It’s Friday afternoon at Neil Perry’s Margaret restaurant in Sydney’s Double Bay, and the city’s shiniest diners are on show. There’s more cash in the room than there are carbs on plates as the thinning lunchtime crowd downs the last of $40 glasses of sangiovese and $350 bottles of pinot.

I’m steered to a far corner inside near a window, offering a good view of the diners around me, many sporting designer clothes and branded handbags.