The venue, on a new luxury level at Chatswood Chase, serves oversized vol-au-vent with a prawn bisque sauce and a “burnt” pavlova with passionfruit curd and sorbet.

Chatswood might be rich in delicious food pickings, but it isn’t exactly a hotbed for hatted chefs flexing their repertoire with new cuisines and spin-off restaurant concepts. However, the opening this week of Joie, a French brasserie led by Jung-Su Chang from Korean fine diner Allta in Surry Hills – awarded two hats in the Good Food Guide – is a promising momentum shift for the northern Sydney suburb.

Why hasn’t the top-rated Korean chef in town stuck to his well-trodden culinary lane? “Ninety per cent of food outlets and restaurants in Chatswood are Asian; we think they want something different,” general manager John Kuak said. And French food is Jung-Su Chang’s first professional love.

“I started in a French restaurant in Korea, then worked in San Francisco.…