September International Chef of Chef Works®: Rodrigo Miranda

by Kevin Gemmell,

Each month we feature an International Chef of Chef Works®. If you’re a fan of Chef Works gear and are interested in being featured, email kgemmell@chefworks.com. Pictured above is our September International CoCW, Rodrigo Miranda, photographed in his Springfield Chef Coat and Dorset Bib Apron. 

Every September, Rodrigo Miranda would watch his grandfather set up a food stall as part of the celebrations for Chilean Independence Day.

“I always enjoyed watching customers come back to him so happy,” Miranda said. “They kept coming back again and again to try his food. It was really amazing to see him making people so happy. You could see them smile.”

Years later – and half a world away from his native Chile – Chef Rodrigo sees those same smiles on the faces of his customers. Now in Grindelwald, Tasmania, Australia, Miranda is the chef-owner of Miss-a-sippy Café, where he serves up delicious meals and decadent sweets.

“My family and my customers are what inspire me,” said Miranda, 44. “Their feedback makes me satisfied and reassured that I’m doing a great job.”

It’s a job that, as a child growing up in Chile, he didn’t know he could do. He was clearly influenced by his grandfather. And his maternal grandmother was always baking. But he didn’t know he could make a career out of it.

“For as long as I could remember, I always loved being in and around the kitchen,” Miranda said. “As I grew up, I never really understood that you could study to become a cook. So I actually studied four years of industrial engineering at university before I started studying to become a chef.”

When he did get around to starting his culinary career, he thrust himself right into that world. He worked at hotels, golf clubs and casinos. He took corporate chef jobs with Compass Group and Sodexo. He eventually made his way to Australia and just a couple of months ago, to Tasmania to open Miss-a-sippy.

“I worked with many great chefs who have all inspired me to where I am today,” Miranda said – naming off about a half dozen chefs from Europe and Australia that he’s worked under. “My training was very tough, but I had great mentors.”

Now four years into his Australian adventure, Miranda has started to embrace the wide range of flavors that come with life Down Under.

“Australia is a cosmopolitan country, so it’s really given me the opportunity and the good fortune to learn from so many different cultures in one place,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Indonesia, Singapore, Geneva and Rome [among others] to learn from some of the best in the world in their kitchens. I love being able to bring all of those flavors into what I do.”

Miranda and his family have been in Tasmania since July, but already they are loving their new home. You’ll find Chef Miranda riding about town on his blue moped. And when he’s not working, he’s enjoying time with his family or scuba diving.

And, of course, he loves seeing those smiles.

“That smile is what makes it worth it,” he said.

Meet the other International Chefs of Chef Works® for 2019:

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