Not bound to one cuisine or place, Ismat Awan’s work unfolds across cultures, cities and kitchens. An Australian-born culinary creative of Pakistani heritage, she approaches food as something lived and accumulated – informed by movement, memory and the merging of different worlds.

Working across Gadigal Country, Sydney and beyond, her practice spans recipe development, food production, consulting and creative direction. It’s a multi-layered approach, underpinned by formal training at Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney and Paris, and École Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland – though the work itself feels far less rigid than the path suggests.

Raised between Australia and Timor-Leste, with roots in Karachi and years spent across Europe, Ismat understands food as something fluid. Not tied to a single origin, but built through experience. That perspective carries through everything she creates – menus, tablescapes, editorial shoots – where global flavours are translated into something personal and instinctive.

There’s a clarity to how she works. Food is treated as both craft and connector – a way to bring people together, to communicate care, to tell stories without overstating them. Her practice doesn’t try to simplify culture. It holds its complexity and invites others to meet it there.