Simon Sandall - The garden behind Boronia Kitchen

Behind Boronia Kitchen sits a garden most diners never see

From the street, Boronia Kitchen gives little away. Simon Sandall says many people arrive without realising what is growing behind the restaurant.

“I don’t think people realise what actually goes on here,” he says. “They’re like, ‘Oh, it’s just a car park.’ And then they’re like, ‘Hang on a minute. There’s a whole garden.’”

The kitchen harvests from it twice a day, picking herbs, vegetables and native ingredients to use in the restaurant. For Simon, there is something particularly satisfying about growing an ingredient and eventually turning it into something on the plate.

Building something of his own

Originally from the UK, Simon worked in restaurants and hotels before working with Matt Moran from 1999. He later helped open Chiswick and was involved in a number of Sydney restaurants, but the ambition to have a place of his own remained.

“Whilst that was very good and I loved it, I still wanted my own place,” he says. “I’m quite a creative person and I’ve got a lot of stuff going on in my head.”

Simon knew the area because his three children went to school across the road. When his wife called to tell him the restaurant site was available for lease, he immediately started trying to secure it.

The period around opening became much more difficult than expected. Simon became seriously ill, spent time in intensive care and, at one point, believed he might not survive.

“I said goodbye to my kids, my whole family, because I thought I was gone,” he says.

After a long recovery, Boronia Kitchen eventually opened and Simon was able to start building the restaurant he had wanted for himself.

The garden behind Boronia Kitchen

Simon had already experienced the relationship between a restaurant and its garden at Chiswick, and wanted something similar at Boronia Kitchen. Planter beds went in and the space has developed into a working part of the kitchen.

There are Eureka lemons that are salted and preserved, strawberry gum, finger limes, warrigal greens, herbs and vegetables. Simon is equally open about what the garden cannot provide. He never wanted to create the impression that a small garden could supply everything the restaurant needed.

“I didn’t want to just tell a false story of, you know, we take a lettuce and we sell 50 salads,” he says.

Instead, the team works with what is actually available. Parsley, mint and fennel might be used one day, while the next service could require something different because an ingredient has finished or is not ready to harvest.

That unpredictability is part of what Simon enjoys. He talks about sowing something, watching it grow or fail, and then trying to understand what it needs.

“The garden is an integral part of what we do,” he says. “The guys harvest twice a day and we’re going out, we’re picking it and we’re putting it on the plate.”

For Simon, the difference is also in the flavour of produce that has just been picked.

Cooking for the customer

There is a similar simplicity to Simon’s approach to the menu. If he likes something and it tastes good, it can find a place at Boronia Kitchen.

That leaves room for roast pork, rotisserie chicken and fish and chips, as well as a burger added to the lunch menu after locals started asking for one. For Simon, responding to what people want is part of hospitality.

“I just wanted to create something that was accessible to everybody,” he says.

His approach to individual dishes has changed too. Simon says that when chefs are younger, they can become too focused on building a plate for themselves. These days, his instinct is more often to look at a dish and consider what can be taken away.

“I’m at a stage now where I look at a dish and go, ‘What can I take off that to make it better?’”

His prawn toast is one example. On the menu since the restaurant opened, it is shallow-fried until golden and finished with yuzu mayonnaise and chopped chives. It is also the dish Simon cooks in the film.

More broadly, the food at Boronia reflects the restaurant Simon wanted to create: somewhere accessible, where what people enjoy eating matters as much as what he wants to cook.

A different kind of space

The garden has given Simon something beyond ingredients.

After spending hours inside the kitchen, he values being able to walk outside and spend time among what is growing. He describes the space as tranquil and peaceful, and says it has become something of a “happy place”.

“To have this here, it’s a chef’s dream,” he says.

Simon is still constantly coming up with ideas and trying things, knowing some will work and others will not. That willingness to experiment runs through both the garden and the restaurant.

“Trial and error. That’s what gardening is all about. It’s all about having a go,” he says. “Life is all about having a go, right?”