First Look: Ancient Korean Culinary Skills and Fine-Dining Technique Meet at Sogumm

Six weeks ago, one of Melbourne’s most interesting Korean restaurants quietly opened in a nondescript spot on Church Street. The room is light and unfussy: warm timber, soft lighting, and a large, open counter-style kitchen that feels more like a neighbourhood wine bar than a Korean diner. That’s intentional.

“I didn’t want it to look like a Korean restaurant,” says chef and co-owner Changhoon “Kimi” Kim. “I wanted to connect it to Melbourne – to create something that feels modern and local but still deeply Korean.”

Sogumm means salt in Korean. And for Changhoon, it’s more than a name. “Salt is the beginning of fermentation. It’s where flavour starts. But it’s also about patience and time.”

He would know. After working at Matt Moran’s Sydney restaurant Aria in 2018, Changhoon spent a year living and learning under revered Buddhist nun and fermentation expert Jeong Kwan, dubbed “ the Philosopher Chef ” by The New York Times and the subject of an episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table. He observed every seasonal shift in the pickling and preserving calendar. “I went thinking I’d stay three months. I ended up staying a year,” he says. “Each season taught me something different.”

It was there he met his wife, chef and Sogumm co-owner Suhyun Kim, who spent a few weeks working at the temple. Changhoon and Suhyun – who has also worked at Gimlet, two-Michelin-starred Restaurant André in Singapore and under Alain Ducasse at Plaza Athénée in Paris – returned to Melbourne in 2019 with a vision for a restaurant. One that blended fine-dining precision with temple philosophy and brought Korean cuisine into an intimate and personal space.

“I don’t want it to be fine-dining,” says Changhoon. “I want people to come often. I want it to feel like a place where Korean food isn’t just one thing, it’s many things.”

Lunch is designed with structure in mind. Dishes are guided by four traditional Korean seasonings: soy, gochujang, salt and doenjang. Each anchors a single offering. There’s a vegan bibimbap dressed in soy, a seafood noodle salad with gochujang, and a warming soup finished simply with salt. “It’s a small menu,” Changhoon says, “but the dish preparations are very complicated.” There are no alliums in the vegetarian dishes, a practice borrowed from his temple training. “Garlic and onion hide the taste of the vegetables,” he says. “I want people to taste spinach as spinach.”

The duo plans to start making meju, fermented soybean bricks, this winter: “You need the frosty Melbourne weather.” In three years, the couple hopes to serve entirely house-made ferment. “I’ve tried every brand I can find,” says Changhoon. “Most are commercial or use Japanese methods. It’s hard to find real traditional ones here.” In the meantime, they’re using the best Korean imports they can get their hands on.

Dinner service is coming once the liquor licence is approved, with plans for a set menu and a tight Australian wine list. There’ll be no soju and no Korean beers. “I want to connect with local drink culture,” Changhoon says. “This is my home now, and I want that to be part of the restaurant.”

Sogumm
466 Church Street, Cremorne
No phone

Hours:
Mon to Sat 11am–3pm

@sogumm_melbourne