TERRI’S CULINARY RESIDENCY

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In 1977, Terri’s began in a family home in Detroit. What started as one woman baking cakes for her community grew into a business that has been a part of life’s biggest celebrations for nearly fifty years. Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of celebrating birthdays, weddings, graduations, retirements, and countless moments that have become part of our family’s story, too.

Like many small businesses, we’ve also experienced seasons that tested us. The COVID-19 pandemic changed our industry in ways no one could have anticipated. Not long after, our family lost our founder, Terri, after her courageous battle with brain cancer. Those experiences forced us to think differently about what the next chapter of Terri’s could become.

We asked ourselves a simple question:

How can this space continue serving Detroit?

For us, the answer wasn’t simply baking more cakes; it was creating more opportunities.

Terri’s Culinary Residency is our way of opening our doors to the next generation of food entrepreneurs. While we are incredibly proud of the legacy our family has built, we also recognize that our kitchen and event space have the potential to help build someone else’s legacy, too.

There are talented chefs throughout our city with incredible food, strong work ethic, and a vision for what’s next. What many of them don’t have is consistent access to customers, documented financial history, or an affordable place to learn what works before taking on the responsibility of opening a permanent location.

That’s where we hope Terri’s can help.

We’re not trying to replace the outstanding organizations already supporting entrepreneurs throughout Detroit. In fact, we hope to become one stop along that journey. Our goal is to prepare chefs to take full advantage of the incredible resources our city already offers by helping them build the operational history, financial documentation, and confidence they’ll need to pursue grants, financing, and permanent spaces of their own.

As a family, we’ve always believed that if we have something that can help someone else, we should share it. We don’t want to see this space sit underutilized when it has the potential to become a place where businesses are launched, ideas are tested, and futures are built.

The Terri’s Culinary Residency is designed to give chefs the opportunity to experience every season of operating a food business, refine their concept, understand their numbers, and leave with the tools to take the next step with confidence.

Whether that next step is securing funding, signing a lease, purchasing equipment, or opening a restaurant, we hope every Resident Chef leaves Terri’s stronger than they arrived.

If this sounds like the right opportunity for you—or for someone in your network—we invite you to apply or share this information with a chef who is ready for the next step.

We also welcome our partners throughout Detroit’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to help us identify businesses that would benefit from the program. Together, we can create more pathways for talented food entrepreneurs to grow sustainable businesses in our city.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about the Terri’s Culinary Residency. We look forward to welcoming our inaugural cohort and continuing Terri’s legacy by helping others build theirs.

With gratitude,

Garnet Terri
Owner, Terri’s Detroit | Founder, Terri’s Culinary Residency