Kylie Kwong’s next chapter begins in the western Sydney suburb of Harris Park, where the acclaimed Australian-Chinese chef will co-host a series of six bi-monthly dinners to showcase the “deeply delicious” diversity of Indian cuisine.

It’s her first culinary project since calling time on a 24-year career as a restaurateur, with the closure of South Eveleigh’s Lucky Kwong in June.

The Little India dinner series is presented by Powerhouse Museum, which brought Kwong on board as an associate for its food department in August. In her new role, Kwong is eating her way through western Sydney’s restaurants; uncovering its stories to ensure the community feels a sense of ownership and belonging when the $915 million Powerhouse Parramatta opens mid-2026.

“The most unifying force is food … [and] we want to create a safe space for people to share their rich, important stories of migration, their intergenerational recipes, and their culture,” Kwong says.

Powerhouse Parramatta is set to become the largest museum in NSW, with an extensive food program including rooftop gardens and farmers’ markets, plus demonstration kitchens and apartments for international chef residencies.

“It’s a natural next step for me,” Kwong says, “because it allows me to continue to use food as a catalyst for positive social impact and cultural exchange.”

Over the course of her 30 years as a chef, author and restaurateur Kwong established herself as a pioneering figure in Australian hospitality. She was among the first to champion contemporary Australian-Chinese cooking, prioritise sustainable producers, and integrate native ingredients into the professional kitchen. Now, she has become one of the first prominent Sydney chefs to turn her attention westward.

Kwong admits it’s a “whole new environment” for her, having grown up in Sydney’s north-west and spent much of her working life in the central and eastern suburbs. But with the help of locals including social media influencer Kevin La (known as “Sydney Food Boy” on Instagram), and owner of The Modern Desi cooking school Bhavna Kalra Shivalkar, western Sydney has Kwong “bouncing off the walls with excitement”.

“I have told my story. Now what fulfils me is amplifying and sharing other people’s stories,” she says.

“I walk into these places and they are filled with not only the most beautiful, authentic and home-style food, but also all of this history and love.

“These are long-standing family restaurants, some [of which] have been around for more than 40 years, and they’re still busy. In such a hard industry … that is a story that deserves the spotlight.”

For the first of her three projects with Powerhouse, Kwong has partnered with Shivalkar to curate and host six dinners at Harris Park restaurants Chatkazz, Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Mitran Da Dhaba and IndoChainese.

Each meal will explore a different regional Indian cuisine, from the roadside eateries of northern Punjab to the hearty spiced biryani of Hyderabad in India’s central-south. Diners can also expect cultural performances such as spoken word poetry by musician Anisha Krishnasamy, and traditional chai tasting with Fatema Khanbhai, founder of The Chai Room.

Each guest will also receive a one-off recipe for an Indo-Chinese dish, co-written by Shivalkar and Kwong, who will speak about the art of recipe writing.

Shivalkar is a self-professed “Indian cooking evangelist”: a cook and food tour guide who has worked for years to overcome stereotypes of Indian cuisine. But she says it’s been difficult to show Australians there’s “so much more to Indian food than butter chicken” while working alone.

“Now with Kylie coming on board and seeing the cuisine through my eyes, and the Powerhouse backing it, I suddenly feel like I have a bigger platform and a bigger voice,” Shivalkar says. “Finally, people are listening.”

Powerhouse Food: Little India will begin with its first dinner at Chatkazz Harris Park on February 19.
Visit powerhouse.com.au/program/powerhouse-food-little-india for further information and tickets.

Five western Sydney restaurants to visit, according to Kylie Kwong

Al Shami, Merrylands

Home-style Syrian and Lebanese food located opposite Merrylands station, with hard-to-find dishes such as shakeria (spiced lamb, garlic and yoghurt) soup and mansaf lamb, the national dish of Jordan.

102/106 Railway Terrace, Merrylands, alshamirestaurant.com.au

Gursha Ethiopian, Blacktown

Husband and wife Yibeltal Tsegaw and Rahel Woldearegay opened their restaurant in 2017, and East African families regularly gather here for platters of injera lentil stew and the yedoro wot featuring boiled eggs and long-simmered chicken legs.

3/115 Main Street, Blacktown, gurshaethiopian.au

Temasek, Parramatta

A traditional Singaporean restaurant serving “genuinely thrilling” curry laksa, nasi goreng or Hainanese chicken rice since 1992. Visit in summer for tall, flavour-forward glasses of ice kacang.

71 George Street, Parramatta, temasekrestaurant.com

Battambang II, Cabramatta

The second outpost of Battambang, a Cambodian standby for Khmer cooking run by Soc Kieng Hua and her chef brother Khieng Hua Houch, where crowds of all ages flock for crisp chicken served on sweet-sour sauce, and delicate Phnom Penh noodles (dry or in broth) loaded with prawn, beef and liver.

Shop 16, 70 John Street,Cabramatta, facebook.com/p/Battambang-Restaurant-II-100058599198171/

IndoChainese, Harris Park

IndoChainese is a local Indian restaurant specialising in authentic Hyderabadi cuisine. It was opened in 2023 by a group of young chefs, led by Hyderabad-born, classically trained chef Munwar Hussain.

46 Marion Street, Harris Park, indochaineseonline.com.au