Kathleen Hill: Baker & Cook open, Hungarian cuisine and more

Baker & Cook is baking, cooking…

Jen Demarest has finally achieved her dream – a dream she has had since she was growing up in Rhinebeck, New York. And does she ever look happy and excited.

Sonoma now gets to enjoy her Baker & Cook in Boyes Hot Springs, which opened last Saturday after 18 months of remodel, dealing with the county permit processes and PG&E's recent power shutoff.

In high school Demarest belonged to 4-H. Her club leader was a baker herself and encouraged Jen in baking. Right after graduation she entered the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) at Hyde Park in New York, where she met her husband, Nick Demarest, both of the former Harvest Moon Café.

The Demarests moved to Berkeley in 2001 where Jen baked at the now late Downtown Restaurant in the Shattuck Hotel and as a fill-in chef at Chez Panisse. In 2004 she became pastry chef at Ken Frank's La Toque restaurant in Napa.

When the Demarests decided to open Harvest Moon Cafe in Sonoma, she was pregnant with their daughter, Anabelle, who spent a lot of time in a bassinette and then a car seat on the counter while Nick and Jen got that new restaurant organized. Anabelle is now a middle school student in Sonoma and has her own frozen fruit popsicle enterprise, PopzGirl, which she operates in the summer.

Their entire Baker & Cook location at 18812 Highway 12 – formerly home of Rocket Sushi – was stripped to the studs by contractor Kevin Lely with all new equipment and faux tin-ceiling tiles, counter tops and high bar tables crafted by Nick from wood damaged in the 2017 wildfires, and Jen did all the wallpaper throughout. Nick even made the hanging lamps from brass bowls, truly a unique creative touch.

Now ensconced at Baker & Cook, Jen is baking away, along with the staff she brought over from Harvest Moon. While the 'soft opening' on Saturday featured her familiar pastries, even those will be changing with seasonal ingredients. She buys mostly from Paul's Produce and purchases or trades other ingredients from fellow Friday morning farmers market vendors.

Chef Jen has already changed up the menu, which she had planned all along. Starting this past Wednesday, she now offers breakfasts of biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs, quiche with mixed greens, housemade bagels with smoked salmon, capers, and Straus yogurt with fruit and housemade granola. Sides of Niman Ranch bacon, breakfast potatoes, seasonal fruit, arugula salad, buttered sourdough toast, and shoestring potatoes are all available. ($4 to $14).

Nick Demarest will be coming up with lunch after his brief break after closing Harvest Moon. Watch for tomato lentil soup, heirloom tomato BLT on ciabatta, baba ganoush bruschetta with marinated peppers and feta, a hummus plate with sweet pickled cucumbers, cumin carrots and grilled bread, a cous cous salad with local melon, currants and fennel, and Little Gem lettuce with goat cheese, pecans, and lemon vinaigrette. Sandwiches will change often. ($5 to $13)

Jen will offer a full brunch on Saturdays and Sundays at some point in the future, but simply wants to master her original menu first.

Thanksgiving pies to come, probably to include maple butternut squash, pumpkin, apple and pecan.

Nick will be cooking dinner two or three nights a week 'eventually and ultimately,' according to Jen, but not now. And they have completely cleaned up the patio, with planting and furniture yet to come.

Parking available in the adjoining parking lot. Open Wednesday through Friday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sonoma. 938-7329.

Outage food wrap-up

As with almost any community, from colonies of ants to human beings, we gather together when threatened from the outside or from external forces.

Those forces can be invaders, earthquakes, fires or even wind and PG&E.

While we had some warning, and advance notice possibly so far ahead that a lot of us didn't believe it (or were the winds late in arriving?), when PG&E actually turned off Sonoma Valley's power on Oct. 9 many of us weren't really ready. And maybe we never will be.

The Sonoma Valley Veterans Memorial Building opened with charging stations and Phyllis and John Gurney and Josh Cultler acting as hosts from the darkened Sonoma Community Center, and provided power to at least 350 people's devices on Wednesday, and more than 750 on Thursday.

Coffee and water showed up and locals got their phones, laptops and emotions charged just from sharing stories with friends and strangers plugged into the same power strip.

A few businesses had generators or could cook outside, and shared their good fortune with others, such as Basque Boulangerie (which finally had to close after a few days), 3 Badge Beverage which gave away free coffee, muffins and offered a charging station, Reel & Brand, Cochon Volant, Layla, El Brinquito and Taqueria Jalisco were all open for business outside.

Sweet Scoops parked its ice cream truck around Sonoma Valley for two days, ending each day at the corner of the Plaza across from their shop on First Street East and gave away free ice cream cones both Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

While Sweet Scoops owners Joe and Ramie Hencmann lost some of their ice cream during the PG&E's outage but were able to save their cream, they were back open Saturday with 15 flavors and will expand to 22 as soon as they can, already offering a sugar-free option and allergy-aware alternatives.

