Melbourne: A True Capital of Gourmet
Say "Melbourne" to food lovers anywhere in the world and their eyes light up. Consistently ranked among the world's most liveable cities, Melbourne's real magic is on the table: laneway coffee culture, internationally acclaimed restaurants, and chefs from every corner of the globe. Italian, Greek, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Middle Eastern — the world's best dining cultures converge, exchange and evolve here. Melbourne is a true capital of gourmet.
Sim Sim Food Studio 醤坊 was born in this soil, with a simple vision: to be part of Melbourne's great taste.
One Legendary Chapter: Chinatown
Within Melbourne's food story sits one especially storied chapter. In 1851, gold-rush Melbourne became "New Gold Mountain" to its migrants; by 1854, the first Chinese lodgings stood on Little Bourke Street — the beginning of the longest continuously operating Chinese settlement in the Western world, over 170 years unbroken. Its flavour history is rich: cookshops feeding miners in the 1890s, the Dim Sim invented here in 1945 becoming a national snack icon, even a hidden bean-sprout room quietly supplying the crunch behind the city's kitchens.
The Golden Age — The Masters' Era
From the 1970s to the 1990s, Chinatown's pioneering restaurateurs lifted the precinct to international fine-dining standards — refined cooking, premium ingredients, professional service. Shark Fin Inn was among those who drove that rise: live seafood, late-night dining, true wok hei; weekdays full of local regulars, weekends drawing diners from around the world.
Uncle Fung Hung forged his craft in that era — over 40 years of cooking in Melbourne, not only at Shark Fin Inn but across restaurants of many cuisines: Cantonese, pan-Asian, East-meets-West. His sauce recipes are the distilled result of decades and countless plates, proven by diners of every background. Even today, tasting customers exclaim: "This is the Chiu Chow chilli oil I used to eat in Hong Kong."
A City Where Taste Keeps Evolving
Today's Melbourne is a confluence of world cultures, and even Chinatown keeps evolving — Sichuan kitchens, northern noodles, Taiwanese desserts, Japanese ramen, Korean BBQ and Southeast Asian flavours now stand beside the old houses. Evolution is not loss; the best flavours have always been born from exchange.
Why We Started Sim Sim
The reason is simple: we didn't want these great flavours to disappear. As master chefs retire and kitchen craft thins out, flavours that fed this city for decades are quietly fading. We wanted to keep them alive — and share them with more people.
Uncle Fung entrusted us with recipes refined over 40+ years, joining as Honorary Consultant. And our sauces span flavours from across Asia, rather than being confined to a single Chinese-cuisine positioning: alongside Signature Chilli Oil and Master XO Sauce sit the Japanese-style Chinatown Teriyaki and the Sichuan-Style Sweet & Sour made with handcrafted real plum — with more Southeast Asian and pan-Asian flavours in development.
The kanji in our name — 醤 (sauce) — carries our belief: the soul of a dish often lies in its sauce, a master's decades of craft distilled into one spoonful. Our sauce studio crafts this Asian sauce artistry fresh on Melbourne soil (100% made at our Tullamarine facility). What we're making is an Australian taste with a strong Asian soul — for everyone, whatever your background.
We write our name 醤坊, using the Japanese kanji 醤 rather than the Chinese 醬 or 酱 — a contemporary, pan-Asian identity rather than a narrowly Chinese one. Because 醤 has no standard Chinese input, in Chinese contexts the brand is also written:
醬坊 · 酱坊
These are the same brand — Sim Sim Food Studio (醤坊).
Bringing Melbourne's Best-Loved Flavours Home
No grand slogans — just one honest intention: to let everyone bring Melbourne's best and best-loved flavours home. Restaurant-grade methods, selected ingredients, no shortcuts — because every jar carries a migrant story, a master's craft, and the taste of a city. Our simplest hope: a bottle of our sauce on every Australian family's table, loved by all. Melbourne is where the world's dining cultures meet, and Sim Sim is proud to add one small piece to that picture.
A Studio, Not Just a Factory
Of course we run a business — we won't pretend otherwise. But we're not in this just for profit; there's more passion here than business plan. A studio keeps creating: discovering and preserving more masters' flavours, developing new products that represent Melbourne × Asian flavour — not simply copying a few old recipes.
Sim Sim = Simple + Simulation — making complex craft simple, so every home can recreate a master's touch.
Simply Simulate a Chef's Touch.