Powerhouse Parramatta will launch its first in-house food programme with a 23-day opening festival featuring Maggie Beer, Josh Niland, Stephanie Alexander and other leading figures in Australian food.
The western Sydney institution, which opens to the public on November 7, will host cooking demonstrations, dinners and discussions, with tickets priced between $15 and $50.
Three events have already sold out, including a Family DINEasties feast hosted by chef Kylie Kwong alongside writers Lee Tran Lam and Kevin La. The event is being presented in collaboration with the SBS Food programme of the same name.
Kwong, who was appointed a Powerhouse Parramatta associate in 2024, has worked with the museum’s food team to build relationships across the local food community. Their previous events have showcased businesses including Harris Park restaurant IndoChinese and Circle Harvest, described as Australia’s largest insect protein farm.
Powerhouse Parramatta opening festival brings food stories to the museum
Among the festival’s headline events is a fish butchery demonstration by Josh Niland, the three-hatted chef behind Saint Peter, who will discuss his scale-to-tail approach to seafood.
On November 9, Maggie Beer, Neil Perry and Sharon Winsor will join other figures represented in the Powerhouse’s Australian Culinary Archive to discuss the people and stories that have helped shape the country’s food culture.
Other scheduled appearances include Chat Thai restaurateur Palisa Anderson and Ben Nguyen, owner-chef of Hai Au Lang Nuong in Canley Vale. Stephanie Alexander will also feature in the programme.
“The festival … brings together extraordinary figures in Australian food,” Kwong said.
Food events will take place across the new building, which includes a commercial kitchen, a 200-seat amphitheatre demonstration kitchen and a rooftop garden led by the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation.
Simon Sandall, the owner-chef of Gladesville’s Boronia Kitchen, will run the museum’s in-house restaurant. A separate culinary venture from Sandall is also planned, although it has not yet been named.
Powerhouse Parramatta associate Kylie Kwong said the festival reflected the institution’s aim to involve communities in its cultural programme, rather than simply present exhibitions to them.
“Coming from a Chinese extended family, I feel a personal connection to the multicultural communities of western Sydney and an understanding of the ways food carries family history, identity and belonging across generations,” she said.
Powerhouse Parramatta producer Cheyenne Bardos said food allowed the museum to involve cooks, entrepreneurs and researchers who were not traditionally associated with museum programming.
“We want people to be able to come to the food program and see themselves and their work reflected in that, whether it’s their culture or the things they like to eat or the way they like to come together through food,” Bardos said.
The opening festival will feature 179 events spanning subjects from First Nations culture to space and science, with 65 per cent offered free of charge.
