Bakery $ $$$ Who’s the most important worker at Lumos, a year-old bakery that’s changed McKinnon by offering cheery service, excellent sourdough and dreamy treats in a fresh, modern, mostly takeaway setting? You might think it’s owner, baker and pastry chef Carina La Delfa. Or maybe you’d pick her husband, Daniel Rosenow, also a chef but now running the store. Pastry chef Anais Reynaud and head baker Anthony Smartt look busy in the glass-walled kitchen: it could be one of them.
Nothing happens without coffee, of course, so maybe you’re inclined to anoint barista JP Guimaraes as MVP. Actually, it’s none of these hard-working souls. The true GOAT is Hagrid, the sourdough starter named after the giant in Harry Potter .
Nothing happens without Hagrid. He (yes, this fermenting mix of flour, water and wild yeasts is a he) is cared for and cosseted and observed and tended like the temperamental creature he is. When it’s hot, he burbles up and threatens to take over.
When it’s chilly, he sulks. But with careful tending, he gives body, bounce, suppleness and stretch to fresh Australian wheat and rye flour and ensures the breads and pastries are full of character. There are a few ways of looking at Lumos.
It’s part of an international tradition of local bakeries, deep in the detail of the daily bake, dispensing the stuff of life to the people in the neighbourhood. Here they are with the dog and a friend sitting outside for a chicken sandwich with honey-mustard dressin.
