On a wet, gloomy Melbourne day, Ronin Omakase was unexpectedly warm. Despite its concrete walls, brutalist lines and high ceilings, the room is inviting with shelves lined with house made ferments; persimmon for desserts, wombok and white kimchi, citrus cheong and fruit vinegars quietly developing behind the counter. Liam Lee cooks directly in front of ten diners, tasting, adjusting and guiding the pace of the meal as it unfolds. After more than a decade cooking in Korea and Australia, including formative years feeding seventy soldiers three meals a day in the Korean army and leading kitchens at Studio Amaro, Firebird and Waterside Hotel, Liam is introducing his own version of Korean omakase to Melbourne. The menu reflects his childhood, training and values: deeply Korean in flavour, grounded in Victorian produce, and carefully balanced so that ten courses feel generous but never overwhelming. In our conversation, he spoke candidly about the pressures of Korean hospitality culture, the challenge of building a career while raising a young family, and his determination to create a kitchen, and an experience, defined by respect, consistency and care.
Hi Liam, how are you? It’s great to be here. It’s a really miserable day outside but it’s actually really warm inside Ronin Omakase. Even though it’s concrete walls, it’s that real brutalist interior design, it’s quite cosy.
Yes, I know, and we have really high ceilings too. It doesn’t feel too small environments. You can see that I just started a few housemade fermentations on the shelf there. We have persimmon fermenting. I’m going to use them for desserts. On the right side, there is housemade wombok kimchi, and the shallot pickles, white kimchi as well. On the top we have orange cheong and then pineapple vinegar, and cumquat vinegar.
How long will they ferment?
It depends on the weather and then the temperature, some of it takes three or four days, and after that, I just chill them in the fridge. Some of it, I can just leave them, six months.
Do you need a steady temperature in here?
We set it at 22 degrees. I have to taste it during the service to see how it’s going.
That’s exciting. It’s always good for people to see your process as well, to see the things that you’re making. There’s a kitchen out the back, which would be for all the prep. But then you are here all evening in front of the guests. Let’s talk about the food. There has been quite a change. Ronin must be one of the first places to offer Korean Omakase.
It is exciting but also challenging because people are focussing on it as the first. That makes me push myself all the time.
Have you done anything like this before?
I’ve done many pop-ups, because I started thinking about opening my own Korean omakase style business. I looked at locations last year, but we had just had a baby. It is very hard juggling work and family. Recently, I havn’t have much time to spend time with my wife and son.
How did you end up at Ronin?
I was a head chef at the Waterside Hotel at Past Port from last October. Then my wife came back from Korea with my boy and it was really hard with a newborn kid so I decided to resign and took eight weeks to be with them. Then I wanted to start a small job working a daytime shift and looking after family, something like that. Then one of my chef friends recommended I apply to Ronin as a lunch chef. I was keen to work here, and then two of our owners reached out to me. They had probably read through my whole resume, and they asked whether I was sure I was applying for the lunch chef job. I said, yes, and just explained my situation. That was two months ago. They wanted me to do more. I thought about it very seriously and talked to my family. Then I did two tastings. The first one was modern Japanese style, not just sushi, but using Australian products, local suppliers. Then for the second one, I’m Korean. I was born in Korea and worked there in many kitchens, so the second one was Korean style. I felt more comfortable because I can do this kind of cuisine better than anything else. All the owners liked the second choice. So that’s why we decided to open Korean Omakase.
Did it launch on Thursday night?
Yes, it was great. I think we are getting busier. We are actually planning to open the bar on the right to the public at some stage. But for now, I’m just focussing on the one session of omakase. 10 customers at six o’clock and then see how it goes. This is a really different kitchen because I have worked in many open kitchens, especially, at Studio Amaro, but here I am really exposed in front of the customer. They are sitting in front of me. Some customers don’t really like to talk, so it really depends on the customer.
Do you like to talk?
Yes, I love to talk, and I want to see what they like, and what they don’t like to get really good feedback to improve myself or our team. The first night the diners were quiet. But yesterday was a really good vibe. When they enjoy the meal that makes me happy.
