Queensland’s Most Talked About Restaurant and The English Chef Cooking with fire
In hospitality, the most interesting people are rarely the loudest. More often, they are the ones building something quietly exceptional, letting the work speak first. At The Woodshed in Kin Kin, a former utility space that has been transformed into one of the Sunshine Coast’s most thoughtful dining experiences, Oscar Holgado is that person. What makes it unique? Under Oscar’s leadership the Woodshed is shaped by fire, locality, and the kind of care that only comes from someone who has spent years learning exactly what matters.
Oscar’s title is Head Chef, though even he seems reluctant to make too much of titles. Early in conversation, he shrugs off any grand label and sums up his role more plainly: he runs the kitchen, solves problems, and, as he jokes, spends plenty of time fighting fires, both literal and otherwise. It is an answer that says a lot. For Oscar, cooking is not performance. It is craft, responsibility, and constant motion.
That attitude is part of what makes The Woodshed feel so grounded. The room itself carries a compelling history. What is now a beautifully composed dining space was once, quite literally, a dusty woodshed. After flooding rendered the pub unusable in 2019, operations were pushed into the shed out of necessity. Over time, what began as an improvised solution became the foundation for something more ambitious. When Oscar came on board, the vision sharpened. The idea was not to build a stiff fine dining room in the middle of regional Queensland, but something far more appealing: a relaxed destination restaurant where guests could settle in for the evening and feel as though they were being welcomed into a friend’s home.
That sense of ease is central to the experience. Dinner at The Woodshed begins in the garden with snacks and cocktails around the firepit before moving inside for a slow, seven-course meal. There is polish here, but no pretension. Guests are encouraged to relax, linger, and even explore the kitchen. The idea, Oscar explains, was to create a place where people could enjoy serious food in an environment that feels generous and personal. It is also why staying overnight at the Kin Kin Hotel is so much a part of the concept. After hours of food, wine, and open-fire cooking, the evening is meant to end with a short walk to bed, not a drive back over dark hinterland roads.
Oscar’s path to Kin Kin was shaped by some of the most respected kitchens in the UK. He started cooking at 15, initially to earn money for an iPad mini after his mother told him she would not be buying one. That small push became the beginning of a serious career. After cooking school, he moved to London in 2008 with a clear goal: learn from the best. He spent six years working with Angela Hartnett, whose influence on him is obvious in the way he speaks about mentorship, discipline, and cooking with purpose. He also spent time with Marcus Wareingat The Berkeley, building the kind of classical foundation many chefs chase for years.
But London, for all its prestige, was not the final answer. A later move to Cornwall proved just as formative. Working alongside Tom Adams, first in London and then at Coombeshead Farm, Oscar found himself reconnected to the ingredients and people behind the food. He talks about that period with real feeling. Cooking from the garden, from the farm, and for a small number of guests each night brought him back to what he loved most about the profession. It was intimate, produce driven, and rooted in place. Importantly, it offered a model for hospitality that was immersive rather than transactional.
That philosophy now runs through The Woodshed, though Oscar is quick to make clear that Kin Kin is not a copy of Cornwall. Queensland has its own climate, community, and identity, and the cooking responds to that. Fire is at the centre of it all. Much of the food is cooked over wood or on Big Green Eggs, which have long been part of the broader operation. Oscar loves the flavour it brings and the versatility it offers. Vegetables, meat, even dairy, he says, all benefit from smoke and flame.
The menu changes constantly, often week to week, because the produce leads. The garden contributes where it can, but Oscar is equally invested in working with nearby growers and makers who share the same ethos. A yabby dish might be built around freshwater crayfish sourced less than 10 kilometres away. Ceramics are made by a local artist from Kin Kin. The bakery across the road supplies pastries that Oscar rates among the best anywhere. The whole project feels interconnected, not in a staged marketing sense, but in a genuine community one.
That is perhaps the most telling part of Oscar’s story. The Woodshed is not just an ambitious restaurant attached to a country hotel. It is becoming part of the rhythm of the town. Oscar speaks with real appreciation about his team, about the local staff who have come through the doors, and about the broader creative and agricultural life of Kin Kin. In a region where change can be met cautiously, the business has grown into a hub for both work and social life.
What makes Oscar someone worth following is not only his background, impressive as it is. It is that he has taken everything learned in London, Cornwall, and years of professional cooking and applied it with humility in regional Queensland. The result is a restaurant that feels deeply considered without ever losing its warmth. At The Woodshed, Oscar is not chasing attention. He is building something better: a place people will remember, return to, and tell their friends about.
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