Zelda Bakery: From Garage to Hottest Kosher Bakery in Melbourne
Maaryasha Werdiger is a paediatric physiotherapist (she still holds her licence), but somewhere between a sourdough starter gifted to her in Jerusalem in 2011 and a garage in Elsternwick that became the open secret of Melbourne’s Jewish community, baking took over.
Industry: Artisan Kosher Sourdough Bakery, Retail Bakery
Location: Ripponlea, Melbourne, Victoria
Vanrooy Equipment Used: Salva Kwik Co 5 Tray + 9 Tray Convection Oven, Salva NXE Deck Oven, Escher M50 Spiral Mixer, Fortuna Bun Divider, Gemm Delice One Door Freezer, Tekno Stamap Sheeter
Maaryasha started out with teaching her friends and family how to bake, then running workshops. Then came baking to order.
When her third child had health issues and couldn’t go to childcare, she decided to convert the garage into a micro-bakery and opened the door. With how great her baked goods were and the niche she was capturing, it’s no surprise that customers came in hordes and she was selling out within an hour.
The problem was that baking began to take over the house and eventually it got to a point where her operation had grown too large and her house was no longer a home.
As we mentioned, Zelda Bakery Melbourne also filled a genuine gap. Kosher sourdough simply wasn’t available in Melbourne at the time. For the Orthodox Jewish community in the south-east, getting quality, certified kosher sourdough bread meant either baking it yourself or going without. Maaryasha had been quietly solving that problem in her garage and a lot of people had noticed.
When she signed the lease on a shopfront on Glen Eira Road in Ripponlea in 2021, she needed equipment that could handle a proper commercial kitchen, without losing what made the garage-baked product so special.
Vanrooy Worked With Maaryasha to Build the Right Setup
After having a negative experience with an oven from a competitor, Maaryasha reached out to connections and came to Vanrooy through Kim Hol at Portland Bakehouse, which tells you a lot. Like with many things, baker referrals carry real weight and Kim knew what Zelda needed.
We started working with Zelda Bakery in 2020, right as Maaryasha was making the move from Elsternwick to Ripponlea. For Maaryasha, it was a chance to get the kitchen set up properly from the start, with equipment chosen for her specific products and her way of working, and she trialled her recipes in our Test Kitchen before settling on equipment.
The full equipment fit-out we supplied includes:
Salva Kwik Co 5 Tray + 9 Tray Convection Oven: Maaryasha’s favourite piece of equipment and the engine room of Zelda Bakery. Stone-baked kosher sourdough the way it should be, with the even, consistent heat that brings out the crust she’s spent years perfecting.
Salva NXE Modular Deck Oven: supporting the broader pastry and enriched dough range, from babka to challah to the weekly specials.
Escher M50 Spiral Mixer: a serious step up from the domestic mixers of the garage days, built for real dough volumes.
Fortuna Bun Divider: consistent portioning for challah, buns, and the rotating pastry items that keep Zelda’s regulars coming back.
Gemm Delice One Door Freezer: keeping the operation organised and the prep schedule running smoothly behind the scenes.
The kosher requirements at Zelda Bakery Melbourne add a layer of complexity that not every kitchen setup accounts for. Dairy and non-dairy are kept strictly separate, only certified kosher ingredients are used and each day’s dough receives a ritual blessing after mixing. The equipment and kitchen layout needed to support all of that without friction, so it was great experience for our team as we worked through it together.
We’ve also had the chance to collaborate with Maaryasha beyond just the initial fit-out, including doing demos together at Fine Foods Australia, and for us here at Vanrooy, one like this is the kind of relationship we value.
Two Days a Week and Still Selling Out Every Time
Zelda Bakery Ripponlea is open Wednesday and Friday only, with queues forming before opening. By now, as you can expect, the mix of western and traditional baked goods sell out every time.
For Zelda Bakery, the limited hours isn’t a limitation but a model they have developed that suits them and it’s the dedication and equipment makes it work. Here’s where things stand since we started working together:
Sold out every open day since moving into the Ripponlea shopfront, with queues forming well before the 7:30am opening
Kosher certified Chalav Yisrael under Kosher Australia, with strict compliance built into the kitchen and production workflow
Roughly 40% of customers are not Jewish drawn in by the quality of the sourdough and the reputation of Zelda Bakery Melbourne
Online pre-orders open every Thursday for Friday collection, adding a reliable pre-sold revenue stream on top of walk-in trade
Covered by Broadsheet, ABC, Good Food and more as one of Melbourne’s standout artisan bakeries
Collaborations with Ben Shewry (Attica) and Dani Valent on the weekly knish series, drawing Melbourne’s wider food community into the Zelda orbit
Sourcing from local growers including Jason Cotter from Tuerong Farm, staying true to the community-focused philosophy from day one
Maaryasha’s prep week starts at 6am on Monday and the team bakes from 3am on Wednesday. It’s a genuinely extraordinary operation for two open days and their equipment is central to all of it.
Scaling to a Proper Kitchen?
Whether you’re moving from a home setup into your first commercial space, or you need to upgrade the equipment in an existing bakery, we’d love to have a chat about what’s right for your operation. We work with artisan bakers and specialty bakeries across Melbourne and Australia to find equipment that suits the way they actually bake, and we back it up properly, including access to our Test Kitchen at Dandenong South so you can try before you commit.
Zelda Bakery is open Wednesday and Friday on Glen Eira Road, Ripponlea, Melbourne. Is Zelda Bakery kosher? Yes, certified Chalav Yisrael under Kosher Australia. Follow along on their social media (@z_e_l_d_a_bakery) for weekly menus and specials.
