One House Bakery
One House Bakery is chock full of overall deliciousness and nourishment for body and soul. Hailing from Canada, Chef Hannalee and family bring international flair to their daily specials and seasonal celebrations. The delicate art of European bread-making is mastered with award winning baguettes, various breads and an impressive array of pastries.
The extensive online/take out/delivery menu includes pantry items such as freshly butchered meats, dairy, produce, pot pies, soups, sauces, dips and jams. In addition to the flaky french pastries, daily family dinners are offered. Recent selections have included pork tamales in ancho chili sauce, biscuits and sausage gravy with fried green tomatoes, BBQ chicken with arugula peach salad, and bacon/cheddar pierogies. Daily updates can be found on Facebook and Instagram. Kids meals are also available.
My absolute favorite lunch is the creamy tomato soup with a braised pork, grilled “Holey Cow”cheese sandwich. I’ll definitely have what she’s having! And, don’t miss the homemade polenta with roasted mushrooms. Local secret: fresh scrumptious donuts offered each Saturday—order early!
One House Bakery is a labor of love with the generous intention of serving our community. Ingredients are organic with no chemicals/dyes, locally sourced or made in-house whenever possible. You can’t go wrong with One House––it will warm your heart!
918 1st Street, Benicia, 707.361.5919, onehousebakery.com. Closed Mondays & Tuesdays.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Our Two Minute Movie Review this month is not about a movie, but a 4-part docu-series, a must see for foodies and avid cooks of all stripes. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, brings something we weren’t sure was possible – a fresh perspective on the fundamentals of cooking.
James Beard Award winning Chef Samin Nosrat, a California native, earned her chops (pun intended!) at Cal Berkeley, Chez Panisse, and 
around the world while immersing herself in the history and nuance of cooking’s key components.
The first episode is devoted to fat, and Nosrat travels to Italy, of course, to learn about olive oil. While she studies the intricacies of this indispensable constituent of so many dishes, we are simultaneously treated to a visual feast – Liguria, Tuscany, magic light. She speaks near-fluent Italian and charms the locals who take her, and us, into their specialized spheres. Their beautifully simple and profound understanding of something most of us toss off as routine, or even pedestrian.
And so it goes to Japan for salt – 4000 different kinds! – and Mexico for the dimension (yes, dimension!) of acid, giving us a sour edge, or citrus or fermentation, and finally back home to Berkeley for heat, the sizzle, the splatter, the crackle of transformation.
Chef Nosrat is down-to-earth and delightful. She is a participatory learner too, which makes fun viewing for her willing students (us). As she would say, “So good!”
Netflix, 4 episodes of +/- 45min each
8 out of 10 whiskers www.cinemacat-tdp.blogspot.com
