At The Heart of the Table is a photographic essay on values, purpose, and meaning beyond the plate. It celebrates independent restaurants through the people who run them. Each story features a different Cambridge restaurant and explores the values, purpose, and personal commitments that shape their work — from community and heritage to sustainability and ecosystem — revealing what truly matters beyond the plate.

 

Kimchili through my lens

I've always adored travelling to Asia and getting lost in food markets, camera in one hand and delicacies in the other. Nothing beats the excitement of trying foods you've never heard of or ever seen in your life, and discovering new flavour profiles.


And when you've been to a country, have vivid memories of its food, and you manage to find a restaurant back home that tastes just the same, you know you're onto something special.


So let me take you to Kimchili, my second stop for 'At the Heart of the Table' and introduce you to its owner and chef Ryu.

Overhead view of a Korean meal spread with crispy hash browns, dipping sauce, kimchi, rice, and assorted banchan on a wooden table.
Chef using a blowtorch to flambé meat in a wok on an induction stovetop, with smoke rising dramatically.
Overhead view of Korean banchan side dishes in silver bowls on a wooden table with two people dining.
Korean japchae glass noodles in gold bowl with banchan side dishes on wooden table.

A labor of love


Ryu wasn't always chef.  In Seoul, he was a K-pop TV director and he had visited the UK only twice before something else pulled him here: the conviction that he had another story to tell, this time through food.  For a few years, he trained in kitchens across the country, cooked alongside Michelin-starred chef James Martin, learning and mastering not just how to cook but how a restaurant truly runs. He developed and perfected his own cooking style through his home food business during lockdown, and began searching for the right place. When a unit on King Street in Cambridge finally became available, he said yes. Kimchili opened in October 2025 — the point where everything he had been quietly building was finally ready for Cambridge to experience.

Cozy Korean restaurant interior with dark red tile walls, vinyl records decor, wooden tables, and vintage posters.
Korean poster with a young woman's portrait and Hangul text displayed on a concrete wall near a checkered curtain.
Vintage Korean cartoon poster beside a refrigerator stocked with Jinro soju bottles and colorful drinks.
Chef in white uniform and blue gloves filleting fresh fish on a red cutting board in a professional kitchen.

True flavours


For Ryu, authenticity isn't a selling point, it's a standard. The pork ribs are prepared the traditional Korean way: steamed and rinsed before marinating, a step that draws out impurities and allows the flavour to absorb deeply into the meat. Every marinade is made in-house and carries that same quiet intention behind it - what does this dish taste like at its very best? Each ingredient across the menu has been chosen with the same deliberateness — down to the specific sauce used in the japchae selected not simply for taste but because it coats these glass noodles, with their particular texture and weight, better than any other. Where adjustments have been made to suit Western dietary needs, they've been made without compromise to the integrity of the dish. The result is food that doesn't approximate Korean cuisine — it is Korean cuisine,  served with love and conviction.

Korean chef in black apron prepares food in a professional restaurant kitchen with another cook working in background.
Chef opening a Rational iCombi Classic commercial combi oven in a professional kitchen.
Chef in white uniform and blue gloves filleting fresh fish on a red cutting board in a professional kitchen.
Chef pouring red marinade sauce over raw meat pieces in a stainless steel tray.
Braised beef short ribs in rich red tomato sauce cooking in a metal roasting pan.
Chef in black gloves chopping fresh red meat on a cutting board in a professional kitchen.
Chef cooking in a professional kitchen with steaming woks and pans on an induction stove.

Korean spirit


Sharing a meal in Korea is rarely just about the food. It is one of the most natural ways to express jeong — that untranslatable feeling of deep affection and connection that accumulates between people over time, often without being spoken aloud. It lives in the reaching across the table, in the food passed freely from hand to hand, in the unspoken understanding that what's mine is yours. Half the menu at Kimchili is a sharing menu,  shaped by that spirit: the Cheese Pork Ribs pulling everyone in close, the Spicy Stir-Fried Chicken landing at the centre of the table like an invitation, the Grilled Pork Belly BBQ Set turning the meal itself into the occasion. To eat this way is to participate in something — a small, delicious act of togetherness that Koreans have always known, and that Ryu hopes locals will feel too.

Korean japchae glass noodles with vegetables served in gold bowl alongside traditional banchan side dishes.
People sharing a spicy Korean stir-fry dish in a black pan with metal bowls and chopsticks on a wooden table.
People sharing Korean dishes with chopsticks around a table with spicy stir-fry, side dishes, and dipping sauces.
Korean dining table with noodle dish, kimchi, and dipping sauces in silver bowls served on a dark wooden table.
Person photographing a Korean tteokbokki hot pot with melted cheese, rice bowls, and banchan side dishes on a wooden table.
Two people sharing a Korean cheese buldak dish with fries, pulling melted cheese strings with tongs from a sizzling pan.
Overhead view of people sharing Korean tteokbokki in a black pan with rice bowls and side dishes on a wooden table.
Hand using chopsticks to pick up a fried egg in a Korean bibimbap bowl, with rice and tteokbokki nearby.
Korean chef in white coat and black apron carefully plates a dish with chopsticks in a restaurant kitchen.
Overhead view of Korean dining table with banchan, rice, chopsticks, and shared dishes.
Young smiling waiter in black polo with South Korean flag patch holding a wine bottle in a restaurant.
Chopsticks lifting glass noodles japchae with spinach and carrots from a golden bowl at a Korean restaurant.
Korean spicy stir-fried pork bulgogi served on metal plate with fresh lettuce and chopsticks.
Spicy Korean sundubu jjigae tofu stew with egg yolk in black stone bowl served with steamed white rice.

To finish


This project has made me fall in love with Kimchili even more than I already had from my very first visit as a diner. Kimchili's commitment to authentic Korean food, community, hospitality, and cultural heritage make it the perfect wholesome place to enjoy delicious food whilst connecting and genuinely enjoying each other's company.


Overhead view of people sharing Korean tteokbokki and rice dishes around a wooden table with banchan sides.
Exterior sign of Kimchi restaurant on a brick building facade reflecting colorful sunset sky in large windows.
People walking past Kimchili Korean Restaurant storefront at No. 10-12, featuring a green and yellow sign.