Decadence is best when it’s for a good cause and so I always look forward to the annual Chandon Supper Club, the mass dinner party across Sydney (and other cities, although they do it will less style, of course) that mobilises our party armies to use ‘the power of fun’ for good.

More than 600 of our revelry regulars spread themselves around d50 dinner parties at top restaurants in aid of Camp Quality’s mission to bring well-earned light relief to children with cancer.  This widespread mix of indulgence and kindness is one of the spectacles that best sums up our well-meaning, good-time gal of a city.

Without Star Trek technology or James Bond surveillance there’s no way to witness all the dinner parties but I embark on a culinary crawl around as many as possible, materializing like a friendly spectre at the feasts. 

This year the theme was “paint the town red” and I was travelling in a ruby red Lexus steered by Charlie, a driver with superior shortcut skills.  First, we washed up in Bondi, where the Louis Vuitton crew were dining in sleek minimalism at Icebergs.  They had deployed the red theme with restraint – a shoe here, a lipstick there.  Maurice Terzini had delivered a table of Italian delights and I caught a brief whiff of air-freighted buffalo mozzarella before vanishing to the State Theatre, where the Westfield crowd’s presence was indicated by a red glow.

I found them on stage, bathed in red spotlights and seated at a grand table bedecked with big, scarlet gothic candles, strewn with red roses and groaning with banquet food,  This fashion-dominated gathering boasting Marnie-Skillings, Alex Perry and the Zimmermanns, was like a scene from Phantom Of The Opera, without the angst and dodgy tunes.  It was so pretty they should have sold tickets.

Next we ascended to lofty dining cathedral Forty One, where Sara Groen and Kate Ritchie had joined the Camp Quality’s own table.  I reminded them to sneak in and check out the men’s urinals, which have the best view in town.

Over at The Country Trader an elegant little table hosted by Andrew de Saxe was crowned with a chandelier made of antlers and red flowers.  At Ivy, Justin Hemmes and his pals had colonized Ash Street Cellar.  I arrived in time to sample Lauren Murdoch’s melt-in-the-mouth “mandarin delicious” dessert.

It was time for all dinner parties to converge in a climactic after-party at a secret location the cavernous theclub in Kings Cross.  In they flocked and there they stayed, celebrating good times, good hearts and the good news that although the night have been red, the total raised was firmly in the black; over $1 million so far.

 

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