With a website motto of 'Sweet Scoops' mission is to intentionally create joy by crafting a superior homemade ice cream product.' And that they did.

Ovello Salumeria installed a generator when it conducted its extensive remodel so were able to continue making salumi through the outage.

Sonoma Market stayed open with a generator, and Safeway reopened at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Whole Foods opened after power was restored, and all three stores kept refrigerated foods in specialty trucks or moved perishables to other branches of their companies.

Cheese seller Gary Edwards drove around and picked up some chefs' cooler items and plugged into others' generators to preserve those delicacies.

Now Sonoma residents Mara Levy Kahn and Penny Byrd are concerned and working in different directions to organize food for those who can't afford to restock their refrigerators, and might even cook older food out of desperation. You can contact both of them on Facebook.

Tips Test Kitchen dinner series coming up

Susie and Andrew Pryfogle host their next Tips Test Kitchen dinner at Tips Roadside in Kenwood on Tuesday, Oct. 22. Apparently each of these monthly dinners is something of a mystery, and the four-course meal may or may not make the menu. You can attend these Test Kitchen dinners on the fourth Tuesday of each month. And they can add an optional wine pairing experience.

Chef Thaddeus Palmese tends toward Louisiana-style cuisine, which does not mean this will be a Cajun experience. $39. 8445 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood. 509-0078.

Farmers market Halloween pumpkin contest

After you get your pumpkin to decorate, dress it up and bring it to the Friday morning farmers market at the Arnold Field/Depot Park parking lot on Oct. 25 between 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to enter your pumpkin. The winner receives 25 'market dollars' to spend at any vendors at the market. 241 First St. W., Sonoma.

Deerfield Ranch celebrates 37th harvest

Winemaker Robert Rex and daughter Christine Marsh will prepare a harvest celebration dinner on Saturday, Oct. 26 with appetizers from the Rex garden, a tuna terrine tower, butterflied prime beef tenderloin with Robert's red wine reduction sauce, exotic Sonoma County mushrooms and asparagus, followed by crème brûlée with Candy Cap mushrooms, all accompanied by Deerfield Ranch wines.

The event benefits wetland restoration, a wildlife habitat and protects Kenwood Marsh Checkerbloom. $100 club members, $125 public. 6 to 9 p.m. 1020 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood. Tickets: 931-4637 or bill.klein@deerfieldranch.com.

Beltane Ranch Zin Release, Dinner & Barn Party

The 'Beltane Family,' aka Alexa, Alex, and Lauren and everyone who works with them, will put on its great fun Zin Release Dinner and Barn Party on Saturday, Nov. 2 at Beltane Ranch.

Step out of your box or your boots and go ahead and indulge in those roping lessons given by cowboy Tony Knecht. Hint: the virgin rope is heavier than you think. Don't worry, no animals are harmed in this party game – they use a wooden cow. All the while you can sip from vertical tastings, hors d'oeuvres, and then move inside the barn to experience Beltane wines paired with three estate-grown courses prepared by chef Greg Markey for dinner. All this followed by fireside s'mores. $130 wine club members, $185 public. 5 to 10 p.m. 11775 Sonoma Highway, Glen Ellen. For tickets contact lauren@beltaneranch.com.

Dine, donate at Picazo Kitchen

Picazo Kitchen & Bar will host a 'Dine and Donate' event on Monday, Oct.21 to benefit Impact100, giving 10 percent of total revenue for that day to the organization. Picazo's donation will come from breakfast, lunch, happy hour and dinner. Guests do not have to be a member of Impact100 to attend and donate. 19101 Highway 12. Call 935-EATS.

Tokaj evening of Hungarian cuisine

Sonoma-Tokaj Sister Cities will have a big fundraiser on Saturday, Nov. 9 with dinner, dessert, and dancing, their own 'Triple D.'

The whole fundraiser is to benefit the group's educational and intern programs.

This year the event includes a full dinner, wines from both Sonoma and Tokaj, Hungary and dancing by the Eszterlánc Folk Ensemble, followed by a live auction and raffle prizes.

The dinner will include ample Hungarian appetizers, family style pea and vegetable soup, and entrées of stuffed cabbage with beef and pork, and a Hungarian sausage, or mushroom-stuffed crepes, with a light salad.

Buena Vista Winery, En Garde Winery, Obsidian Wine Co., Danch & Granger Selections, and Treasure Island Wines have donated wines.

Guests will have the opportunity to meet the Sonoma-Tokaj Committee's intern, Bence Csaji, who has been working the crush at Buena Vista and De Loach wineries, and Sonoma intern Kevin Valencia, who worked at Hetszölo in Tokaj last year during their crush. $60 members Sonoma Sister Cities Association, $65 non-members includes dinner, wine, and entertainment. 6 to 9 p.m. Burlingame Hall, 252 W. Spain St., Sonoma. Tickets at 938-0224 or email sonomatokajsistercities@gmail.com.