Paddock and Palm

Powerhouse Food: Producers launched in 2024 to explore local food production across Western Sydney. Over two years, the series took audiences inside the farms, factories, shopfronts and kitchens of some of the region's most innovative food and beverage makers through intimate, co-designed programs that shared the people, processes and stories behind their work.

On the glistening Hawkesbury River, Paul Aquilina and Gary Howard cast trawling nets for a bounty of school prawns. Gary is a second-generation fisherman; his family has worked these waters for more than three decades.

Paul started out volunteering on trawlers and has since become a multi-method fisherman in his own right. Together, they carry on techniques like eel trapping and fish meshing — methods passed hand-to-hand for generations, sustaining the local fishing industry.

From their small warehouse in Lakemba, Paldo Kimchi — Australia's oldest kimchi producer — makes 2 tonnes of kimchi a day, slicing, salting and brining cabbage mostly by hand, to a recipe passed down by owner Esther Choi’s grandmother.

A similar family legacy continues in Cabramatta, where the second generation of bakers at Vinata’s Hot Bread opens shop at 4.30am to serve fresh bánh mì — known to many as the best pork roll in the city.

In Wetherill Park, Circle Harvest — Australia's first and most advanced producer of insect protein products — uses robotics and artificial intelligence to turn farmed insects into oils, pastes and powders.

Founder Skye Blackburn, an entomologist and food scientist, leads a team turning bugs into everyday products like mealworm chocolate and cricket corn chips — making the case for insects as a sustainable and delicious protein source.

Together, these producers make up so much of our city's food culture — built on creativity, adaptation and resilience in a region and industry constantly in flux.

These collaborations document an industry in motion, capturing how it adapts to the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly developing urban landscape. Central to Powerhouse Food's program, Producers brought together key manufacturers, innovators and growers in Western Sydney to share their stories of sustainability and entrepreneurship, while forging industry connections and community engagement.

The program took many forms: farm and facility tours, workshops, panel discussions and collaborative dinners, each exploring a different facet of Western Sydney's food ecosystem, from traditional practices such as natural beekeeping and emerging fields like alternative protein innovation; to makers shaping everyday food and drink culture, and market gardeners carrying agricultural knowledge across generations and continents.

While grounded in a hyperlocal context, Powerhouse Food: Producers contributes to a broader global conversation around urban and peri-urban food production. It offers rich, lived insights into what it means to be a food producer within a shifting and diverse environment. The program celebrates and positions food producers as the protagonists of our shared food stories. By highlighting their processes, traditions and innovations, Producers reveals the cultures, histories and relationships that shape how and what we eat.