食界——瞬息万变的餐饮业

Culture

文化

World in a dish -- Closer to the bone

食界——靠近本质（译者注：双关用法，bone既指骨头，也指本质）

In the fickle world of restaurants, sticking to a vision takes guts

在瞬息万变的餐饮业，坚持愿景需要勇气

It is nearly 30 years since St John opened in a former smokehouse, just to the north of the City of London.

距圣约翰在伦敦金融城以北的一个原是熏肉店的地方开业已经30年了。

Back then, the restaurant felt daringly stark: whitewashed walls and concrete floors, drinks specials on chalkboards, a high-ceilinged dining room with white tablecloths and wooden chairs, no music.

当时，这家餐厅给人的感觉非常大胆张扬：粉刷成白色的墙壁和混凝土地面，黑板上写着特饮和特色菜，餐厅的天花板很高，餐桌铺着白色桌布，椅子是木质的，不放音乐。

After the pastel-coloured 1980s, it seemed to smack of the mortuary or the operating theatre.

跟在柔和色彩占主流的20世纪80年代之后，这里似乎有点像太平间或手术室。

Today the decor is reassuringly unaltered.

时至今日，令人欣慰的是，它的装修风格依旧如故。

So is the food.

那里的食物也是如此。

St John’s menu changes daily, but its style is constant—what Fergus Henderson, its co-founder, calls “a kind of British cooking”.

圣约翰餐厅的菜单每天都在变化，但其风格却始终如一——其联合创始人费格斯·亨德森称之为“一种英式菜肴”。

It became famous in the early noughties, when the late Anthony Bourdain, an American chef, author and television presenter, rhapsodised over its roast bone marrow salad.

餐厅在本世纪初声名鹊起，当时已故的美国厨师、作家和电视节目主持人安东尼·波登对它的烤骨髓沙拉大加赞赏。

That is the only dish that almost never leaves the menu, for good reason: it is a symphony of unctuousness (marrow), brightness (a parsley, caper and shallot salad), salinity (a mound of grey sea salt) and crunch (toast), which the diner composes himself.

这是唯一一道几乎从未离开过菜单的菜肴，理由很充分：这道菜中的油脂香气(骨髓)、鲜艳色泽(欧芹、山楂和葱沙拉)、盐的调味(一堆灰色海盐)和酥脆口感(吐司)完美地融合在一起，自成一体。

Marrow and other offal favoured by Mr Henderson began appearing on menus of fashionable restaurants from Seattle to Melbourne.

从西雅图到墨尔本，亨德森青睐的骨髓和其他内脏开始出现在时尚餐厅的菜单上。

The offal fad competed with one for molecular gastronomy, with its spheres of olive juice, then gave way to farm-to-table cooking, which painstakingly detailed the provenance of every radish in a salad.

这股动物内脏潮与流行的分子料理（用橄榄汁做出小球）展开了竞争，随后又让位于“农场直达餐桌”菜肴，这类菜肴会煞费工夫地详细说明沙拉中每一个萝卜的来源。

Eventually came the narrative-driven cooking of today, in which each dish has its culturally appropriate origin story.

最终轮到了如今流行的“故事先行”菜肴，每道菜都有与其相称的文化起源故事。

The marrow is still on the menu at St John.

而圣约翰餐厅的菜单上还保留着骨髓。

Yet while the offal grabs the headlines, Mr Henderson’s kind of British cooking ultimately rests on bold, unfussy simplicity.

不过，虽然内脏赢得了风头，但亨德森先生的英式菜肴本质上建立在大胆、朴实无华的简单之上。

It is a cold-weather translation of Italian country cooking, with high-quality meat and vegetables simply prepared.

这像是意大利乡村菜肴在寒冷气候下的版本，只需将一些品质好的肉类和蔬菜简单烹饪一下。

The menu is laconic (“Snails and Oakleaf”), flavours strong and balanced, presentation a flourish above plain.

菜单简洁明了(“蜗牛和橡树叶”)，口味浓郁而均衡，呈现出一种在朴实之上开花的感觉。

Mr Henderson now has Parkinson’s disease and no longer cooks, but the restaurant hews to his vision.

亨德森现在患了帕金森氏症，不再下厨，但餐厅仍坚守着他的愿景。

In a mercurial industry, that is rare.

在一个瞬息万变的行业里，这是很少见的。

Far too many posh metropolitan restaurants share a dreary, trendy predictability, supplying the same gently upbeat music, the same mixture of vaguely Italianate and East Asian dishes, and excessively busy cocktails with poetic or suggestive names.

太多的都市高档餐厅都没什么新意、赶潮流，放着同样温和欢快的音乐，同样的不正宗的意大利和东南亚融合菜，以及品类极其杂乱的鸡尾酒，这些酒的名字充满着诗意或暗示。

There is nothing inherently wrong with that.

这本身并没有什么错。

Everyone wants to succeed, and these things sell.

每个人都想成功，而这些东西卖得好。

Castigating restaurateurs for offering them is as silly as berating directors for making superhero films.

大肆批评餐馆老板提供这些餐食，就像严厉斥责导演拍超级英雄电影一样不理智。

But while predictable restaurants and superhero movies can be successful, and sometimes even good, they cannot be truly great.

但是，尽管这些老套乏味的餐厅和超级英雄电影可能会取得成功，有时甚至会很不错，但它们不可能成就真正的伟大。

Not every singular vision succeeds, or is worth pursuing in the first place.

并不是每一种独特的愿景都能取得成功，或者从一开始就值得追求。

Stubbornness and greatness are not the same thing.

固执和伟大不是一回事。

But -- as every would-be novelist turned lawyer or sculptor turned dentist knows -- such dreams are all too easy to abandon out of fear of failure.

但是，正如每一个想成为小说家却做了律师，想成为雕塑家却成了牙医的人都知道的那样，这些梦想太容易因为害怕失败而被放弃了。

And more than most businesses, restaurants tend to fail.

餐厅比大多数其他生意都更容易失败。

To open one that goes against the grain is a risk.

开一家背逆潮流的餐厅是有风险的。

To find that same restaurant little changed, still packed with diners and still delicious after more than a quarter of a century is a quiet cause for joy.

发现这家餐厅还是老样子，几乎没有什么变化，25年过去了仍然挤满了食客，依然美味可口，是件令人会心一笑的事情。