Our latest metro Atlanta dining discoveries are mouthwatering sensations from a pair of one-person operations.
Inman Park chef inspired by his Southern grandmother
On Sunday mornings, a small but devoted flock of biscuit purists can be spied calling at a walk-up window on Elizabeth Street in Inman Park. They’ve come to fetch cardboard gable boxes filled with Hutchinson’s Finest Biscuits. Square and fluffy, these golden brown wonders are the handiwork of Todd Tharp, who rises early to bake classic Southern buttermilk biscuits. To me, they are best when slathered with his knockout fig preserves and extraordinary peach and blueberry jams, which taste like the very essence of summer.
Inspired by his Mississippi grandmother, Gertrude Hutchinson Tharp, and French jam legend Christine Ferber, the chef chose biscuits and jam as his metier in 2018. His father had spoken nostalgically of his own mother’s virtuosic biscuit-making, and her particularly sweet method of delivering them to her family’s mouths: She’d poke hot biscuits with her finger, and fill them with melted butter and honey.
Wendell Brock
Wendell Brock
“It just hit me. I just loved that image,” said Tharp, a software developer who left Atlanta in 2007 to study at the French Culinary Institute, all the while planning to pursue a career as a chef. After brief stints at Sfoglia in Manhattan and Watershed in Decatur, his wife had twins, and he never returned to a professional kitchen. But, when his dad told him about his biscuit birthright, he knew he’d found a way back in.
For those who prefer to sleep in on Sundays, Hutchinson’s can be delivered anywhere inside the Perimeter for $10. And, who doesn’t warm to the idea of waking up to perfect biscuits on your doorstep?
Old-fashioned buttermilk, cheddar-chive and cinnamon-sugar biscuits must be ordered in advance ($25 a dozen, $15 a half dozen). You may mix and match flavors. The plain ones are concocted from five simple ingredients: White Lily flour, Banner butter, Banner whey (buttermilk), salt and baking powder (which Tharp mixes himself).
You’ll want some of his luscious pimento cheese and impeccable fruit preserves to spread on these heavenly pillows. Lately, he’s had peach, blueberry and fig, including a gorgeous layered glass of peach-blueberry. Neither oversugared nor overcooked, the jam tasted like a lovingly stirred fruit compote assembled the day before.
Tharp did not bake the biscuits at Watershed, but he did adopt some of the aesthetics of tradition-steeped chef Scott Peacock. “One day, we were doing blancmange,” he recalled. “He had me put these peaches and blueberries on top. It was just so beautiful, those colors together. So, I was like, ‘I’m going to duplicate that in a jam.’”
337 Elizabeth St., Atlanta. 404-539-4598, hutchinsonsfinest.com.
— Wendell Brock
Nicole Benza
Nicole Benza
Peruvian-American chef launches home-based dessert business
While the pandemic has brought challenges to businesses of every size, there never has been a lower barrier to entry for food entrepreneurs. Thanks to technology — an Instagram account, a Facebook page, a website and a mobile payment app — scrappy startups can announce pop-ups, tempt customers with photos of craveable culinary creations, take orders and accept payments. No brick-and-mortar store is necessary.
Pastry chef Nicole Benza is one such owner, using the tools of these times to grow her micro business, Pastil Artisan Bakery.
Benza was born in New Jersey, but was raised in her parents’ native Peru. After earning a culinary degree with an emphasis in pastry, she spent time in France and Italy, where she delved further into the art of making cakes and other baked sweets.
In 2016, she launched a home-based pastry business in Lima. By 2019, it had become a full-fledged store. Eight months later, COVID-19 arrived, forcing Benza to close.
She ended up moving to Atlanta, where she lives with her sister, a pediatrician. Yet, Benza hasn’t given up on her sweets shop dreams. Three months ago, she launched Pastil Artisan Bakery, offering custom cakes, pies, cookies, brownies and other desserts.
Benza’s talents are especially on display with sugar-laden creations common in Peru and other Latin American countries. Among cakes, you’ll find a tres leches decorated with Chantilly cream, as well as her top-selling Nutella cake.
Nicole Benza
Nicole Benza
A hulking, 12-inch lime pie ($40) features a crumbly graham cracker crust filled with lime cream that’s thick as curd, then topped with airy Swiss meringue torched to a golden brown. “That’s a very Peruvian dessert,” Benza said, comparing the pie’s popularity there with that of Key lime in the U.S.
Alfajores are butter sandwich cookies filled with dulce de leche, commonly referred to in Peru as manjar blanco. Benza offers a classic version of these melt-in-your mouth confections, as well as one coated in chocolate. A dozen of the former cost $25; the chocolate ones are $30. Just ask, and she’ll prepare a mix-and-match box.
Nicole Benza
Nicole Benza
In fact, customizing is her specialty, whether you want a certain color of cakesicle (individual cakes shaped like popsicles), or a special occasion tiered cake.
Benza bakes on demand, so advance ordering is required. “Everything is homemade and fresh,” she said. “If it’s something easy, it can be 24 hours in advance. If it’s something more complicated, I always ask for 48 hours in advance, or to speak with the client and understand their ideas.”
She takes orders via phone, or direct message through Instagram and Facebook, and uses mobile payment apps Venmo and Zelle. A website with online ordering is coming soon. Delivery is available in metro Atlanta, and is free for purchases greater than $200. Pickup is available at a location in Sandy Springs.
Pastil Artisan Bakery. 248-461-7408, pastilbakery.com.
— Ligaya Figueras
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