Bianca taught herself to make focaccia after tasting some made by a friend. Photo: @photographybyfrances.
Baking focaccia started out as an experiment for Bianca Naoumidis after a friend brought around a freshly baked slab of the fluffy Italian bread. But pretty soon, she discovered it made an ideal gift and was the perfect thing to bring to a potluck.
“By the time I was half decent, I was gifting it to friends who’d just had babies, or I’d bring it along if I was going to a dinner,” Bianca told Region.
“It was my friends who actually said, ‘Why don’t you try selling these?’ and I thought, ‘Why not?’”
After a testing process – which included some “brutally honest” feedback from her family – Bianca launched Bink Focaccia, her home-baked side hustle.
“I just realised there was a little pocket in the market. There were lots of people making sweets – cakes, cookies, things like that – but there wasn’t really anything savoury. It’s also pretty rare to see a focaccia like this in a bakery, so I just realised there was an opportunity there.”
Bink focaccia comes wrapped in brown paper. Photo: Bianca Naoumidis.
Bianca offers three different flavours: garlic butter, olive, and tomato and rosemary salt, which features herbs fresh from her own garden. Customers order three days in advance and can either pick up in Ainslie, or Bianca offers delivery (for a small fee) to suburbs in the Inner North and Inner South.
The three-day turnaround allows for the long, slow-rise process that gives the yeasted bread its iconic fluffy texture with a soft crumb full of air pockets.
I was lucky enough to taste the tomato and olive focaccia and can confirm it is delicious! The tomato and olive toppings are generous, and it’s nicely finished off with rosemary and sea salt. Eating it inside the office almost seemed sacrilegious – this is a bread that deserves its own picnic.
The dimples on top of a focaccia are made by pressing your fingers into the dough. Photo: @photographybyfrances.
The focaccias keep for up to three days (if you can hold off eating it that long!) and are lovely when warmed up in the oven or toasted on the third day. Sliced focaccias can be made into sandwiches, or they work well with dips or just as a side on their own. Bringing a Bink focaccia to a gathering has all the benefits of bringing something home-baked, without the hassle of actually having to bake something at home!
In the future, Bianca is considering offering larger catering-style slabs and will change up the flavours seasonally. She’s also thinking about adding a sweet flavour to the line-up, perhaps honey and fig.
“It’s really fun and I enjoy it! I have a European background and we cook for love, so the reward for me is when people tell me they love it.”
Follow Bink on Instagram and place orders via DM. A focaccia that serves 4 to 6 people will set you back $25.
Original Article published by Lucy Ridge on Riotact.
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