When Solano County approved a new California law that would legalize home-based kitchen operations in April, it seemed like Cheska Kistner’s plans to open a restaurant in her Benicia home would finally come to fruition. The measure, California’s AB626, allows for what are known as microenterprise food businesses, which Alameda County also made inroads toward legalizing Monday. But no Bay Area county has yet fully implemented the 2018 law, leaving entrepreneurs like Kistner in limbo.

Under AB626, cooks can legally sell up to 30 meals a day or 60 per week from their homes when their counties opt in and they have received a permit; their annual gross sales are capped at $50,000. The law has been implemented in only one county so far, Riverside. In Alameda County, many home kitchen operations have proliferated during the pandemic without the option to get proper permitting, leading to the health department cracking

When Solano County approved a new California law that would legalize home-based kitchen operations in April, it seemed like Cheska Kistner’s plans to open a restaurant in her Benicia home would finally come to fruition. The measure, California’s AB626, allows for what are known as microenterprise food businesses, which Alameda County also made inroads toward legalizing yesterday. But no Bay Area county has yet fully implemented the 2018 law, leaving entrepreneurs like Kistner in limbo.

COVID-19 is shaping shopping behavior. That’s been bad news for retailers on many fronts — but certainly not all. Here’s a sampling some of the items shoppers have been snapping up for their homes.

Bon appetit

The Shops at Rockvale, located off Route 30 in East Lampeter Township, have seen a lower traffic count than usual over the past few months, says manager Kristi Burkholder. But sales reports show that those shoppers who are there are buying more things — especially if those things are related to eating at home, says Burkholder.

“The kitchen stores are out of control,” she says.

Foodie-focused business is also brisk at Zest! in Lititz. There, manager Elizabeth Elia says shoppers are increasingly investing in quality basics like kitchen scales. Pizza stones also are selling. So is anything having to do with bread.

“They’re getting serious about baking. One item that is selling like crazy

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Americans’ work lunch routines have been severely disrupted by the pandemic. Sweetgreen

• DoorDash launched DoorDash for Work — a program that allows organization to offer employees meal benefits and perks.
• Zoom, Charles Schwab, and Hulu are among the more than 5,000 organizations that have already signed up. 
• Working from home has killed office snacks and lunches with coworkers, with 90% of people saying they miss at least one food-related benefit of the office, according to a DoorDash survey. 
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Working from home has destroyed Americans’ routines, killing lunch breaks and eliminating office snacks. Now, DoorDash is attempting to provide a solution. 

On Wednesday, DoorDash announced the launch of DoorDash for Work — a program that allows organizations to offer employees meal benefits and perks through the delivery service. More than 5,000 organizations have already signed up, including Zoom, Charles

amazon.com

Whether you’re committed to meal prepping every week or simply trying to organize your fridge, investing in quality food storage containers will make things a whole lot easier. Not only will they help keep your food fresh, but they can also save you time and make your kitchen look much neater.

One of the most important factors to consider when shopping for food storage containers is the material they’re made out of. While glass food storage containers are super versatile (many are oven-safe), plastic options are typically more lightweight, which makes them easy to stash in your bag during your commute. While some people still prefer glass over plastic to avoid chemicals leaching into food, it’s also important to note that all of the plastic containers on this list are BPA-free.

RELATED: The 10 Best Lunch Bags for Women, According to Thousands of Reviews

Since there are so many

Sandwiches had been on Carrie McCabe-Johnston’s mind for two years.

Ever since a family vacation to Florence, Italy, where labyrinth stone streets teem with purveyors of freshly baked bread stuffed with salami or roasted porchetta, she’d been thinking about opening a Florence-style sandwich shop back home.

The founder and chef of Bonafide Hospitality, which includes Nightingale in Minneapolis, McCabe-Johnston was searching for a place for the shop last fall, but put the idea on hold when she didn’t find the right fit.

Then came COVID-19, and as her other dining rooms and bars temporarily closed to customers, sandwiches came to mind once again. Only this time, finding a space wasn’t necessary.

McCabe-Johnston launched Lake City Sandwiches last month as an evening-only, delivery-only business operating out of Nightingale’s kitchen. “It’s our little ghost kitchen,” she said. “Complete with its own branding.”

By starting a new restaurant within a restaurant, albeit one

Andrew Zimmern

These days the James Beard Award–winning chef, TV host, and author is mostly cooking in the Kitchen Studio and Test Kitchen at the office of his production company and restaurant group, Intuitive Content and Passport Hospitality, which has massive firepower. “My favorite features are the flattop griddle on the cooktop in the rear, and the storage island that was designed with capacity to house all our tabletop appliances—and, most important, it contains our wine fridge, plate warmers, and utility cabinets.” Zimmern is in the midst of a home redesign that includes a drool-worthy new kitchen with “Puustelli custom cabinetry and a full Gaggenau suite that includes some incredible features like a wok burner, steam oven, and large baking oven. My favorite feature there is also my island, where I cut out cutting board–sized sections so that my work space is flat all the way across.” The chef has

CEO and Founder of the Profitable Restaurant Owner Academy, the ultimate resource in starting a profitable restaurant.

Restaurants are notorious for their low-margin business model. After all is said and done, their profitability ranges from 5% to 10%, a number I’ve gathered from a variety of National Restaurant Association articles and surveys. The reason for its low margins is because of the prime cost — food cost and labor — which typically accounts for more than 55% to 65% of the revenue.

As technology rapidly advanced, so did innovation within the food and beverage sector. Third-party apps like Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash have made ordering out easy with just a click of a button — no need to step foot in the restaurant. It is with the advancement of this technology that has allowed new businesses like virtual kitchens, also known as cloud kitchens, ghost kitchens or

“It’s a bread meant to be eaten fresh out of the oven,” says Bruna Piauí Graf, founder of Bruna’s Cheese Bread. “It can be good later, but I don’t suggest that.” Brazilian pão de queijo — or cheese bread — are savory puff pastries made with gluten-free tapioca flour and cheese. They’re served everywhere in Brazil, and now, thanks to Graf, here in Denver, as well.

Graf says she started Bruna’s Cheese Bread because she couldn’t find good pão de queijo in Denver. In 2019, she used the bread as inspiration for a food truck serving Brazilian sandwiches. But when this year’s pandemic ended plans for owning the food truck, Graf turned to selling the pre-made dough as it’s often found in Brazil: frozen and ready to be baked in the oven.

Pão de queijo originated in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The key ingredient, tapioca flour, comes from

Overview Ingredients Steps

Overview

Nigel Slater is a food writer’s food writer. The prolific British author’s famously brief recipe introductions read like haikus: “Roasted pumpkin. Smooth, silky mash.” “Autumn mushrooms, ribbons of pasta, a breath of aniseed.” “Crisp pastry. Warm banana. The scent of maple syrup.” They remind me of Ruth Reichl’s much-satirized tweets.

[Instant Pot spaghetti delivers a saucy dose of nostalgia, with little hands-on effort]

He’s a cook’s cook, too, long advocating a seasonal, breezy approach in the kitchen that has endeared him to readers for decades. In Slater’s hands, few recipes seem daunting — and so many seem enticing.

Slater’s latest book is “Greenfeast: Autumn, Winter,” a celebration of simple vegetarian cooking for colder weather — or, as he writes so beautifully, when “our appetite is pricked by the sudden drop in temperature.” This time of year, “more food will come to the table in deep