It is morning when we meet Edgard Sanuy, who is remarkably awake and alert for a chef with a new baby at home.
“We also have a two-year-old,” he says. “My wife has to spend time with the little one so I deal more with the older one who is suddenly a little jealous. Now she has to share daddy’s attention and doesn’t understand why mama cannot be with her all the time.”
His second daughter arrived in September while he was building his third Spanish restaurant. But Sanuy remains calm in the face of it all, no matter how chaotic the kitchen gets.
Aire, which has just opened, is the Spaniard’s most ambitious project to date. It follows the success of Pica Pica, in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan neighbourhood, and Barbar, in Wan Chai – both a part of Hong Kong restaurant group Epicurean.
On the third floor of high-end mall Lee Garden One in Causeway Bay, Aire covers more than 2,000 sq ft (190 square metres) including an outdoor terrace. It is a big gamble.
At Aire, Sanuy offers the same kinds of classic tapas and paellas as at his other restaurants, but with more elaborate and lavish main courses.