Palisa Anderson

Biography

Palisa Anderson is first generational farmer and a second generational restaurateur.  

Her mother Amonrat Chanta’s first business Chat Thai was established 31 years in 1989, since joining the business Palisa and her husband Matt have expanded the business to include multiple venues across the Sydney CBD and suburbs, they also provide the restaurants with certified organic produce from their farm in the Byronshire. Spending her childhood in and around restaurants gave her an appreciation for hospitality, a lifelong curiosity of food and ingredients and an easy rapport with people from all different walks of life. 

After studying Political Science and Liberal Arts at the University of Sydney she travelled and worked extensively in Hong Kong, London, New York and Tokyo for 10 years before coming back to Sydney to re-join the family business much to the joy of her mother Amy, the family Matriarch. 

Being the director of the business, her role is varied from overseeing operations to being hands on with creating menus for each venue, to selecting varieties of heirloom open-pollinated herbs, fruits and vegetables to grow on her organic certified farm Boon Luck Farm Organics for the table at her own restaurants as well as other leading restaurants in Australia. She is now immersed deeply in the growing of organic produce, land regeneration and wilding of NSW Northern River’s Australian landscape as a means to reverse and benefit the destructive growing methods of conventional agriculture.  

In 2020, she has published her first book On Growing and is currently the host, producer and writer for the show ‘Water, Heart, Food’ on SBS food with an upcoming stint of guest host role for the 2021 season of ABC’s Gardening Australia. Palisa’s articles on produce are featured in The Guardian where she is a regular lifestyle contributor. 

She is passionate about every aspect of food and hospitality, and loves meeting challenges that a small family business faces.