Does it feel like it has to be a performance?
I don’t really like the crazy things. This concept of omakase is modern Korean style. There are some elements of performance. For example, for the main course we do short ribs. It’s angus short rib, and has a really good marbling. I set up the small hibachi and then just grill it in front of the diners. Everyone takes videos and talks about it.
I bet that smells delicious.
It does smell delicious, but at end of the night, we need to open the door. It takes an hour to get the smoke smell out. There is also some performance in the garnishes, like putting caviar on the dishes. And some Tasmanian or local uni on the top of the dishes. That is a small display of elegance or performance. It makes it something special for customers.
I didn’t enjoy working as a chef in Korea. Sometimes I had to work six days a week. We only had five days holiday a year during the Christmas period and Chinese New Year. Nowadays, there have been many changes, this is a new generation. But back then I worked six days a week, starting from 9am and working to 11pm. 70 or 80 hours a week. Then when I got a day off, one of my head chefs or my senior chefs, would call me and say at the end of the night, we need to catch up for staff drinks, so you have to come. There was no day off for me. I really hated being asked that, because they didn’t respect my day off. There was no life balance. I learned a lot of things from my senior chefs, and one of them was that when I became a sous chef or head chef, I would never, ever contact my junior staff on their day off.
Liam Lee, Ronin Omakase
How many courses or how many bites are there?
We have a 10 course menu. There are welcome dishes and some snacks tuna kimbap, and then the yukhoe, which is a Korean style of beef tartare, then lastly, a crispy rice cake inspired by Korean radish kimchi. It looks a little bit fancy, but it has a traditional Korean taste. And then the fish, for the entrée dishes, I’ve incorporated spiciness, local products and dry aged fish. We’re actually doing five to seven or nine days dry aged fish. For the main course, which is pan fried snapper with pil pil sauce and doenjang, a soy bean paste. Before the main courses, we do a Korean style of noodles with Hokkaido Japanese scallops, and osetra caviar on the top. They have the raw things first and then hot broths and we also have palate cleansers. We use fruit vinegar with nothing artificial in them as a cleanser before the mains. Thern we have short ribs with banchan, all the housemade kimchi. I always show them our housemade kimchi, and daily changing clay pot with foie gras and pine mushroom in season. It’s a really big clay pot with rice, and then we just scoop and serve it to the customer. We also have desserts. We have Misugaru panna cotta. Misugaru is a Korean grain, which I remember from my childhood. Then mascarpone with chestnut cream and macadamia nuts on the top.
How long does it take…three hours?
No. I tried to do one and a half to 45 minutes. In my experience, longer than two hours and diners get bored. We do one by one dishes, but some of the entrée dishes are a bit faster, and then the main course has a level of performances.
Do you have matched drinks?
Yes. We have five premium soju from a supplier in Sydney. We paired the food with those. We also have a lot of sake on the menu, and three signature cocktails. We use the Korean soju in two of those to make it a little different. We also have a mocktail made with sparkling green tea.
You’ve spoken about the produce and the suppliers, and I know that you care a lot about Victorian produce and using good quality product and supporting local producers. How does our produce marry with Korean food?
I could get any product from Korea and easily make food with pretty much the same taste as when I was in Korea. But obviously, this is Melbourne. We are not in Korea. So, I try to use products from Australia or New Zealand. I have three fish suppliers and for vegetables, I have another three suppliers as well. It depends on the quality, and what they have. Sometimes I just go to Springvale Market myself. There is a really good Asian grocery which has the green vegetables I can’t get from the supplier. Last night I bought some Asian spinach. It tastes pretty much the same as Korean spinach. But if you order from the supplier, you can get baby spinach. which has a totally different flavour. One of my friends has a small garden in Bentleigh. I contacted her a month ago and she started growing the things I asked for.
I personally like to train the younger generation. My advice is, you need to respect three things, working as a chef. The first rule is they must be clean. The second one is respect each other and their responsibility. And then the third one is time management, be on time. Those three things are very important. If they keep that in mind, they will be a really good chef.
