In April, Food Inc. of Santa Barbara County morphed as all businesses adjusting to COVID-19 had to, shifting its business model from purely catering focused to meal delivery. But, according to executive chef/owner Anthony Minniti, it was a change that was sort of already in the works.
“I was going to do meal prep service for athletes, people at the gym, and then COVID came along,” he said.
As restaurants started to close down, he wondered how older people who had a hard time getting around or people who couldn’t cook were going to eat. So, he pivoted from meal prep for athletes to full meals delivered to front doors in Nipomo, Santa Maria, and Orcutt.
“HomeStyle is a division of Food Inc., and we do really clean, healthy food,” he said, adding that the dinners he prepares bridge the gap between fine dining and high-end food. “The flavor is there, and you’re not going to kill your waistline.”
That being said, he does throw butter and cream into the food he makes, because it tastes good. With a background steeped in European style cuisine, it would be hard not to use butter or cream.
Minniti attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York in the mid-1990s before heading to Napa Valley to cook at places like Christian Brothers Winery, Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant, Auberge du Soleil, and Bistro Don Giovanni.
He learned a lot at Don Giovanni’s, he said. And especially from Giovanni Scala’s wife, chef and restaurateur Donna Scala.
“She was probably the most vicious chef that I ever worked for. When you were in trouble, when it was your day, everyone kind of steered clear of you,” Minniti said. “But, you know, you learned food.”
From Napa, Minniti made his way to Los Olivos to work for the Fess Parker Wine Country Inn before moving on to the Chumash Casino as the executive chef of fine dining at Willows Restaurant & Bar.
Eventually, he said, he got tired of working for other people and he began trying to figure out what he really wanted to do. In 2019, he started Food Inc., a catering company.
“Somewhere in the middle of it all, HomeStyle was born,” he said. “Part of this when I was doing this was very much with COVID in mind. Let’s face it, my industry is not doing well right now. … Everyone is trying to scramble.”
So he basically created a new brand, a new style of restaurant with HomeStyle.
The goal is to serve up the same quality of food he would at a sit-down place, but at a more affordable price. With a main dish and a starter such as a soup or salad, meals come out to around $15 plus tax.
“We cook it, we box it, we drop it,” Minniti said. “It goes from raw product, to cooked, to your door.”
With a five-week rotating menu, customers can order dinners online or over the phone and get them delivered on weeknights. Minniti said some people order for every night of the week, some do three dinners a week, and some call the day of for a delivery that evening. From chicken enchiladas to meatloaf with buttermilk whipped potatoes, and cedar-plank salmon to handmade gnocchi, everything is made from scratch.
He describes his food as layered.
On Friday, Aug. 7, he was making sofrito—a Puerto Rican version of Spanish rice that Minneti described as almost like a paella—to go with his chicken enchiladas. Herbs, tomatoes, onion, and garlic stewed together start the flavor base of the rice before it gets cooked. That was the last meal of his Week 1 menu.
He also described the porchetta—basically, a whole roast pork butt—slated for Thursday of Week 2. It’s stuffed with a medley of herbs, rolled up, sous vide cooked, and the outside layer is crisped up before it’s sliced into rings for the meal.
“I cook at a very high level, so I put that technique to everything that I touch, but I keep it simple,” he said.
And Minniti does it all: orders the produce, meat, and to-go containers; preps the meals; cooks the meals; and drives them around town. He said he does have one person who helps him cook and one who helps him deliver.
In April, when HomeStyle was born, the goal was to do 40 meals a night. Right now, the service is averaging between 30 to 35 meals a night, so Minniti has almost hit his goal four months in.
As COVID-19 wears on, Minniti said he is starting to look at the meal prep idea again. Hopefully, he said, to start a program that serves up meal kit packages—lunch and dinner—to people who have active, healthy lifestyles.
“It’s kind of taken on its own life,” he said. “As the need and as this takes on shape, I have the expertise and knowledge to make this happen.”
Editor Camillia Lanham is active and healthy—sort of. Send food tips to clanham@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 13-20, 2020.