Satu Jiwa, a Melbourne pop-up, takes Indonesian food to bars and music events to introduce the cuisine as part of the city's contemporary culture.
Smoke rose from a prawn grill on the upper floor of Mr West, a bar in Footscray, Melbourne. Inside, a queue of customers stretched out for a plate of nasi kapau. The queue drew members of the Indonesian diaspora as well as other Australians, many curious about the West Sumatran dish.
Behind the counter, Wahyu Prasetyo, who goes by Tio, and his partner Natasha Iodice worked with a small team to plate up each order. White rice with beef rendang, gulai nangka, sambal ijo, egg, kerupuk, scallops and oysters. Two crew members grilled fresh prawns over hot coals. For dessert, the team served a trifle inspired by Indonesian kopi susu.
Indonesian food served in a bar is not a common sight. But that is precisely the mission of Satu Jiwa, a pop-up Tio and Natasha founded in April 2026.
We want to show that Indonesian food is not just rendang, nasi goreng, or gado-gado.Wahyu Prasetyo - Chef
Indonesian restaurants in Australia have tended to go for a homely feel, warm like eating "at an aunty's house," Tio said. There is nothing wrong with that, he said, but he felt Indonesian cuisine also needed to be present in different spaces. Satu Jiwa deliberately brings Indonesian food to places like bars and music events.
Tio chose the name "nasi kapau" over the more widely known "nasi Padang" because he wanted to highlight a more specific regional identity from West Sumatra.
About his career, Tio told SBS Indonesian that he wasn't a chef when he lived in Indonesia. He worked in the corporate world. After he moved to Australia, he decided to enrol in culinary school and started a career in professional kitchens, he said.
But across his years working in Australian kitchens, Tio said he never once cooked Indonesian food professionally. On his days off, that was often what he cooked, he said. Satu Jiwa, Tio said, is an expression of his longing for home.
Behind that longing, though, there's also a concern. Tio recalled an experience at an Indonesian restaurant in Melbourne when he overheard a group of diaspora members complaining about a $22 nasi bungkus. Moments later, the same group was enthusiastically recommending a burger joint that charged around $28.
For Tio, that brief exchange captured a bigger issue. Many in the Indonesian diaspora, he said, have not yet fully recognised the value of their own cuisine, yet hope Indonesian food will gain international recognition. Indonesian cuisine could reach further if it had the full support of the Indonesian community itself, he said.
Satu Jiwa, Tio said, won't be just selling West Sumatran food. Each pop-up will have a different menu because he wants to show the full range of what Indonesian cooking has to offer, he added.
Listen to the full interview on the SBS Indonesian podcast.
