CORONA, Calif. — Lucy Silva's kitchen is alive with sound. The clanging of dishes. The sizzle of the pan. Her voice calling to her daughters. 

"These tacos are ready," she announced.

Silva is busily preparing dinner in her kitchen, not just for her family but for dozens of patrons who will stop by over the next few hours to take out or dine in at café tables sprinkled around her patio. Like so many of us, Silva is working from home, but in her case, her Corona home is her restaurant, Barra de Pan. 

"Having people here all the time reminds me of when I was little," she said, standing by her stove. "My mom had friends over all the time."

Growing up in Tijuana, Silva never dreamed of being a chef, but later, while working in restaurants for a few years, she thought maybe, one day, she'd open a place of her own.

"But the thought went away, faded away," she said. "I thought, 'I think I'll never raise $75,000.' So I gave up."

But she never gave up cooking. Over the years, she's continued to travel throughout Mexico, bringing the recipes she learned home to her family and garnering rave reviews. It's those dishes, like her popular garnachas, that she now serves her customers.

"I want them to feel like they are eating something that is made special for them," she said, expertly filling and folding tacos on a skillet. "Not only the type of food that is in our country but the type of food that we serve at our own home."

She is serving them in her own home. Silva runs a microenterprise home kitchen operation made possible by Assembly Bill 626, which went into effect in 2019. The law allows for food facilities that are operated "by a resident in a private home where food is stored, handled, and prepared for, and may be served to, consumers." 

Riverside County was the first in the state to create the framework for these small enterprises, and it's been life-changing for Silva. 

"Never did I ever [think] that I would open something like this," she explained, surrounded by the tables she painted herself. "Bill 626 came along and voila."

Like 1804 Kitchen in Moreno Valley, other home-based restaurants only offer take out, although owner Chantal Edouard hopes to begin welcoming guests into her backyard once the pandemic is over.

"We can sit out here on a nice night and have some music and relaxing," Edouard said, pointing out her fire pit and giant Jenga game.

Both she and Silva work with a platform called Foodnome, which allows customers to see what's on the menu and place their order. The company also helps home cooks through the permitting process, which is overseen by county health departments.

Rather than that $75,000 she was sure she'd never raise, Silva said the startup costs required to open an MHKO, which involves paperwork and training, was about $1,000.

"I didn't have to literally raise or get a loan from the bank," she said. "I'm really thankful that this bill passed and has given us opportunities."

Opportunity is a big part of the thought behind the bill. AB 626 was designed to create new avenues of income, particularly, as the bill states, "for Californians that need them most — often women, immigrants, and people of color." 

"It's a great thing to support your neighbors," Silva said. "Usually behind a little restaurant like this is a woman, you know? And that support for women, to empower them to do something and build from there, it's really powerful."

Silva also thinks these small kitchens are creating connections, something people are hungry for right now. 

"I'm smiling, by the way," she said to one visiting couple, momentarily lowering her face mask to flash a bright grin.

She cooks every meal. She greets every customer. She hand-selects every ingredient.

"A lot of my ingredients are things that I bring from Mexico. The chocolate, the cinnamon, the cheese," she explained. "Restaurants will buy bulk quantities for maximum savings, and we literally go and pick what we would pick for our family." 

Cooking from home is not her full-time job. The law limits home cooks to selling no more than 30 meals a night or 60 meals a week, capping their gross revenue at $50,000 a year. But while the extra income is helpful, for Silva, it's not the main ingredient.

"A chef or a cook really cooks because they love when people tell them they love their food, simple as that," she said. "And I think us home chefs, it's really more the love that we get, you know, behind every meal we serve."