In this episode of A Table in the Corner, Russel sits down with Korean-born chef Sepial Shim, whose quiet, wandering path through Cape Town’s food world has taken her from cooking school to markets, pop ups and now a tiny sixteen seat restaurant in Woodstock called 'In the Meantime'.
She reflects on arriving in South Africa more than two decades ago and training as an urban designer, only to discover that cooking offered a different way of expressing meaning without words. What followed was an unconventional journey: studying at Silwood alongside her son, opening a small restaurant in Salt River, building a cult following for Korean fried chicken at the Oranjezicht market, and experimenting with fermentation as both craft and philosophy.
The conversation moves between those phases and the thinking behind Sepial’s latest project: a deliberately small restaurant where she cooks each dish herself and serves guests directly. We talk about the tension between creativity and business, the financial cost of pursuing fermentation as a passion project, and the decision to trade scale for focus in the limited years she still plans to cook professionally.
Along the way Shim reflects on Korean food traditions, Cape Town’s evolving dining culture and the quiet satisfaction of watching diners recognise the care behind something as subtle as a clear beef short-rib broth.
This is a thoughtful, candid conversation about wandering, learning and choosing to cook in a way that makes sense for one’s life, told by a chef who understands that sometimes the most meaningful work happens in small rooms.
