As if we needed another excuse to head to Preston Markets, a new, hole-in-the-wall patisserie has just opened its doors and is already making a stir.

In a quiet corner of the markets, you’ll find Joy Jaune, a pint-sized bakery window where owner-operator Joey Leung blends French techniques with her upbringing in Hong Kong and (very) locally sourced ingredients.

The ever-changing menu at Joy Jaune – which changes “by season and mood” – is often the product of neighbouring stallholders’ latest arrivals. Wandering the aisles of Preston Markets, Leung draws constant inspiration from the plethora of seasonal flavours available to her.

Working in small batches, the blood plums she picked up last night could be a shiso, plum and yuzu sorbet by morning. Fragrant, leatherwood honey from one lane over is whipped into perfectly blonde castella cakes, and juicy red raspberries transform within hours to pair with white chocolate in crisp eclairs.

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“As I like to cook with the seasons and to produce small batches, it is great to be close to the traders to get the fresh produce and to be able to get smaller quantities as our menu changes quite quickly,” Leung says.

If you can drag your eyes away from the mesmerising jelly puddings, topped with anything from pomelo to mango, Kiwi fruit or vibrant red strawberries, you’ll find a cabinet full of eclairs overflowing with whipped cream and house-made preserves; black sesame desserts topped with a Hong Kong-style praline dust made of crushed peanuts, sesame and coconut; and choux pastries fashioned into swans, complete with strawberry “feathers” and delicately craned necks, baked until golden brown.

Despite its modest square footage, Joy Jaune is big on flavour, technique and masterfully blended cuisines – a skill picked up by Leung over a decade of baking in Melbourne and Hong Kong, including at Twenty Six by Liberty. As much about deliciousness as it is about cultural exchange, Leung relishes sharing and learning from the melting pot the Preston Markets offers.

“I think the biggest advantage to me is I have a great opportunity to see customers from different backgrounds, that way I can let them know my culture through my desserts,” she says.

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A former marketing executive, Leung immigrated from Hong Kong to Melbourne to study patisserie at the William Angliss Institute. A stint establishing the pastry department at the NGV Garden Restaurant and a few hops back to Hong Kong, Leung’s first bricks-and-mortar spot is where her true creativity is flourishing, where she can colour in the lines (or not).

When blending her heritage with her classical French training, Leung likes to “think about each ingredient’s profile and determine if it would work. For example, black sesame has a warm and nutty flavour. It goes well with dairy which is essential in French cooking.

“Traditionally, black sesame desserts in Hong Kong are made dairy free but now it’s becoming very popular to make French-style pastries with sesame because the flavours go together really well.”

To get the full Joy Jaune experience, Leung recommends her “must-orders” are the strawberry panna cotta, the Paris-Brest (an airy choux pastry filled with praline cream, topped with flaked almonds) and, when Lunar New Year rolls around, “my Hong Kong-style custard mooncake is a must”.

Joy Jaune is located at Shop N28, Preston Markets, Preston. Find more information at the Joy Jaune website.

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