After dining in the Oakroom many people feel like they have been transported to the food scene in Melbourne or Sydney.
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This feeling is achieved thanks to the hard work of the head chef, Jamie Shepley, and his team.
Mr Shepley has worked in many different restaurants both in Australia and overseas, opened his own business and trained countless apprentices.
It isn’t just top-end restaurants he’s worked in but also buffet style, cafe and anything inbetween.
“I didn’t want to pigeonhole myself and only work at fine dining restaurants,” he said.
While Mr Shepley is a passionate foodie now, when he was younger he didn’t know he’d end up as a chef.
His career started at the Victoria Hotel as a kitchen hand before he worked his way up to cooking.
Once he realised his passion he completed his apprenticeship at Three Chefs.
It was the “number one” restaurant in Wagga at the time.
Once qualified he travelled overseas with his wife Cassie and then the pair opened Graze at the Factory in Junee when they came back after a short stint as head chef at the restaurant he became qualified at,Three Chefs.
Growing family commitments saw them sell the business and Mr Shepley start as head chef at the Oakroom.
Since then the restaurant has been popular and busy but one major challenge for Mr Shepley is writing a menu to satisfy the vastly different customers dining at one time.
“We have multiple demographics, we might have a table of 12 people here for work, one person who is staying at the hotel and a table of two for a romantic dinner,” Mr Shepley said.
“Trying to design a menu to satisfy all is difficult.”
Writing the menu is only half the challenge, the team work hard to perfect every item that lands on a plate in their kitchen.
“We’re here to give people a great experience,” Mr Shepley said.
“Preparing quality food takes a lot of time and effort.”
Take mashed potato for example, at home it might take 40 minutes to make but at the Oakroom it takes two hours.
“We’re after a certain product,” Mr Shepley said.
“The flavours need to be right. We want people to eat it and say that was the best they’ve ever had.”