The baking industry can be tough to break into at the best of times, so it was a dream come true when Tiara Sucipto’s baked goodies took off in the height of Covid. Now, Tiara and her partner Hari have upscaled their side hustle to become their primary hustle – and if the queue lining their bakery’s street is any indication, Sydneysiders are so glad they did.

A passion project turned Instagram business turned storefront. Many of Australia’s iconic bakers have success stories that begin in their humble home kitchens, and Sydney-based Mutiara (Tiara) Sucipto is no exception. With help from her partner Hari Wibowo, the couple expanded their passion, eventually opening their bakery Pantry Story in Sydney’s south in 2024. Their motto is ‘every pastry has a story to tell’, so we caught up with them to delve into each chapter.

Tiara and Hari relocated to Australia from their respective homes in Pontianak, a city located in the west of Borneo, and Semarang, a city in Java. In 2020, Tiara studied a certificate IV in Patisserie, building on the previous skills she’d gained in her Bachelor of Hospitality.

“Since I was young… I really loved baking, but I haven’t really focused on it because my parents wanted me to take on something that’s more management. Hence, I took hospitality school. But then Covid hit and I was bored… I was just baking for fun,” Tiara said.

Hari working behind the scenes

Tiara’s mochi brownies were an immediate hit among the couple’s friends during the pandemic. Soon enough, word of her baking spread to friends of friends, a small income stream steadily flowing with it. Recognising what a hit her items were, Hari encouraged Tiara to branch out with her products beyond their friends.

“If it’s something – a delicacy – that’s already proven the community love it in our hometowns then why not bring it here and see how people react?” Hari said.

“Mochi at that time wasn’t something that was very well known yet… I was pretty sure people would love it as well, especially in Australia, as we have a lot of different nationalities and we are exposed to many different kinds of food.”

Let’s go back to the beginning

“So that’s how it started, actually. I just started posting it on Instagram, and I didn’t know that it would be that popular,” Tiara said.

Her items took off, with many bakery connoisseurs making the journey to the couple’s home, eager to get their hands on the baked goods. As lockdown restrictions eased, Tiara and Hari jumped at the opportunity to sell the items face-to-face, operating stalls at the Meadowbank, Glebe, then Wentworth Point markets.

“We were sort of testing the water, and then at the markets we sold out very quick,” Hari said.

“So during weekdays, obviously, we worked but then we also had to prep for the weekend. And then Saturdays from very early morning Tiara had to bake, and I was helping next to her… but it was very rewarding. In markets I just love the vibe. Everyone was just very lovely.”

As their presence at local markets grew, Tiara expanded her product range to include miso mushroom garlic confit focaccia and pandan mochi cookies filled with palm sugar—inspired by an Indonesian dessert called Klepon.

“I was still baking at home… just using the small home oven. So usually, I woke up at 3am to start making all the pastries, and Hari helped me to bake. So it was quite hectic, because at 7am we had to leave the house. It was very much hard work,” Tiara said.

“I was telling Tiara the capacity of her oven, it’s not enough. We always sold out of our things around 11am-ish, whereas the market actually stays open until three in the afternoon … I said to Tiara, ‘Look, if you want to open more markets, then you do need to have a proper kitchen’,” Hari said.

The pair decided that scaling up their operations to increase production was a wise move. After inspecting kitchens in Surry Hills and Glebe that would require extensive, costly renovations, the couple stumbled across an unlikely contender in ‘quite a random place’ on Facebook.

“At first, we didn’t plan at all to open the bakery. We were just looking for a dark kitchen for us to be able to sell it to the markets.” Tiara said.

“We looked at the place. I was like, okay, this place has potential because they already have the kitchen, all the ovens, cool room, freezer, everything is there. But the front space is the thing that made me think, ‘Okay, we should get it’.”

Tiara Sucipto

The kitchen – located along a quiet section of Parramatta Road in Stanmore – had a storefront in addition to the large production area. This was when the penny dropped for the couple.

“For me, it’s always been my dream to open a business with my partner. A restaurant or a bakery—to be honest, anything.” Hari said.

“I thought, Tiara’s got talent in it, she’s got passion, and she’s very hard working. So okay, let’s do this. Let’s make this come true. Let’s do a bakery.”

Creating the perfect space

With the lease secured and a growing fanbase of hungry customers, Tiara and Hari swung into action to get the bakery opened. If the pair’s baking and entrepreneurial skills weren’t enough, Hari also designed the entire bakery’s layout.

“I studied interior design but I ended up working in hospitality for quite a long time, but I do still love design and everything,” Hari said.

“The design idea that I had for Pantry Story would be to make it minimalistic but also remind us of home. The shop just reminds us so much of home.”

The unassuming storefront opens to a stunning selection of pastries displayed on an elevated round table in the centre of the store floor, with a soaring timber-panelled A-frame ceiling overhead.

“The idea of the big round table in the middle actually comes from… our Chinese background where we normally go back to our hometowns celebrating the Lunar New Year, having dinner at a round table with a lazy Susan,” Hari said

“Tiara didn’t want it to look like all the Asian bakeries where they just put in all the baked goods at the front … We saw Lune patisserie doing it their way in Melbourne, where they only display one of each item. So we just decided we’d take the round table and display it in a modern way. It’s about bringing the feeling of home to the people.”

Tiara at work in the Pantry Story kitchen

Tiara’s pastry range has significantly grown since her pilot mochi brownies, as have her army of regular customers and social media followers. She’s created incredible products, including an entirely edible croissant handbag.

“Our very first product was the Pandan Cookie, so there’s a mochi and also palm sugar filling inside. The things I love, like snacks and food from our childhood… I tried to make them, but in pastry form. So that one is inspired by Hari’s hometown snack,” Tiara said.

“Our savory product is the most popular one… the prawn and chicken roll. That one is inspired by my hometown dish as well. Usually, they put minced pork and minced prawn in it, but I make it into chicken and then serve with a tangy honey sauce. And then … with our pastry we use Yuzu and honey, so like trying to combine it with some international flavour as well.”

Customers view the pastry selection before making their way to the counter to purchase and collect their goodies, except for when the queue snakes outside the bakery’s front doors onto the now-busy Parramatta Road.

Tiara and Hari are hoping to open a sandwich shop in the store adjacent to their bakery—we’re excited to see what they achieve in this next chapter of their Pantry Story.