Chef Question:

Factories are useful for a few reasons. First, they make items for you without you having to hand-craft everything, allowing you to go do non-chef things and still have stock to sell. Second, the items come out in crates of 25 items, each crate only taking up one inventory slot. These crates are highly valued by your customers, since now they can carry around 25 Vasarian Brandies in the space of two (one slot for the crate, one for the extracted drink they can drink from). Finally, some schematics require "factory identical" components. This means that in order to make, for example, Vayerbok, you have to insert two alcohols that were made in the same factory run. Many higher-level food items require factory identical components.

To get a factory, go to your local low-level architect (he/she only needs "Installations I" and "Buildings I") and order a "Food Factory". This will probably cost around 25k. Place it like any other building, and you're almost ready to mass-produce. Factories require maintenance and power just like harvesters. 50 credits/hour and 50 power/hour will keep it chugging out crates for you.