Food coverage is supported by a generous donation from Susan and Moses Libitzky.
As soon as I finished interviewing Rory Kandel about Rory’s Bakehouse, I placed one of her pre-shaped balls of cookie dough on a pre-cut circle of parchment paper and sprinkled a bit of flaky salt on top — everything had come packaged in a pink and white bakehouse bag — and placed it in my oven.
As I waited 26 minutes for it to bake, the most wonderful sugary, chocolatey smell filled my kitchen. The result was a giant cookie, easily enough for three people, with crisp edges and a softer center, just as it should be. It reminded me of my mother baking Nestle Toll House cookies for me as a child, though, of course, I knew that the ingredients here were so much better.
“I love that people are getting an extra level of joy from my products,” said Kandel, chef and owner of Rory’s Bakehouse, a business the Napa resident started during the pandemic making and delivering home-baked goods. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like the smell of freshly baked cookies. It gives people an emotional connection.”
Kandel, 45, is dreaming big, hoping that she’ll become the next big chocolate chip cookie brand, like Mrs. Fields. “It has happened to others,” she reasons. “Why not me?”
Her cookie kits make batches of either a half-dozen or a dozen, and each cookie is giant. Kits can be ordered on her website and shipped nationally, and are also in some Napa grocery stores. Soon they’ll be coming to San Francisco, along with more bake-at-home products. Her cookies and coconut Rice Krispy treats with chocolate chips can be found at the Loveski Delis in Napa and Larkspur.
In December, Kandel opened a storefront window at 2766 Old Sonoma Road in Napa, where customers can buy additional bake-at-home items like passion fruit thumbprint cookies, toffee pies, cinnamon rolls and scones, both savory and sweet. Some of these pastries, already baked, are also available on any given day.
“I’ve always loved feeding people,” she said. “And doing it this way gives people something extra than the already baked.”
Back in September, Kandel came out in a very public way in the San Francisco Chronicle about her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, and how difficult it was to launch the small business of her dreams while dealing with debilitating chronic pain. She continues to speak out about her experiences on Instagram. Her symptoms haven’t improved since she began telling her story. In fact they’ve gotten worse; at times, she has to temporarily close her business due to MS flareups. But at least now she is no longer suffering in silence.
“It’s such a lonely disease,” she said. “No one understands what it’s like for me on a daily basis, and now I have a community of people who reach out to me. I’m very sad about it a lot of the time and what it’s taking away from me, and sharing about it makes me feel less of that. And there’s not enough people with MS that are comfortable talking about it to give a face to it.” A small amount from every purchase through Rory’s Bakehouse goes to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. (According to the nonprofit, National MS Awareness Week is March 9-15.)
What Kandel did not talk about in the Chronicle interview is her Jewish background. That, she saved for J.
Originally from the Five Towns of Long Island, N.Y. (Hewlett to be exact), nearly everyone Kandel knew growing up was Jewish. Her grandfather Milton owned an Automat-like restaurant in Manhattan and a theater district bar. Her family wasn’t observant and identified mostly as “food Jews,” she said. To this day, she thinks her own matzah ball soup is the best. “When I think of my Jewish background, I can smell the food of my grandmother’s house,” she said.
Her first exposure to living in a non-Jewish milieu was while attending Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, where she studied bakery and pastry. Though she had never called attention to the fact she was Jewish, she woke up one morning and found her car vandalized and a swastika carved in the snow. She later found out the perpetrators were her neighbors, who were also her fellow students.
The incident frightened her so much that for most of her adult life, she didn’t want to call attention to the fact that she was Jewish.
But sometimes, life surprises you.
For starters, in the past few years Kandel has shared a commissary kitchen space with Dana Koschitzky, who has a strong Israeli and Jewish identity and has become like a sister. (Koschitzky’s company, The Tish, makes heavenly babka.) Even more impactful in reconnecting Kandel with her Jewish heritage, though, has been the very Jewish journey taken by her 17-year-old son.
It’s hard to explain, she said. Her son’s father (her ex) isn’t Jewish, and they didn’t raise their children with any religion. Kandel describes her son as very intelligent, wise beyond his years. As a young teenager, he read widely about world religions. The more he learned about Judaism, the more it resonated. He began frequenting the Chabad house in Napa. Feeling like no one understood him in his public school, he’s now on a full scholarship at an Orthodox high school in Texas. He plans to attend a yeshiva in New York next year.
“He’s absolutely the most observant person I’ve ever met, and he has no fear,” Kandel said. “He’s very proud of who he is.”
She’s had time to get used to the changes, but it was terribly hard for her at first.
“I felt like I lost my child, as we can’t share meals together,” she said. “It was all just a real learning curve for me.”
While acknowledging the difficulty it caused her, she also sees the benefits.
“The older I get, the more aware I am of how few Jews there are in the world,” she said. “As hard as this has been with my son, he’s given me a gift, too, to be prouder of my ancestry. He feels so strongly about being unique because of his Judaism, that I can’t help but feel some of that too.”