Setelah Ibu selesai memasak, baru kami mencicipi masakannya bersama-sama di meja makan.

Setelah means after. It introduces a time clause: Setelah Ibu selesai memasak = After Mother finished cooking.

Putting it at the beginning is very natural in Indonesian, just like in English when you say After Mom finished cooking, we... It sets up the time frame first.

You could also put the main clause first and the setelah clause later, but the version in your sentence sounds very natural and clear.

Ibu can mean mother, but it is also a respectful form of address for an adult woman, somewhat like Mrs., ma'am, or Madam, depending on context.

When capitalized as Ibu, it often functions like a name or title, especially when referring to one specific person, such as Mom in English.

So in this sentence, Ibu most likely means Mother/Mom.

In Indonesian, you do not need a verb like to be in this structure.

Selesai means finished or complete, and memasak means to cook. So:

Ibu selesai memasak
literally: Mother finished cooking

This is a very common Indonesian pattern:

• selesai makan = finished eating
• selesai belajar = finished studying
• selesai bekerja = finished working

So the meaning is expressed directly, without needing is/was.

Yes, baru often means new, but in this sentence it has a different function.

Here, baru means something like:

• only then
• not until then
• only after that

So:

Setelah Ibu selesai memasak, baru kami mencicipi masakannya...

means that we only tasted the food after Mother had finished cooking.

This baru adds a sense of sequence or delay. It emphasizes that the tasting happened only after the cooking was done.

This is a very important Indonesian distinction.

• kami = we, but not including the person being spoken to
• kita = we, including the person being spoken to

So kami tells you that the speaker and some others tasted the food, but the listener is not part of that group.

If the listener had also joined in, kita would be more appropriate.

Not exactly.

Mencicipi means to taste or to sample something, usually in a small amount, to see what it is like.

Compare:

• makan = to eat
• mencicipi = to taste/sample
• mencoba = to try

So mencicipi masakannya means to taste her cooking/the dish she made, not necessarily to sit down and eat a full meal, although in context it may lead into that.

Masakan means cooking, cooked dish, or food that has been cooked.

Then -nya can mean his/her/its, or sometimes the, depending on context.

So masakannya here most naturally means:

• her cooking
• the dish she cooked
• the food she made

Since Ibu was just mentioned, -nya refers back to her.

So:

mencicipi masakannya = taste her cooking

Masak is basically the root related to cook/cooking.

When you add -an, you often get a noun related to the action or result:

• masak = cook/cooking
• masakan = cooked food, dish, cuisine, cooking

So masakan refers more naturally to the food itself, not just the act of cooking.

That is why masakannya works well for her cooking / the dish she made.

Yes, kami already tells you the subject is plural, but bersama-sama adds the idea of doing something together, as a group, or collectively.

So it is not just we tasted it; it is we tasted it together.

This gives a warmer, more social feeling. It emphasizes shared action rather than just plural participants.

Literally, di is a general location marker that can mean in, at, or on, depending on context.

So di meja makan literally looks like at/on the dining table, but in natural English you would usually translate it as:

• at the dining table
• at the table

In Indonesian, di is less specific than English prepositions, so context decides the best translation.

Not by grammar alone. Indonesian does not mark tense the way English does.

The sentence can be understood as past because of the context and sequence:

• After Mother finished cooking
• then we tasted the food

That sounds like a completed event, so English usually translates it in the past.

But Indonesian itself often relies on context rather than changing the verb form. The verbs memasak and mencicipi do not change for tense.

Yes, it could be left out, but the meaning would change slightly.

Without baru:

Setelah Ibu selesai memasak, kami mencicipi masakannya...

This simply means After Mother finished cooking, we tasted her cooking...

With baru, the sentence emphasizes that the tasting happened only then, not earlier. It gives a stronger sense of order and timing.

So baru is not required for basic grammar, but it adds nuance.

Often, yes.

Both bersama and bersama-sama can mean together.
However, bersama-sama often sounds a bit more emphatic or expressive.

So:

• kami mencicipi masakannya bersama = we tasted it together
• kami mencicipi masakannya bersama-sama = we tasted it together, all together

The longer form is very common in everyday Indonesian.

Yes. Indonesian often expresses sequence very economically.

In this sentence, the order is shown by:

1. Setelah... = after...
2. baru... = only then...

That is enough to make the timeline very clear.

Indonesian does not always need extra linking words like then, after that, or and then, unless the speaker wants added emphasis or clarity.

That is close to the structure, but it is not natural English.

A more natural English version would be:

• After Mother finished cooking, we finally tasted her food together at the dining table.
• Only after Mother had finished cooking did we taste her cooking together at the dining table.

The second version reflects baru more closely, because it keeps the only then / not until then feeling.