Personal trainer Robert Puentes sells high-protein cookies and cookie mixes out of his home in Cathedral City. For $14.99, people can buy a 24-pack of his homemade "Gorilla" cookies, which come in a variety of flavors: banana, pumpkin spice, chocolate-coconut and banana-coconut. He wants to expand his offerings, but state law has long prohibited home-based food businesses from selling anything other than baked goods.

“My volume is not enough for me to have my own store," he said. "Restaurants are very expensive and a lot of people have good recipes and want to do this out of their own homes."

Soon, Puentes said, he may start offering items like pancakes, now that it's legal in Riverside County. On Tuesday, Riverside became the first California county to adopt an ordinance authorizing the sale of foods cooked in home kitchens.

Riverside County Ordinance 949, which passed 4-0 with Supervisor Chuck Washington abstaining, lets "microenterprise home kitchens" sell up to 30 cooked meals per day and 60 per week. Under the ordinance, vendors pay $651 to receive a Microenterprise Home Kitchen Permit, are required to pass a safety certification exam and follow California Health and Safety Code Guidelines.

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Supervisor V. Manuel Perez said the rules governing food had deep cultural significance and discussing the ordinance reminded him of recently passed food icon Anthony Bourdain.

"Food is everything we are. It's an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, personal history — a product of your grandmother, your family, your tribe," he said at the Board of Supervisors Meeting in Riverside. "Meals make society and hold its fabric together in ways that are charming, intoxicating and interesting."

He remembers buying cakes, tostadas, carne asada tacos and strawberry raspados out of people's kitchens during his childhood in Coachella, where selling food out of home kitchens is common practice.

"In the east valley, where you have a majority of folk from Latin America and, for the most part, Mexico, it’s not uncommon for people’s homes to be open for business. It's not uncommon for people who may be walking by to stop by someone’s home for a tostada," he said in an interview with The Desert Sun. "If you feel like having some horchata or tamarindo you can get that too. It’s part of our cultural heritage and it’s part of who we are as a people."

Perez said he hopes the ordinance will enable people without access to funds to earn money making their favorite foods and selling them in their communities.

"This breaks down high barriers of entry for people who can't afford to open a restaurant or rent a commercial kitchen," he said. "By allowing home-based businesses, we are encouraging innovation, allowing people to experiment with recipes before incurring the high expenses associated with opening a brick-and-mortar."

The ordinance follows the 2018 passage of AB 626. The bill, which was authored by Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, expanded the kinds of foods home-based businesses can sell, from baked goods like pan dulce to cooked items like carne asada tacos.

“It decriminalizes a practice that has been going on for a long time and creates an economic empowerment opportunity for people who want to make a living from something they already do at home and enjoy doing,” Garcia told the San Francisco Chronicle after his bill became law last year.

The bill received support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle but garnered opposition from several associations representing the interests of county governments and health inspectors worried about sanitation.

Corona resident and home-cook Meghan McConaghy said she understood politicians and inspectors' worries about health and safety. But cooks selling foods out of their kitchens don't want to get their friends and neighbors sick, she said.

"It's not like cooking for strangers, so it's important to be able to be a good representative for healthy home-cooked meals," she told the supervisors at Tuesday's meeting. "I want this so I can continue to stay home for my kids and earn supplemental income doing what I love — making food for my community," she said.

Supervisor Karen Spiegel said she was originally unsure about the ordinance, but ultimately decided it was practical to permit businesses that would operate with or without it.

"Like Supervisor Perez said, they're going to do it anyway," she said.

Sam Metz covers politics. Reach him at samuel.metz@desertsun.com or on Twitter @metzsam.