09/01/2024
For the last installment of our Aperitivo series, we invited , co-founder of .amsterdam to share a recipe with us. She sent us back a very personal dish, filled with ingredients that relate back to her own family, including a way of cooking that is meant to be performed collectively, and ideally (of course) with a glass of natural wine.
When first introduced to Naiara’s practice, we got enticed by her particular way of looking at food, and, much like with natural winemakers, the personality she tends to incorporate in it. Born to a Dutch/Indonesian father and a Spanish mother, Naiara learned to cook during her travels across the Iberean peninsula, including plentiful family meals during which she used to help out in the kitchen. Yet, prior to further pursuing her family-taught love for cooking, Naiara embarked on a career in fashion, studying at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, and eventually working at Acne Studios in Stockholm.
It was during a culinary course in Los Angeles where she learned to experiment with plant-based cuisine, that Naiara decided she wanted to make a change. She resigned from her job and moved back to Amsterdam, where she started cooking in a little kitchen making breakfast and lunch for her guests. When catering requests started to come in, her best friend (and now business partner), Zana Josipovic, proposed to introduce graphic design to the catering service, and so Oficina was born; a daily canteen and food design studio in which storytelling and the culinary come together.
There’s both warmth and resourcefulness to Naiara’s cooking, fueled by a deep appreciation for the natural world and a curiosity for human traditions. And what better way to experiment with those than through cooking? As last year’s holiday galore has come to its climax, we speak with Naiara about the story behind her recipe ‘Naiara’s Lempers’, trusting your path, and how to connect local produce and people with new flavours and ideas.
An interview by
Photography by