Joy Jaune

Off the Preston Markets’ bustling main drag, you will find Joy Jaune, a micro desert and pastry shop. The bright, clean space has white tiles and a butter yellow Kitchen Aid mixer – which nods to the business name (“jaune” is French for “yellow”). Inside, pastry chef Joey Leung turns out traditional bakes – like eclairs, jellies and cakes – with seasonal flavours and a few Hong Kong-inspired twists.

In the cabinet on the plywood counter, you’ll find jelly puddings topped with pomelo, mango and sago, slices of just-set Basque cheesecake, and a glass cake stand covering delicate choux-pastry swans. Each dish and recipe is largely seasonal, guided by what’s available from fellow vendors. An excess of ripe blood plums once led to a tart plum sorbet, while trays of affordable summer mangos ended up in a sago-topped Hong Kong-style mango pudding, while an abundance of end-of-season strawberries inspired her strawberries-and-cream jelly.

And some of Leung’s favourite ingredients make surprise appearances on the menu in the form of ube-and-coconut profiteroles and a matcha Viennese sable biscuit.

Leung is a former marketing executive from Hong Kong who first emigrated to Melbourne to study patisserie at William Angliss. After a few years back home in Hong Kong – working in the pastry department at Twenty Six by Liberty, under then-head chef Bjoern Alexander – she moved back to Melbourne and, in 2018, helped set up the pastry department at the NGV Garden Restaurant.