PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIAStuart Prosser, water and seafood are inseparable. When he isn’t cooking seafood, he’s on his boat, diving for Queen scallops in The Channel, pulling crays from the reefs off Bruny, preparing and eating abalone he’s collected from the deep waters off Betsy Island or jagging squid and calamari. His restaurant sits perched above the River Derwent where diners can watch the play of yachts and wind surfers, the passage of the Hobart fishing fleet, cray boats, Antarctic ice breakers and the occasional ocean liner. And he translates this aquatic passion onto the plate, cooking and serving the best and most creative seafood dishes in the state.
The Prossers are an extended restauranting family. For Stuart, cooking’s in his blood. He brings to his food not only an experienced and passionate palate but a mastery of contemporary Thai, Japanese, French and Mediterranean techniques and flavours. Freshness – fresh seafood, cleaned, filleted, freshly prepared and cooked to order - is the key to his food, combined with presentations of elegant simplicity that allow the ingredients to shine, best enjoyed in his degustation menus. Add a wine list that reflects his other love, a few non-fishy menu items and a professionally relaxed front of house run by his wife and you have the full dining package.
Graeme Phillips