Young, college-educated, Internetsavvy and unemployed, dozens of new food entrepreneurs are hoping to find a place in the food world outside the traditional route . As the next generation of cooks comes of age, it seems that many might bypass restaurant kitchens altogether.

One Saturday morning each month, the vendors of the Greenpoint Food Market converge on the Church of the Messiah in Brooklyn.

“This is my investment in the future right now,” said Fabiana Lee, 26, an interior designer who lost her job in 2009. She has been selling at the Greenpoint market since its inception in October. Her empanadas and “cake pops” are her main source of income.

Joann Kim, 26, who organizes the market, cited the intersection of the economic downturn and the rise of the local artisanal food movement as reasons for the recent flowering of small culinary start-ups.

The recession weaves through the back stories of many of the itinerant vendors, even those who are not new to selling food.

Matt and Alison Robicelli had both a fledgling cupcake operation and a specialty foods shop until last October, when they decided that brick-and-mortar was a losing proposition.

“We sat down with an adviser who looked at our crazy life and said, ‘You have three things to take care of: your shop, your cupcake business and your kids,’” she said. “He told us we had to pick two.” Now they sell cupcakes.

Ms. Lee moved to New York to study interior design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn; when she graduated in 2006, she quickly found a job at a downtown firm. But in early 2009, she said, the effects of the stock market downturn began to hit.

“It was almost a relief when I got laid off like everyone else,” she said. “Better than sitting at my desk waiting for it to happen.”

Growing up in Buenos Aires, Ms. Lee said, she set her sights early on a life in New York City.

“I was used to being the only Asian girl at school,” said Ms. Lee, whose parents were born in South Korea and now own a knitwear company in Argentina; she is fluent in English, Spanish and Korean. “But I loved the mix of people and food in New York.” She said that her mother, who often served steak with kimchi , taught her the basics of cooking .

She is still unemployed, but she has never worked harder, she said, trying to build a viable business one bite at a time.

At the Greenpoint market, many of the vendors had been up since dawn, rolling rice balls, filling containers with waffle batter, crimping pie crusts.

“We do whatever it takes,” said Nicole Asselin, who brought tiny pies filled with organic rhubarb, chocolate chip cookies and logs of butter mashed with wild ramps that she had gathered in Vermont.

For many of the vendors, the stakes are high. In these markets, cooks have a shot at developing a viable food business without working with a commercial processor.

Each vendor had paid $25 to $50 for a table, with half the money going to the church and half to Ms. Kim. At $4 an ice pop or $3 an empanada, the margins on many products seemed high, but some vendors, who have been operating without certification, may soon see their profits shrink.

On May 28, the New York Department of Health confirmed that all food vendors in the city must have a food handling permit, and may use only approved commercial kitchens. Renting space in a commercial kitchen costs about $200 for eight hours.

For some vendors like Ms. Lee, who is in the process of getting her permit, that would mean the difference between making a small profit and just breaking even on a day at the market.

At the end of the day, said Ms. Asselin, the vendors are very tired, and not much richer.

“It’s hard work,” said Hannah Goldberg.

“Our ancestors came through the Lower East Side to find a better life, and our parents think it’s crazy that we’re back here selling from a pushcart.”


By JULIA MOSKIN