Jerome found a passion for food and ingredients at a very young age, through watching his parents and grandparents prepare traditional Mauritian dishes with love and attention to flavour. It instilled first a love to eat, then secondly a desire to help getting his hands dirty in the kitchen. He started his apprenticeship straight after finishing high school and then worked in a couple of venues in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne (Mentone Hotel and Beaumaris Hotel), working alongside Executive Chef, Ian Curly. Once he qualified, Jerome did short stints at the Rydges Hotel in Richmond and a couple of the wineries down the Mornington Peninsula and then took up a role as the Sous Chef at the Cove Hotel in Patterson Lakes.​

After meeting his future wife, they decided to travel to London on a working visa. Jerome worked in a couple of restaurants with a team of different nationalities and says it was great to learn their tricks of the trade, sharing recipes and techniques. After a year spent overseas, the couple decided to return to Australia, moving to a new life in Canberra. Jerome discovered the ONA coffee team and helped them open up their third shop, The Cupping Room, back in 2013. He started as the Sous Chef and progressed to the Head Chef role after six months.

He said, “It was an incredibly busy but such a rewarding venue to work in. Working with some young and talented chefs and cooks was amazing, but also helping and supporting them with their dreams to eventually open their own venues was a great result.”

​After four years at Cupping Room, the ONA team moved on to their next project, which was called Highroad. At first, it ran as an all-day venue, and Jerome was overseeing a team of around 15 chefs. He said he found that challenging, but a lot of learning came out of it. Some in-between projects that happened along the way with the ONA team were opening up the Marrickville and Brunswick stores.