Soaring spice sellers secure settled space

AFTER years of providing a temporary food service in the form of market stalls and food truck appearances, Ballarat’s signature Malaysian-Indonesian eatery now has a permanent home.

Lilly Wright opened the doors of her new Flying Chillies Cafe venue at 6 Coliseum Walk as part of a soft opening on Saturday, and said having a fixed place to call her own is a gamechanger.

“It’s giving us a place where we can have our cafe, go to markets or festivals, and running cooking classes in the one space,” she said.

“We found this place in September and it was the perfect size for what I want to do while still functioning as a cafe as well.”

Wright said her babi pongteh pie being named Ballarat’s Best Pie earlier this year made her more assured in opening a permanent venue.

She established Flying Chillies in 2021, selling signature sedap and sambal chilli oils while she was working at the now closed A Pot of Courage social enterprise in Ballarat East.

She started taking her business further last year with regular market appearances, beginning with the Ballarat Farmers market before expanding with a trailer setup and festival services.

Having been taught Indonesian and Japanese cooking skills by her parents while growing up in Malaysia, Wright said Flying Chillies offers something different to Ballarat’s hospitality landscape.

“Flying Chillies is about the destination and experience,” she said.

“We want to bring people here to experience flavour they’ve never tasted before. We’re not talking about only laksa here which is more normal, but totally different flavours people haven’t had.”

With an emphasis on local producers, the menu ranges from breakfast baos to batagor to nasi lemaks.

The new cafe space will also cater for about 15 attendees for workshops, which Wright first started hosting last year.

Flying Chillies Cafe is open Mondays to Saturdays from 8am to 3pm, with cooking classes to be held every second Sunday from early next year.