Palisa Anderson is on a mission to give you a green thumb

Most kids learn about cooking by making inedible concoctions in their parents’ kitchen, but restaurateur Palisa Anderson wasn’t most kids. Her mother, Amy Chanta, ran Sydney’s Thai food institution Chat Thai, and gave Palisa a head start in the food business.

“I learned how to do all sorts of food prep, starting with peeling garlic and prepping herbs, and then graduating onto shelling prawns and learning how to differentiate between cuts of meat and filleting fish. So I had the whole works,” she says, laughing. “My mum was a big believer in child labor.”

Young Palisa also gained an appreciation for growing your own food. “If we went to the Asian grocers and she bought some basil, we de-stemmed the basil, she'd always stick the stems into a glass of water and stick that by the window,” Palisa recalls of her mum’s kitchen gardening. “And lo and behold, a week later it just threw out these roots and we'd plant them out in the garden... Just seeing life is a really beautiful thing.”

This philosophy has extended to Boon Luck Farm in Byron Bay, where Palisa's husband Matt helps grow organic produce that supply the kitchens of Boon Café, Assamm and Samosorn.