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SCMP Reporter

The Jade Room, also known as 'the vault', at the world-renowned Lai Ching Heen Restaurant in The Regent Hotel is not a private dining room.

  Rather, the Jade Room is a closet-size repository holding $2 million worth of exquisite jade and ivory table place settings, used daily at the restaurant.

  The 165, six-piece place settings, plus splendid jade and glass lazy susans, are the only inventory kept in this exclusive room that has its own human security system.

  A complete place setting includes one jade napkin ring, jade show plate, ivory chopsticks, jade fish chopsticks holder, jade dessert bowl on saucer, and jade spoon. They are hand-carved with the restaurant's symbol - two fish bound together with ribbon, a Chinese omen of good fortune.

  Set upon embroidered fine grey linen, the jade green settings grace each place at the elegant tables of this acclaimed Cantonese restaurant, consistently named one of the top 10 restaurants in the world.

  Located next to the kitchen, the Jade Room is also the office of Lam Lap and Barry Yeung, nicknamed 'the jade men', who are caretakers of this precious tableware. Safeguarding the table settings is their primary responsibility.

  Four times a day, every day, they count every piece of jade and ivory in the Jade Room - before the lunch seating and after, before the dinner seating and again after. With more than 1,000 pieces in total, the numbers should be exactly the same at each inventory.

  This constant reckoning assumes great importance in the restaurants' accounts since each six-piece place setting is valued at more than $8,000.

  The restaurant's security procedure never varies. Say table four is reserved for six people at 7pm. The waiter assigned to table four goes to the Jade Room and requests six place settings, 36 pieces.

   Mr Lam or Mr Yeung gently remove each piece from drawers divided into individual compartments lined in green felt, similar to a jewellery box.

  All items are hand-recorded on that day's detailed chart, showing to which table they are destined, and the name of the waiter who has checked them out. The jade and ivory settings now become the waiter's responsibility.

  When the six guests have finished dinner but - and this is most important - before the table is cleared, the waiter circles the table, making a discreet visual inventory of each place setting.

  If any pieces are missing, he reports it immediately to the restaurant manager.

  Dealing with missing pieces falls to the diplomacy of Simon Cheng, the manager at Lai Ching Heen; he bears ultimate responsibility for preventing jade and ivory pieces from leaving the dining room.

  Mr Cheng says, 'I quietly approach the host at the table and perhaps inform him that he has a telephone call.' Once away from all eyes and ears, Mr Cheng will mention that a jade fish, for example, valued at over $1,000, is missing from the table.

  When confidentially confronted, the guest usually makes one of three replies. 'He will immediately offer to pay for the piece, asking that we add it to his bill. Or if he knows who has taken the piece, he may assure me that it will be put back on the table. Or he might deny any knowledge,' says Mr Cheng.

  What are the most popular items to go missing? The jade fish chopsticks holders and the ivory chopsticks. How often does it happen? Almost every day. Still, most incidents are resolved quietly.

  When the guests at table four have left the dining room, the waiter removes each valuable place setting and returns the pieces to the Jade Room where they are checked back in, on the same chart. Hopefully 36 out, 36 in.

  Late in the evening, when the dining room has emptied of guests, the used place settings are carefully removed from the Jade Room to the kitchen where they are washed in warm, soapy water.

  Once cleaned, the pieces are returned home to the Jade Room, where Mr Lam or Mr Yeung makes minor repairs, then inventory for the fourth and last time that day. Finally, all pieces are put back into the drawers, ready for tomorrow. It is a laborious process, but given the value of the collection a necessary chore.

  At the end of every month, the daily check-in/check-out sheets are hand-recorded in a large ledger.

   By factoring in lost and broken pieces against current inventory, the restaurant knows when to reorder new pieces.

  Should you fall in love with the lovely jade place settings, The Regent Hotel's Chocolate Shop sells individual pieces, or complete settings except for chopsticks.

  Many would argue that place settings valued at $2 million are entirely appropriate for serving the exquisite cuisine prepared by Chef Cheung Kam-chuen. Certainly there are no more beautifully set tables anywhere in Hong Kong.



The jade jailers