Benicia bakery’s Han Solo bread sculpture puts the carbs in carbonite

BENICIA — Han Solo may be a hunk. But “Pan Solo” is a hunk of bread.

That’s what a Bay Area bakery has dubbed its 6-foot bread sculpture of the “Star Wars” character as he appeared after being frozen in carbonite in “The Empire Strikes Back.”

Hanalee Pervan and her mother, Catherine Pervan, co-owners of One House Bakery in Benicia, California, spent weeks molding, baking and assembling the life-sized sculpture using wood and two types of dough, including a type of yeastless dough with a higher sugar content that will last longer.

The two worked at night, after the day’s business was done. The lovingly crafted details show Han Solo’s anguished face and his hands straining to reach out.

Hanalee said she might have gotten a bit obsessed.

“Mom made me leave it because I was obsessing over the lips,” Hanalee Pervan told the New York Times. “She was like, ‘You need to walk away.'”

Creating Pan Solo was particularly meaningful, she told the paper, because she contracted COVID-19 in January 2021 and lost much of her senses of smell and taste.

“So just to find joy in a different part of food is really important,” she said.

The sculpture is now on display outside of the bakery, located about a half-hour’s drive north of San Francisco.

Pan Solo is the bakery’s entry in the annual Downtown Benicia Main Street Scarecrow Contest. The public will get to vote on their favorites from among more than two dozen creations entered by local businesses.

The Pervans, who are big science-fiction and fantasy fans, entered another “Star Wars”-themed creation in 2020 featuring the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda.

Unfortunately, Pan Solo won’t last forever. The dough eventually will be composted, not eaten.

So as a wise Jedi might warn: Don’t use the forks, Luke.