The street outside Red Lantern, in Sydney’s Darlinghurst, is disconcertingly quiet. Of course, today marks the first day I have left my own suburb in two months, so perhaps anywhere would seem strange right now. But Riley St, normally buzzing at lunchtime with the noise of car exhausts from nearby William St, of passersby chatting, of workers waiting for their lunch, is eerily calm and quiet.

It’s not the way Pauline Nguyen likes it. The co-founder and co-owner of Red Lantern (she opened the stalwart Vietnamese restaurant with her celebrity chef brother Luke and husband, chef Mark Jensen, in 2002) might be a “spiritual entrepreneur” (more on this self-designation later), but like any small business owner, she prefers her premises to be bustling.