IT IS almost one year since Faces restaurant in Citibank Plaza opened and Raymond Smith, co-partner and manager, is looking forward to celebrating with a series of unusual dinner shows.
Faces has grown up fast since it opened last October. It is not only the caricatures of Hong Kong's famous and infamous which line the walls that have expanded in number: so has the clientele.
''My partner [former JK's on the Peak chef-manager Walter Gloor] and I had always talked of opening a nice, modern restaurant serving plain, good-value food,'' said Mr Smith. ''Eventually we got round to it.'' A chef for 16 years, Mr Smith is front-of-house manager while Mr Gloor looks after the kitchen. Despite tasting dozens of different cuisines on his career travels round the world, he is a firm advocate ''simple is best''.
''I like plain, unadorned food, especially fresh fish grilled without oil or lemon and not masked by a sauce,'' he said. ''If food is fresh, it doesn't need anything extra.'' Mr Smith's tastes stem from when his family moved to the Shetland Isles off the north coast of Scotland when he was 15.
''We ate very simply because we had to,'' he said. ''In those days, basic goods were delivered by boat twice a week, but in general you only ate what you were able to grow or raise.'' Cooking was not a vocation for Mr Smith. ''I left school and went to work on a building site,'' he said. ''I had no idea what I wanted to do.'' Then the harsh winter weather forced a decision. ''It was freezing cold and miserable. So I went to work in a more hospitable environment - a hotel kitchen.'' The owners soon sent him for training on the Scottish mainland, and he repaid them by gaining the highest examination marks in Britain.
Bermuda, teaching in Britain, more exams and several years with the Hilton group in the Middle East followed, before Jimmy's Kitchen invited him to Hong Kong to manage its Central restaurant.