Paradiso ITALIANO

The abode of Sunny Han and Junny Lee charms with its distinct Italian inflection and bravura celebration of food and family.

- LUO JINGMEI

When she was young, Sunny Han did not take math or swimming classes like her friends. Her childhood was deeply intertwined with the universes of gastronomy and design. “My mum, who was influential in my upbringing, was a chef and owner of several restaurants and interior design shops in Seoul. And so I was brought up in an environment where everything revolved around food and design; extracurricular time was spent in those restaurants and design shops. While my friends went on beach and ski holidays, mine were spent accompanying mum on food and design shows around Europe,” shares the founder of the popular Instagram account @sunnyskitchen.

Han is also the creative director of high-end co-working space provider The Work Project, which she runs together with her husband Junny Lee from their Singapore base. But it is her culinary obsessions that preoccupy her most. In her kitchen, food is elevated to the level of craft. The processes involved— planning, sourcing, prepping, setting, texture, taste-testing and embellishing—are part technical, part intuitive. Food becomes more than sustenance; it is art, experiment, passion. It is also friendship, kinship and emotion, often shared with good pals and sacrosanct in family routines.

Han is most enamoured with Italian cooking. “Italian cooking looks simple but it can actually be very technical in order to do it correctly,” enthuses Han, who spent two years at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California, after initial studies in hospitality management at Cornell University, New York.