JILL LEE OKKERS - Culinary Director
“Nothing will work unless you do.”
After Natasha, Jill is the face behind the flavours of our brands. She has worked tirelessly with her team to create dishes that are original, authentic and fresh and does so while minimising our environmental footprint in every way possible.
Jill’s role extends into training, kitchen layout and staff structure as well as quality control on our concept brands. She’s an innovator, ensuring that we’re always one step ahead.
Like Natasha, Jill grew up drawing inspiration in the kitchen from her grandfather and came to TG having worked in hospitality for over fifteen years, holding positions such as Head Chef, Private Chef and Development Chef with a Diploma in Culinary Arts.
Jill travels extensively for research into global cuisine and is often found dipping into cookbooks and websites and keeping an eye on food trends to inform her dishes. She’s also a qualified journalist, penning her thoughts on all things culinary over on her blog Food By Jill.
She’s an advocate for food sustainability, underscoring the need to reconsider how and where we source our ingredients from.
Of her tribe, the people she spends most of her waking hours with, Jill says: “kitchen staff will forever be pirates. We’re a ‘dysfunctional’ batch of people, put into a space with knives, fire and hot oil. We graft. Hard. The magic happens when we come together. Nothing takes away the feeling of a good service or that soufflé that doesn’t flop!”
