Jung Eun Chae has been eating fermented foods all her life. Growing up in Korea, she learned to make kimchi with her mother and grandmother. “Like Italians make sauce together, we make kimchi together.” After stints at acclaimed Melbourne diners Cutler & Co and Lûmé, Chae worked under Chef’s Table star Jeong Kwan in South Korea before returning to Australia and opening her eponymous restaurant in Brunswick, Melbourne – an intimate six-seat diner in her one-bedroom apartment. The chef makes gochujang and soy sauce from scratch for her refined multi-course menus, as well as makgeolli, a milky, sparkling rice wine, infused with apricot, banana or peach.