The weekend just gone by was a sad one for Perth: on Saturday (24 August 2024), we saw the closing of Nine Japanese Bistro—originally, and for most of its life, Nine Fine Food. For those unfamiliar with it, Nine Fine Food was an exquisite, award-winning Japanese restaurant at 227 Bulwer Street, just north of the central business district.
Nine Fine Food flourished under its owner and chef, Jong Soo Muneki Song, whom my family and I have had the privilege of knowing as simply ‘Muneki-san’ over the years. In writing this, however, I feel that such casual usage does not reflect the degree of respect that I have for this gentleman, so I will fall back to using ‘Sensei.’ While this Japanese title carries strong martial art-related connotations in western societies (and is commonly translated as ‘teacher’ or ‘instructor’), I understand that it can be and is used in a broader context in Japan. (As one example, when I attended a medical practice in Tokyo some years ago, the head physician was addressed by all of the staff as Sensei.)
In tribute to Sensei’s endeavours, I decided to find out what I could. For a start, I found that the restaurant has its own Wikipedia page, which I had not been expecting given its location in Perth—a small and remote city as far as most of the world is concerned. By searching and cross-referencing information, I found that Nine Fine Food opened in November 2003, was renamed to Nine Japanese Bistro in 2021, and as mentioned above, closed just recently in August 2024.
Kinoco caviar pasta was one of Sensei’s signature dishes, and probably the signature dish of the restaurant itself. I had the pleasure of sampling Sensei’s pasta and other dishes many times over the years. There was always a finely-judged balance between the strong and pure traditional Japanese style and a blend of flavours that, to my palate, contained elements of both European and other (non-Japanese) Asian styles. The closure of the restaurant is a loss for Perth.
What of the man behind the enterprise? It was already obvious from Sensei’s name that he is of Korean descent, even if from Japan, and I had heard many years ago that he used to be a professional helicopter pilot. From an article in Business News in 2008, I found that Sensei’s grandparents moved from Korea (then a unified country) to Japan during World War II, and Sensei himself came from Kyoto, historically a former capital city of Japan. (If memory serves correctly, Kyoto was also a key target for the American nuclear bomb during World War II, but a senior American official insisted that it be removed from consideration.)
Sensei first arrived in Perth in 1990 to study, and after some travels returned in 1995 … and has been here ever since. It seems that it was only then that he began his culinary career, under chef Brett Carboni. Amongst other awards for the restaurant and for himself personally, Sensei was Chef of the Year at the WA Hospitality Awards in 2015. It is my understanding that Sensei has not retired, but will be continuing his endeavours in one form or another.
I sincerely wish Sensei, his family, and all of the former staff of Nine Fine Food every success and a prosperous future.