The Proof Supper Club

Proof Supper Clubs are multi course food and wine matched dinners held at different locations around the world. Each year pizza oven brand Gozney hosts a world tour of these dinners at 7 secret locations around the world in conjunction with 9 notable chefs. Come along as we try Sydney's second Gozney Supper Club and find out who the chef is, what is on the menu and what other surprises are in store!

It's a Wednesday night in Sydney and Mr NQN and I are at Rose Bay ferry wharf. We've received a couple of details about tonight's Proof Supper Club event, namely that chef Analiese Gregory from Tasmania will be cooking and it will be held on Clark Island but that's it. Analiese left behind the acclaimed restaurants of Paris’s Le Meurice and Sydney’s Quay and moved to a century-old cottage in Tasmania where she hunts, fishes, forages and cooks with the seasons.

Each Gozney Proof supper club is unique. Last year's Proof Supper Club was at Crypto Castle in South Coogee. Tickets go on sale 1 month before the event and are $150 per person and often sell out within minutes and are open to anyone interested. Each ticket includes canapes, cocktails as well as multi course dinner and matching wines. Guests find out the location one week prior to the event. This year Australia has two supper clubs; tonight's dinner in Sydney and Melbourne with Matt Stone on the 30th of January, 2025.

Gozney was founded by Tom Gozney who started the brand when he was in the throes of a drug and alcohol addiction. After completing a year in rehab in South Africa he found himself at a crossroads. Trying to shrug off his identity as a wild guy he focused on something else. He started investing time into cooking and building a pizza oven and inviting his friends over for homemade pizza. He found this to be a more meaningful way to relate to people bringing people together around food and fire.

The weather is holding up its end of the bargain, at least for the moment. It's a steady 22°C/71.6°F with little wind and no rain as we make our way across Sydney Harbour to Clark Island via water taxi.

"It's like a cult," laughs a woman I'm talking to about Gozney. Mr NQN is definitely a member of the Gozney cult and although I love our Gozney, he really, really, really loves it and will happily sit in the garden patiently waiting for the Gozney Dome to come to temperature just watching the flames. And full disclosure Dear Reader we were given our Gozney like many chefs and media but with no expectations of a favourable review, only an honest one.

But back to the event. As we step off the water taxi we are offered gin cocktails with thyme. While we sip these we also drink in the view of Sydney Harbour. In one area there is a caricature artist and in another they are applying semi permanent tattoos. These transfer tattoos won't show up until the following day and last for 2 weeks. There are a range of designs to choose from (all pizza themed of course) and I go for the word "Spicy" and a slice of pizza. Mr NQN has a slice of pizza while others choose anchovies, bottles of chilli oil or basil.

There are chefs making pizzas that we can help ourselves to in a variety of toppings. We were advised to wear flat shoes and for good reason. If you want to have a peek at the new Gozney you will have to climb up the rock path past a tent, surrender your phone and camera and take a look at it with your eyes only. I'm not even allowed to mention the name or any specs!

We are soon called to follow a path around the island to the tents where dinner will take place. More drinks are proffered as well as divine Comte cheese gougeres with honey and kunzea that are ethereally light and moreish.

Analiese and her team are busy cooking scallops in the Gozneys. These scallops are topped with wild wakame seaweed butter. Dinner is free seating so we grab a couple of seats.

To start there is a gorgeously cheesy abalone and mushroom pizzetta with a tangy, herby oyster ranch crust dipper (I love crust dippers as I love pizza crust!). There's also a very moreish chargrilled octopus on smoked macadamia pure with pickled currants and radishes with puffed quinoa for crunch. I love the range of textures in every bite.

The main of glazed duck cooked on the crown and glazed with wild fennel is quite pink, perhaps too pink for many at the table. The actual meat is succulent and juicy though and the flavours are fantastic, particularly on the skin at the underside of the duck where the skin is more rendered.

On the side are a layered Pommes Anna with a garlicky sheep's milk yogurt and a plate of bitter leaves with walnuts, rosemary and cherry vinegar dressing.

By the time dessert is being served, the heavens open and rain pours down but we are protected in the tent and feast on a dessert by Shadow Baking. It's a cup of burnt raspberry meringue with early season caramelised peaches with toasted vanilla brulee, raspberry gel and burnt vanilla Messina gelato.

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever been to a supper club? What do you think of this one?

NQN and Mr NQN attended the Proof Supper Club media dinner as guests of Gozney but all opinions remain her own.

Gozney

https://au.gozney.com/