Pho Nom coming to Emporium development

Jerry Mai, a pioneer of Vietnamese cooking at Chi in South Yarra and Brunswick Street's Red Rice, is turning her attention to the popular noodle soup pho.

Armed with their mother's recipe, Vietnam-born Mai and her brother, David, will open Pho Nom in the hipster basement of the ambitious Emporium development in Lonsdale Street.

Pho Nom will play its hand with quality ingredients and real cooking. ''No added flavourings, no MSG,'' Mai says, with Warialda beef used down to the soup bones. ''There are all these age-old questions of whether you just use standard bones for the same end product, but I believe that if you start well, you end well,'' she says.

Mai spent 2010 working with David Thompson at London's Nahm and has worked at Dandelion in Melbourne. Look for Pho Nom from mid-April.