Simon Sandall takes on Powerhouse Parramatta hospitality operation

Boronia Kitchen chef and restaurateur Simon Sandall is taking on a major new hospitality brief at Powerhouse Parramatta, with a restaurant, café and wine bar forming part of the museum’s food and beverage offer

Simon is building a new hospitality team ahead of the museum’s opening on Saturday 7 November 2026.

The Boronia Kitchen owner has been appointed to lead the retail food and beverage operation, adding a major new project to a career spanning restaurants, catering and large hospitality groups.

For chefs, the appointment also brings a significant recruitment drive.

Sous chefs and chefs de partie are among the positions currently being filled, alongside sommeliers, baristas, supervisors, assistant managers and front-of-house roles.

The operation will run across breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week.

From Aria to Parramatta

Simon brings considerable experience running kitchens beyond a single restaurant.

After moving to Sydney in 1995, he worked at the Sydney Opera House before joining Matt Moran at Aria Sydney as head chef in 1999.

He later became group executive chef across MorSul, leading kitchen teams at venues including Aria, Chiswick, Opera Bar and North Bondi Fish.

Simon opened Boronia Kitchen in Hunters Hill in 2018 and has since expanded into catering and hospitality consultancy.

His catering business has previously worked with major Sydney institutions including the Sydney Opera House and Powerhouse Museum.

The Parramatta appointment now gives Simon responsibility for building a new food and beverage team ahead of one of Sydney’s biggest hospitality and cultural openings of the year.

Food built into the museum

Food will have a wider role at Powerhouse Parramatta beyond its restaurant and café spaces.

The museum will include the Vitocco Family Kitchen, a 200-seat demonstration kitchen designed for live cooking programs, education and events involving chefs and food producers.

It forms part of the broader Powerhouse Food program, which connects chefs, producers and communities across Western Sydney through food, culture, science and industry.

Powerhouse Parramatta itself will include more than 18,000 square metres of public and exhibition space and will become Western Sydney’s first state cultural institution when it opens in November.

For Simon, the project brings together much of the experience built across restaurants, catering and large-scale hospitality during his career.

For chefs, it also means a substantial new kitchen and hospitality team is now being assembled in Parramatta ahead of the November opening.