Legal Question in Business Law in California

I know of no jurisdiction in the state in which any food preparation business can legally be conducted in a home kitchen, regardless of pets or no pets. Many churches, clubs, and similar facilities that have catering kitchens are very happy to rent them out on a daily or hourly basis to small start-up food preparation businesses. If you are serious about this being a business, I suggest you find a place like that to work out of, . . . and leave the cat at home.

California has a lengthy, detailed Retail Food Code; it is Part 7 of the Health & Safety Code (H≻). Within the Code is a definition of a "Food Facility" that is subject to the requirements of the Code; it is found at H≻section 113789, and under that definition your home kitchen would be a regulated Food Facility if it prepared food for retail distribution, sale, etc. to the general public. This distinguishes running a cake-decorating business at home from, say, making cupcakes for a church bazaar or cookies for a PTA bake sale where the other buyers are a limited group rather than the general public. I think you will fall under a maze of legal requirements under this Code (H≻Part 7) and you should obtain and read it thoroughly before either (1) trying to qualify your home kitchen for commercial endeavors, or (2) as Mr. McCormick suggests, borrowing an institutional kitchen that may or may not fit the Code requirements applicable to your proposed useage.