Railway Hotel owner Dave Boswell and head chef Mark Elsley celebrate their parmi taking home the title of best parmigiana in NSW. Photo: Supplied.
While the parmi/parma debate wages on, one thing has been settled: Temora’s Railway Hotel serves the best parmigiana in NSW.
With more than 1800 pubs and hotels registered as part of the Australian Hotels Association NSW, it takes a pretty cracking parmi to stand out above the rest, and that’s exactly what the Railway Hotel’s owners, Leanne and Dave Boswell, and head chef Mark Elsley were able to deliver, winning AHA NSW’s Best Parmi Award for 2025.
While for Temora locals the quality of the hotel’s parmi is common knowledge, now the whole state is in on it.
“We’ve only been in the game of owning a pub for 18 months,” Leanne said.
“We’ve never owned pubs before, but our chef, Mark, is ex-army and has worked around Australia in a number of hotels.
“He certainly has put Temora on the map with his parmi. The award really goes to him and his staff.
“Dave and I stand on the shoulders of our staff, because if you don’t have great staff, great chefs, you know, it all falls apart; we’re just the face behind it.”
While a parmi might be a culinary staple for pubs across the country, Leanne explained what made the Railway Hotel’s parmi exceptional.
The Railway Hotel’s parmi is huge! Photo: Railway Hotel.
“What makes our schnitzel so special is that it’s hand-cut, not that frozen crap,” she said.
“It’s handmade and crumbed every morning before the lunch service and every afternoon before the dinner service.
“Customers can taste that sort of thing. It’s a big meal, and you don’t want to sell them short. So often, people will see it come out, and you can hear them say, ‘Oh my god, it’s huge!'”
While there’s no doubt the Railway Hotel’s parmi is delicious, there was still a process to receiving the award.
“Every hotel can nominate, or someone can nominate you for the various categories. We put up a nomination board with ‘Parmi in NSW,'” she said.
“The AHA then does site tours, where they’re like a mystery shop. They come to everyone who’s actually applied for the various categories. They check out the ambience, they check out the food, they check out the service – that whole package – try the food, and we became a finalist from that.
“My husband [Dave] and the chef [Mark] went down to the awards in Sydney and came home with the trophy.”
Dave and Mark joined a crowd two-thirds the size of Temora at the Royal Randwick Racecourse for the AHA Awards. Despite knowing the quality of their food, Leanne said the pair were still shocked to get the win.
“They were a little bit overwhelmed by it all, actually,” she said.
“There were over 4000 people from the industry all in the one place for a very big awards night. From a little town with only 6000 people to an event that big, it was huge!
“It really just shows how great a team we have here that we can compare to some of the biggest pubs in the state.”
If you are still umming and ahhing about whether to visit the hotel and try its award-winning parmi, Leanne only had one thing to say.
“Try it for yourself. You won’t be disappointed. The best parmi in NSW will speak for itself.”
The Railway Hotel is open Wednesday to Sunday from 11:30 am and 3 pm on Tuesday and can be located at 134-136 Hoskins St, Temora.
