Four Seasons Hotel

The Four Seasons Hotel in HK (not to be confused with the Four Seasons Hostel) opened in 2005. Despite working in Central and being very close to the hotel, I've never actually been inside until last night.

A friend of mine had his wedding reception in one of the ballrooms there last night. As you can imagine from a luxury hotel which charges HK$4,200 per night, the place is sickeningly opulent. Alternatively, you could say it was the perfect spot to house the reception for a high ranking Senior Manager (and hopefully soon-to-be partner)!

As can be expected at a chinese wedding banquet, many of the dishes are fairly standard (eg roasted suckling pig, crispy skin chicken etc). It's times like this that the skill of a chef can really shine through. When a particular type of food becomes so common that it can be acquired virtually anywhere, the chef which can make that dish stand out really deserves plaudits.

The banquet food last night, as can be expected at a top hotel, was nice. Admittedly, it wasn't blow-me-away brilliant but I suspect this is as much my fault for having ridiculously high expectations in the first place. Certainly, the only fault I can find was that the chicken was a bit too salty (admittedly a question of preference).

Anyway, lots of highlights for the evening. However, if I had to pick three, I would go with:

Baked avocado - This is the first time that I have ever had a baked avocado stuffed with seafood at a wedding banquet. At a time when all wedding banquet menu's seem to be standardised, a change from the norm is extremely refreshing!

Groom's speech - My friend last night was both hilarious and very touching in his speech. Normally, he is a very serious guy whose laugh is more like a quick smile together with a sharp "ha". Caught me completely by surprise.

Partner speech - One of the senior partners at my firm was invited to give a speech as well. The partner in question is very senior. Despite this, his speech was hilarious with lots of personal and extremely well thought out comments. I was very impressed by his ability to connect with the audience while showing a funny and sensitive side.