Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Trophy Room?

Hey! Our names are Rose & James. Trophy Room is a small, cosy restaurant located in the residential streets of North Hobart. We focus on using locally sourced seasonal produce &  making as much from scratch as possible ourselves!

The business has evolved over the years, you originally started selling much loved doughnuts under ‘Trophy Doughnuts’ then transitioned to the more fine dining side of cooking with ‘Trophy Room’ which has also evolved from breakfast/lunch to lunch/dinner menus. Can you talk us through that journey a little and what led to these evolutions, was it always the dream to own a restaurant?

Yes! What a journey it has been! Day one of arriving in Hobart, driving around, checking things out, we spot a tinnnnny hole in the wall shop with a ‘For Lease’ sign in the window. One phone call later, we are waking up at the crack of dawn every day making doughnuts, driving them into the shop & selling them whilst listening to our vinyl records. After a tough 6 months on the grind, we eventually decided to make the transition to the local farmers market, where we ended up selling more in 4 hours than we would in a whole week at the original bricks and mortar shop.

A few years of that and we were ready to expand to something a little more substantial & permanent, increase our offering & create a team. I think we always wanted to do something like Trophy Room but the doughnuts was a great foot in to the world of owning a business & feeling the waters a little bit. But yes, in the back of our mind, having our own little restaurant was always probably the dream.

Where did the name ‘Trophy Room’ come from?

Well! The original tiny doughnut shop we started out in was previously a trophy shop! Therefore we named it Trophy Doughnuts! Trophy Room was always going to incorporate ‘Trophy’ in the name to continue on with our previous brand. Once we started thinking about the fit out & the open-ness of the space, called it Trophy Room just seemed to fit right. It really is just one room. All open.

Trophy Room is all about cooking seasonally and locally, which means the menu changes frequently. What do you find the most challenging and the most rewarding about cooking like this?

We feel very lucky in Tasmania to be able to showcase some of Australia’s greatest produce, meeting with local farmers every week to discuss what is available or coming up in the weeks ahead. Having access to such great produce adds extra pressure to make sure you're doing the product and the farmers justice but is also rewarding because more often than not the raw ingredients are the driving force behind most of our more popular menu items.

Do you both come from a culinary background? What were you doing before you started on this adventure?

I (Rose) come from a front of house background & James is a trained Chef.

Who, what or where inspires your cooking the most?

In Tasmania, because it is so ‘micro seasonal’, the growers and farmers are where most of our inspiration comes from. At Trophy Room we don’t like to label ourselves or be pigeonholed into one cuisine, rather focusing on what our farmers are growing and using what is fresh in the moment.

The space has such a cool vibe, can you tell us a little more about the history of the space, how you found it and how you went about designing the interior? What do you hope people feel when they walk in?&

We both always liked the idea of having something in a residential area. Nothing on a main strip. Somewhere on a corner that would be stand out but also just slot into the surrounding houses & neighbourhood. Well, low budget leads to a lot of DIY. We basically built the whole place ourselves. First thing was knocking down the wall between the kitchen & dining space to create the open plan. We always wanted it to feel like you were in someone’s home. Not too pretentious but delicious & friendly.

Honestly, the whole space is a work in progress. We have changed it alot since we opened a year ago. The space is always evolving. Starting something from scratch, you will never know how busy you will be, therefore how much bench space, how much storage you will need.

Really in the end the space is just an extension of James and I. It’s filled with my dads paintings, prints we’ve collected from our travels, plates we’ve found at the tip shop, wine we like drinking, flowers I like arranging. It’s all us!

A big thing I wanted to make sure happened at Trophy Room, was a warm greeting when someone walks in. Theres nothing worse than walking into a venue and feeling like you are invisible. Its probably one of the first things I say to staff when training. We also purchased some locally made sassafrass mirrors that help increase the vision of the front door. I did particularly like this space because you could always see every table from whenever you were standing in the room.

If you had to pick a season based on the ingredients that are available, which one would you pick and why?

In Tasmania, spring and summer is where its at! Its warm, things are growing and blossoming and there's a large diversity of produce coming from the farmers and fishermen. We’re always excited for the first of the asparagus and equally as eager for our first bite of tomato from “Feld’s Farm”.

What is your guilty pleasure food? 

Rose - Any Cheese!

James- Ice cream, all ice cream.

What are your top places to see, eat and drink in Hobart/Tassie?

Agrarian Kitchen, Sonny, Ogee, Rosie In My Midnight Dreams

We tried this Mortadella Cruller on one of our first visits to Trophy Room and it was darn delicious. We highly recommend giving this recipe a try, you won't be disappointed. 

Trophy Room Mortadella Cruller

Ingredients 

01. 

180g full cream milk 

02.

180g room temperature water

03.

157g unsalted butter 

04.

250g bakers flour 

05. 

3 3/4 tsp sugar 

06.

1 tsp salt 

07.

5 eggs

08. 

black pepper 

09. 

parmigiano reggiano 

10. 

mortadella 

Method 

01. 

Combine milk, water, butter, sugar and salt in a large pot. 

02. 

Heat on medium temperature until boiling 

03. 

Once boiling, add flour 

04. 

Stir until mixture thickens. Mixture should come together as one. 

05. 

Once mixture has come together, continue to stir for 2-4 minutes until flour is cooked out. 

06. 

Transfer mixture to an electric mixture. 

07. 

Add a decent amount of freshly ground black pepper. 

08. 

Stir on low to medium speed with the paddle attachment. 

09. 

Slowly add eggs to moving mixture in small batches. 

10.

Continue to mix until batter has cooled.

11. 

Transfer finished choux batter into a piping bag with a star nozzle attached. 

12. 

Pipe circular rings of choux pastry onto square pieces of baking paper.

13. 

Drop cruller into deep fryer with the cruller face down, paper on top. 

14. 

Fry for 4 minutes on each side, removing baking paper once it becomes loose. 

15. 

Finish by flipping and frying for one last minute on original side. (Cruller should be golden in colour and crispy in texture on the outside. 

16. 

Whilst cruller is frying, thinly slice 5 pieces of mortadella on meat slicer and arrange on a plate. 

17. 

After removing cruller from fryer, place on top of the mortadella (there will be an obvious top and bottom) 

18. 

Grate cheese all over. The more the better! 

Find Trophy Room on Instagram  @trophyroomhobart and be sure to visit when you are down in Hobart!