business, so she started studying for her personal trainer certification.

Then she was laid off.

“It was unexpected, but it didn’t feel like a derailment,” she says. “It felt like an acceleration.”

Emotionally, it was both exciting and scary, but she was ready for something different, even if the timing was not entirely on her terms.

As she began training clients and thinking more seriously about wellness, a friend asked a practical question that shifted everything: “You’re helping us work out, but what do we eat?”

Djenaba did what women who build always do. She started solving. She found a chef. She tested recipes. She explored a meal prep concept. And then she hit a wall that changed everything. She could not find a licensed commercial kitchen to work in. As she started asking around, she realized she was not alone. Other local food founders were running into the same problem, again and again.

What these founders needed was not just a kitchen. They needed a way through licensing, health departments, compliance, and the confusing early steps that can cost time and money when nobody explains the rules clearly. So Djenaba let go of her original idea and began building the ecosystem she wished had existed when she needed it most.

The Kitchen Behind the Brands

“For those just discovering Hudson Kitchen,” Djenaba explains, “it’s a commercial kitchen and food-business incubator designed to give packaged food founders room to start and room to grow.”

Hudson Kitchen is fully licensed and FDA-registered, with shared production space, storage, and co-working options. Members can choose full- or part-time plans with flat-fee pricing and short-term commitments, which makes the financial side feel less like a gamble and more like a plan. Founders have 24/7 access and do not need to book time blocks, which means they can work around day jobs, childcare, and the real-life constraints that often shape women’s entrepreneurship.

The infrastructure is designed for serious production: high electrical capacity, flexible setup, and room for founders to bring in the equipment they need. And then there is the part that is harder to describe on paper, but instantly felt in the space: relief.

“Beyond space, Hudson Kitchen offers peace of mind and support,” she says. “We handle facility management, maintenance, utilities, and waste disposal so founders can stay focused on building their businesses.”

That support extends into training and guidance: workshops, access to experts, and a community that understands how vulnerable it can feel to bet on something you made with your own hands. “Hudson Kitchen is built to remove friction,” Djenaba adds. “So founders can focus on producing, learning, and growing sustainable packaged food businesses.”

What Founders Walk In With and What They Walk Out With

The people who come through Hudson Kitchen’s doors tend to arrive in one of two places.

Some are just beginning, holding a recipe, an early product, or an idea that has not been tested outside their home kitchen. They walk in with uncertainty and the kinds of questions that rarely have clear answers when you are building something for the first time.

“For them, Hudson Kitchen provides a structured on-ramp: education, guided experimentation, and early production that helps them validate their idea and build a solid foundation,” Djenaba says.

Others come in already moving, with products on shelves, demand increasing, and pressure building. They need systems, consistency, and professional access so growth does not turn into chaos. Inside Hudson Kitchen, they refine processes, improve operations, and make more strategic decisions about scaling responsibly.

Across both paths, Djenaba says the transformation is bigger than what gets produced. “Members walk out with progress that’s grounded in reality,” she explains. “The goal is not just what gets made in the kitchen, but how founders think and operate when they leave.”

From Scattered Information to Real Execution

Before Hudson Kitchen became a physical facility, it became a mission: make the path clearer.

Djenaba remembers chasing basic answers: calling health departments and not getting responses, showing up in person to understand licensing, trying to piece together what was required at the county and state level, and figuring out how to set up a legitimate food business without wasting months on conflicting guidance.

“Founders were hungry for clarity and a starting point,” she says. “Not an advanced strategy, just a clear, reliable path.”

That frustration is what led to her first course, 10 Steps to Starting a Food Business in New Jersey, launched in 2016. Then, in 2017, Hudson Kitchen introduced the Food Business Bootcamp, created to close the gap between knowing and doing. Since then, over 300 people have gone through the course.

A Bootcamp Built for Launch

“The Food Business Bootcamp was created to close the gap between information and execution,” Djenaba says. Earlier versions helped founders understand the steps, but many still needed structure, accountability, and hands-on support to build something they could actually take to market.

That is what makes the new Winter ’26 cohort different. For the first time, the Bootcamp is being delivered as an eight-week, hands-on sprint designed for early-stage packaged food founders who are ready to move fast and stay focused. Founders with a recipe build one packaged food product from concept to launch, with support that reflects what real CPG requires: recipe refinement and scaling with food scientists, financial modeling with a CFO, brand and marketing development with an expert, and operational planning with a two-time founder focused on efficient production.

The work is not theoretical. There are required in-kitchen sessions in New Jersey, because this is about building something legitimate and launch-ready.

The program begins February 4 and culminates in a Demo Day on April 7. Along the way, founders receive professional food photography, initial packaging design, a logo, and a mini brand toolkit, assets that help turn a vision into a business you can actually present, pitch, and sell. Applications close January 9.

The Myth Djenaba Wants Women to Leave Behind

When asked what she wishes more women knew before starting a food business, Djenaba does not hesitate.

“I wish more women knew that you don’t need prior food industry experience to start a food business,” she says. “That’s one of the biggest myths I see holding people back.”

She has watched women disqualify themselves because they have not worked in restaurants or food manufacturing, even though they already carry the skills entrepreneurship demands: project management, budgeting, leadership, resilience, communication, and problem-solving.

“A food business isn’t built on cooking alone,” she says. “It’s built on decision-making, systems, and follow-through.”

Momentum, Alignment, and What’s Next

After years of building, Djenaba is not searching for direction. She is leading from clarity, and Hudson Kitchen is moving with it.

“After years of building, testing, and adjusting, I have real clarity about who we serve and what we do best,” she shares. “We’ve intentionally narrowed our focus to packaged food founders and let go of everything else.”

That clarity has changed how she leads, and how Hudson Kitchen moves. “It feels like pulling back a slingshot,” she says. “The foundation is set, and now it’s about moving forward with confidence and purpose.”

Looking toward 2026, what she wants is more alignment: between how she spends her time, how the programs run, the strength of her team, and the impact Hudson Kitchen is meant to have. She adds, “I’m ready to step into even greater partnership, collaboration, and resources that allow me to lead at a higher level so the business continues to grows and I grow with it.”

At Hudson Kitchen, food is the product, but the deeper work is what happens in the founders they serve: the confidence, the clarity, and the shift from guessing to knowing. And for the woman holding a recipe and wondering if she can really build a brand, Djenaba has built a place that turns uncertainty into a plan.

Follow Djenaba’s journey:

🥣 www.TheHudsonKitchen.com

🚀 Apply for the Food Business Bootcamp

💼 LinkedIn