Sogumm

A narrow Cremorne lunch room is where a husband-and-wife kitchen is quietly reworking Korean temple cooking through fine-dining discipline. Both chefs came up in serious rooms, with time under the likes of Alain Ducasse and Matt Moran sitting behind the plating, but the guiding influence is the celebrated Buddhist nun and fermentation master Jeong Kwan, whose temple traditions shape the whole approach. The conceit is elegant and strict: each dish is anchored to one of four foundational Korean seasonings, soy, gochujang, salt or doenjang, and built outward from there, so the cooking stays clean, vegetable-forward and unusually calm. Meat and heaviness give way to fermentation, restraint and the slow depth those pastes bring. It runs at lunch only, a short menu served in a light, timber-lined space where an open counter does the work of theatre; the feel is closer to a neighbourhood wine bar than a traditional Korean diner. This is not the Korean cooking of barbecue smoke and banchan overload but something more contemplative, plated with precision and priced for occasion. For diners who think they know the register of Korean food in the city, it offers a quieter argument, one rooted in a temple kitchen but sharpened by years spent in the fine-dining trade.