Ismat Awan brings her innovative approach to food and culture in this one-time collaboration
This one-night only feast, created in collaboration with culinary creative Ismat Awan, Bundanon Executive Chef Douglas Innes-Will, and artist Mehwish Iqbal, celebrates the current exhibition, Bait-al-Nahl – The House of Bees.
In Bait-al-Nahl – The House of Bees, Mehwish Iqbal positions the hive as its central motif. A structure of shared habitation, production and nurture, it recalls the human world and communities which ebb and flow around the globe through migration and displacement. ‘Bait-al-Nahl’ refers to Qur’anic verse and the role of the bee which builds its home in the mountains, trees and human structures, producing nectar to provide healing for humankind.
Inspired by these themes, Australian-born Pakistani chef Ismat Awan works alongside Douglas Innes-Will and Mehwish Iqbal to curate a feast where each course tells a story, weaving together shared cultural heritages, personal histories and culinary finesse.
4pm
Option to join a free floor talk on Bait-al-Nahl – The House of Bees by Mehwish Iqbal
Until 5pm
Art Museum open late – explore the exhibition
5pm
Twilight Feast commences
Tickets
Three Course Dinner
Beer, wine by the glass and non-alcoholic options available to purchase on the night
Appetisers, shared main course feast, plated dessert
$145 General
$130 Members
Dinner & Drinks Package
$200 General
$180 Members
3-hour wine/beer package, non-alcoholic options available
Includes Art Museum and Homestead entry
Dates & Times
6 February 2027
5pm
Location
Bundanon Art Museum
Forecourt
170 Riversdale Road, Illaroo NSW 2540
Ismat Awan’s work isn’t bound to one cuisine or one place – it moves across cultures, cities and kitchens, shaped by a life lived between them. An Australian-born culinary creative of Pakistani heritage, Ismat sees food as something lived and gathered over time, built from movement, memory and the meeting of different worlds. She was raised between Australia and Timor-Leste, has roots in Karachi, and spent years living across Europe.
Based in Gadigal Country in Sydney and working well beyond it, Ismat’s practice spans recipe development, food production, consulting and creative direction. It rests on classical culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney and Paris, and at École Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland. Yet the work itself feels far less rigid than that path might suggest. In menus, tablescapes and editorial shoots, she translates global flavours into something personal and intuitive: food that feels considered without feeling constructed.
Mehwish Iqbal is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, printmaking, textiles, ceramics, sculpture and installation. Her practice interrogates womanhood, power, migration, and the fragile states shaped by geopolitical conflict. Through community engaged processes, she creates works that respond to the resilience and vulnerabilities of marginalized people across historical and contemporary contexts. Nature forms a vital thread in her work, where animal symbolism, flora and fauna, and archaic references illuminate the tensions between human agency and hierarchical systems.
Iqbal’s recent achievements include major international residencies such as the 2025 DPA Visual Arts Residency at SAC Gallery (Thailand) and the Cité Internationale des Arts residency supported by the Art Gallery of NSW. She was a 2025 Debra Porch Award and Dyason Scholarship recipient, and her work was aquired in the 2025 Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW. Her solo exhibition Shifting Ecologies (2025) at Cité des Arts in Paris further marks her growing global presence.
