Oasis Bakery: Melbourne’s Middle Eastern Oasis

Come for the lebanese pastries and leave with bag full of beans, sauces and spices: this is the closest you’ll get to the middle east this side of the indian ocean.

In a huge warehouse in Melbourne’s Murrumbeena, swirling aromas of roasting meats and baking pastries mingle with exotic music and raucous laughter. It’s a ‘must visit’ for lovers of unique and colourful cuisine and, with three-generations of the one family involved, it’s a truly authentic cultural experience.

Oasis Bakery is owned by husband-and-wife team Emad and Marwa Makool, who took over what was a fledgling business back in the late ‘90s. Enthusiastically supported by their family, they’ve reinvented the Oasis name and transformed it into a multi-faceted food retailer.

Marwa’s fresh breads, Lebanese pizzas and handmade savoury pastries come daily from their commercial bakery, housed 100m away in another warehouse. Proud of their Middle Eastern heritage, the bakers used to only make traditional flat breads, such as pita bread and Turkish bread. But as the bakery’s reputation grew, and a more diverse customer-base began to visit, the team introduced a range of sourdough and artisan breads.

These days, it’s the sourdough that’s one of the shop’s best-sellers.

“We’ve got a really great sourdough starter and a team of bakers who are very passionate, which always makes for a great product,”

Emad’s younger brother, Ely, says.

Ely runs Oasis’ day-to-day operations, and says the team isn’t afraid to merge cultural influences.

“We’ve very proud of our heritage and it’s important for us to make the classics, such as baklava, rosewater and almond Turkish delights, pistachio-filled shredded pastries with orange blossom sugar syrup, and ricotta-and-jam cigars,” he says.

“But in the lead up to Easter we did a Nutella hot cross bun, which was a huge hit, and we often make a Nutella and chia baklava. Anything with Nutella is a huge hit.”

Perhaps the most obvious example of cross-cultural fusion is the bakery’s meat pies and sausage rolls. Oasis’ Lebanese wholemeal sausage roll is a top-seller and, with a mix of lamb kafta, haloumi, almonds, currants and chilli sauce, it’s no surprise.

“The savoury pastries are pretty much 50/50 meat and vegetarian. There’s a big focus on sourcing great primary produce, so pastries such as Moroccan chicken and chickpea – tender chicken with Moroccan spiced chickpeas and haloumi cheese – and what we call ‘mushroom boom boom’ (mushrooms, caramelised onions, fetta, kalamata olive baked in a stone-ground wholemeal pastry) are fresh and full of life,” Ely says.

With all the spices and slow-cooked meats, you’d be forgiven for thinking Middle Eastern baking is heavy and rich. But Marwa, who now focuses on sharing her knowledge through hosting cooking demonstration, says a lot of Lebanese recipes are actually quite healthy. In fact, she’s on a mission to encourage people to eat a more balanced diet and, as a result, has added a number of better-for-you options to the Oasis menu.

“Some Lebanese food can be quite heavy by nature because of the use of butter or ghee, but I take out a lot of the fat. I tell people to get flavour from herbs and spices,” she says, rattling off the hundreds of spices sold in the shop including cloves, cumin, galangal, nigella and sumac.

“When you eat this kind of food it doesn’t stay in the body for so long. You process it straight away, and you can have bigger plate and it doesn’t feel heavy on your stomach,” she adds.

For those who want to recreate Marwa’s food at home – whether it’s from the bakery or the extensive café menu – Oasis stocks every ingredient from nuts, beans and pules through to buckwheat flour and halva. And, if you’re looking for inspiration, just ask Marwa for a copy of her book Yallateef! Loosely translating to ‘the wow factor of food’, the book was a response to customers asking how she cooked at home.

“People wanted a book to help them use all the spices, and it makes me so happy to share this and to show people how to cook healthily,” she says.

These days, Oasis serves up to 3000 people every weekend, with baklava, shawarmas and pita flying out the door. But it wasn’t always this popular.

After taking over Oasis Bakery, Emad and Marwa set out to reshape and improve the business through sheer hard work. Since those early days, three generations of the one family have been involved, including Emad and Ely’s parents, George and Saide, and Emad’s kids, Natalie (29), George (26) and Michael (25).

The family’s commitment to the business – and to each other – is immediately felt upon walking through the doors.

“We have a fantastic, multicultural customer base, ranging all nationalities from Australians and Middle Easterners, through to Europeans, Asians and South Americans – everyone really,” Ely says.

“Lots of people come from far and wide to do a big shop because of our reputation for stocking obscure and specific ingredients such as freeze-dried fruit, different types of flavourings and specialty ingredients for desserts.

“So it’s important we extend our love for Middle Eastern culture by offering friendly, warm service and outstanding quality.”

And, with a massive renovation on the horizon, the Makools will soon be able to share the experience with even more people.

“We’re adding more departments, including a patisserie bar, along with a deli and cheese bar, and fresh produce. That’s happening soon and should be finished by mid-year,” Ely says.

“But because we’ve gotten bigger doesn’t mean we’re going to drop the ball on customer service and quality. It doesn’t mean we’re going to stop being innovative. It doesn’t mean we’re going to stop caring about what our customers think and want. This is our passion and, even more than that, it’s our life.

“We’ve got atmosphere. We’ve got soul, and that makes for a very interesting experience.”