Liam Lee, Ronin Omakase
You mentioned that you’ve worked in a lot of places in Korea. Did you always know that you wanted to be a chef?
My major at uni was sports. I worked as a lifeguard in Korea. My major was swimming and saving people. Then my first job was in a Korean pub doing front of my house and back of house. It was a really busy place with 90 seats. I worked really hard. One of the aunties made some food sometimes. One of my favourite dishes was Tteobokki, which is a really crisp, spicy rice cake with spicy sauce. One day she made it and I was shocked because I hadn’t tasted anything like that in town. I was really curious about how to make it, and I ask her at the end of the night, how to make it, could she teach me? She gave me the recipe and then demonstrated. I went on a small trip with my friends, and I cooked it for them. From that time I saw that making tasty dishes makes people happy. That’s why I became curious about becoming a chef. After that, I went to the army. In Korea, obviously we have to go in the army when you’re 20, 21 for almost 22 months. I started as a cook. I originally worked with big tanks. But at some point they just changed me into working as a cook. I cooked for the two years and I got the Korean cuisine certification. I had to make dishes for 70 soldiers, three meals a day.
What kind of food was it?
Korean, very authentic style. But sometimes they served burgers and some fried chicken once a week, but basically it was authentic Korean food. I learned a lot and I studied a lot. After that I decided to become a chef. Once I finished in the army, I got a job straight away in a big kitchen: 250 seats, Korean traditional fine dining restaurant in Seoul. So I started my actual full-time job when I was 23.
What drew you to making that your career?
I can only think after 16, 17 years, of one time I didn’t like it. The rest of the time, I have enjoyed it. I have a creative personality. In all my previous workplaces, they had their own rules or expectations from the owners or chefs. I learned a lot of cuisines in the past decade. But back then, I always wanted to try to learn something new, to use new ingredients on my dishes. And then when I see the customer enjoying the meal, and I can see their face directly, especially working in an open kitchen, that makes me really happy.
What brought you to Melbourne?
I didn’t enjoy working as a chef in Korea. Sometimes I had to work six days a week. We only had five days holiday a year during the Christmas period and Chinese New Year. Nowadays, there have been many changes, this is a new generation. But back then I worked six days a week, starting from 9am and working to 11pm. 70 hours a week or 80 hours a week. Then when I got a day off, one of my head chefs or my senior chefs, would call me and say at the end of the night, we need to catch up for staff drinks, so you have to come. So there was no day off for me. I really hated being asked that, because they didn’t respect my day off. There was no life balance. I learned a lot of things from my senior chefs, and one of them was that when I became a sous chef or head chef, I would never, ever contact my junior staff on their day off. Back then, one of my senior chefs worked in America. And then my sister in Korea also went overseas. They both recommended that I go overseas and then Australia was the easiest for getting a visa back then. I applied for the visa, and then after one week, I got a working holiday visa. I spent two years in Cairns then came to Melbourne. So I’m kind of a Queenslander. I travelled down to Melbourne, and then I was going to go to Tassie, but I didn’t have enough money. So I just started working. Until now.
How long has that been?
More than 10 years.
Does it feel like home here?
Yes.
Now you’re a big name in Melbourne. Congratulations. Your family must be really proud of you.
I actually haven’t told my parents, but my wife is always supportive.
What are you looking forward to in the next few months of being at Ronin?
I’m focussing on the quality and consistency, the flavour. The fermentation is the hardest part. It depends on the weather on the storage. And we are working closely with local suppliers and so I want to ensure quality. In the future we will open up the bar to the public and eventually do two sessions of the omakase.
Just to finish with Liam, you’ve really had the full journey, and now you’re head chef of this remarkable omakase. What would your advice be to a young person starting out as a chef?
I have one junior chef currently, and then I used to work with a lot of junior chefs. I personally like to train the younger generation. My advice is, you need to respect three things, working as a chef. The first rule is they must be clean. The second one is respect each other and their responsibility. And then the third one is time management, be on time. Those three things are very important. If they keep that in mind, they will be a really good chef.
Ronin Omakase, 445 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
*Photography by Richie Tian