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Who’s the most important worker at Lumos, a year-old bakery that’s changed McKinnon by offering cheery service, excellent sourdough and dreamy treats in a fresh, modern, mostly takeaway setting?

You might think it’s owner, baker and pastry chef Carina La Delfa. Or maybe you’d pick her husband, Daniel Rosenow, also a chef but now running the store. Pastry chef Anais Reynaud and head baker Anthony Smartt look busy in the glass-walled kitchen: it could be one of them. Nothing happens without coffee, of course, so maybe you’re inclined to anoint barista JP Guimaraes as MVP.

Actually, it’s none of these hard-working souls. The true GOAT is Hagrid, the sourdough starter named after the giant in Harry Potter.

Nothing happens without Hagrid. He (yes, this fermenting mix of flour, water and wild yeasts is a he) is cared for and cosseted and observed and tended like the temperamental creature he is. When it’s hot, he burbles up and threatens to take over. When it’s chilly, he sulks. But with careful tending, he gives body, bounce, suppleness and stretch to fresh Australian wheat and rye flour and ensures the breads and pastries are full of character.

When it’s hot, Hagrid burbles up and threatens to take over. When it’s chilly, he sulks.

There are a few ways of looking at Lumos. It’s part of an international tradition of local bakeries, deep in the detail of the daily bake, dispensing the stuff of life to the people in the neighbourhood.

Here they are with the dog and a friend sitting outside for a chicken sandwich with honey-mustard dressing.

Here’s the mothers’ group with tangled prams nibbling chilli twists threaded with a house-fermented mix of bird’s eye chilli, vodka and sugar.

And here they are, walking from the old people’s home nearby, for the New York-style baked cheesecake everyone is talking about.

Lumos is also part of the recent Australian movement of modern sourdough bakeries, small owner-operator businesses that have reignited ancient food lore, calling upon the wild yeasts floating through the air around us and capturing them in starters like Hagrid.

And lastly, Lumos is a business for right now, getting loose with tradition in modern marvels such as the brownie bomb: all fudgey down below and striated croissant pastry on top.

The avowedly contemporary approach is infused in the business culture, too. Like many female chefs, La Delfa has had difficult experiences in the hospitality industry and she’s determined to be the change she wants to see.

Camaraderie, collaboration and respect are watchwords. The kitchen is visible from the shoproom and customers are encouraged to watch the mixing, rolling and filling. If you stand around, you’ll see relaxed shoulders and easy smiles – though maybe not from Hagrid, the only moody moocher at Lumos.