Winda Rinova is a young Indonesian bakery chef, who lives in Australia, with an Italian husband, a Japanese grandfather and a family with Chinese roots. This is enough to tell the story of her polychrome heart, which draws from the world and from different cultures all she needs to feed her passion for cooking, which began, as often happens in these stories, as a child, when simple, maternal gestures remained indelible in the memory.
In his almond-shaped eyes and gentle manner is all the delicacy of a faraway country, where the earth and all the other natural elements represent the identity of a people, the philosophy of a culture devoted to the naturalness of being. Fighting against part of the opinion in his town, according to which cooking is considered a job "too humble"Winda decides to follow her "ikigai".
Studies in economics soon gave way to life's true passion, cooking, and especially pastry making, with training at the SHATEC by Singaporethe hotel management school, which collaborates with the famous École hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland, to develop its courses in the hospitality and catering sector.
It is here that Winda Rinova he learnt Asian and French pastry, with all the charm, rigour of perfection, technique and reasoned creativity that these have always conveyed around the world. Then, the arrival in Australia, in Sydneywhere Winda was able to perfect her studies in the best and oldest school of cookery, 'Le Cordon bleu"where he graduated in pastry making.
Yet, like a yeast that slowly ferments to transform flour into the world's simplest and most precious product, a greater passion grows and is nurtured in her, rooted in her heart as well as in the culture of the human being, that for bread-making.
The meeting at theAcre Eaterywith the chef Gareth Howard, executive chef in Sydney of the famous Jamie Oliver, turns out to be enlightening. In this very special farm-to-table restaurant, located within the communal grounds of Camperdown, focused on ethical and conscious food choices, sustainable menus, transparency, seasonality and traceability of raw materials, Winda Rinova begins to express her skills as a bakery chef and to experiment, to knead, thanks to the support of Gareth Howard and her other teacher and mentor, James Partington. The patience of waiting, the importance of knowledge, the kindness of spirit. Making bread - so it is said in many parts of Italy - connotes people with a good soul, a characteristic that then spills over into the goodness and fragrance of a genuine product that marked the transition from man's 'bestiality' to his being a creator and, therefore, almost divine.
And there is something truly miraculous in the hands of Winda Rinovatiny yet bearers of ancient knowledge, spanning lands and centuries of history. Natural yeast is her magic wand for creating extraordinary breads: with cereals, cocoa, red fruits, ancient grains, seeds and many more. Soon, in addition to theAcre Eaterybecomes a baker for Staple Bakeryone of the best places serving bread and croissants made with sourdough.
"Baking bread - tells - is not just mixing ingredients, it is to feel a life slowly shaping itself, it is pay attention to many details, such as temperature of the hands, the water, the kneading movements; it is an emotion always different and indescribable. Each loaf is like a unique work, born from a constant search for perfection which perhaps is never really achieved, but which just thanks to this limitation, it always becomes better than before".
As we talk to her, she shows us her bees, because when your philosophy of life is love for life itself, then it happens that every daily gesture becomes a celebration of the life force. And so it is that hundreds of thousands of native Australian bees are fluttering in the garden of her home, respecting an ancient and wise Aboriginal belief that everything that is taken away from mother earth must be returned to her.
Winda also has a Chinese name, Yin Yin. In both cases, the words mean 'wind', a gentle breeze, a breath of life that carries with it the sweet scent of 'good'.
Ph. Credits: Claudio Galar, Gaspars Kitchen
English 
Italian