Mo Zhou didn’t start out wanting to be a chef, but a gap half year at Uni opened his eyes to Europe and food other than the Chinese food he had been brought up with. A stage at Attica and then roles at Vue de Monde and The Press Club further inspired him and he started doing a series of pop-ups here and in his native China, always challenging himself to use local ingredients, even if he had never heard of some of them before. In October, Mo launched Gaea, his intimate degustation restaurant in Fitzroy where his monthly menus are a testament to his passion and inventiveness as well as a homage to the foraging and walks through nature that inspire him.