墨西哥名廚恩裏克・奧爾韋拉的烹飪創新
WHEN CHEF ENRIQUE OLVERA OPENED his restaurant, Pujol, 13 years ago, his only goal was to serve 'solid, tasty food' and be 'the best restaurant in the neighborhood,' he says. But that neighborhood was Mexico City's Polanco, the dining epicenter for a city of 8.5 million, and Olvera's budget was so small that his wife had to paint the walls. Since then, Pujol has far surpassed its initial aims: It's now widely thought of as Mexico's finest restaurant-and the 36th best in the world, according to the much-scrutinized S. Pellegrino rankings; and Olvera, who trained at New York's Culinary Institute of America before returning home, is the country's most well-known chef. He reached his position by making his cuisine 'fancier and fancier, and more complex' over time. Pujol now serves a tasting menu of innovative, sophisticated food that wouldn't look out of place at England's Fat Duck or New York's Momofuku Ko. Olvera is also one of the leading exponents of Mexico's new gastronomy, which combines elaborate, cutting-edge technique with a strong emphasis on local ingredients to create a cosmopolitan cuisine that's at once international yet unmistakably Mexican-paralleling the direction of Mexico City itself.
墨西哥名廚恩裏克・奧爾韋拉(Enrique Olvera)於13年前開辦了自己的餐廳――Pujol，他說他當時唯一的目標就是做出“貨真價實、美味可口的食物”，打造“全社區最棒的餐廳”。不過，這個社區可是墨西哥城的波蘭科(Polanco)，它是這個擁有850萬人口的城市的餐飲中心，而奧爾韋拉的預算又非常少，他的妻子都不得不親自上陣刷 。自那以後，奧爾韋拉取得的成績已遠超他最初的目標，如今Pujol已被普遍認爲是墨西哥最好的餐廳，而且還在備受關注的 培露(S. Pellegrino)評級中位列全球最佳餐廳的第三十六位。在回國之前，奧爾韋拉曾在紐約的美國烹飪學院(Culinary Institute of America)接受培訓，現在他是墨西哥最負盛名的大廚。他通過逐步使他的菜式“越來越新奇、越來越複雜”坐上了今日的位置。現在Pujol推出了一系列有創新性、精細複雜的菜品，把它們放在英格蘭的Fat Duck餐廳或紐約的MomofukuKo餐廳也不會顯得上不了檯面。奧爾韋拉還是墨西哥新烹飪法的主要代表人物之一，該烹飪法將精妙前沿的技術與對本地食材的注重結合在一起，以此創造出既國際化同時又無疑具有墨西哥特色的世界性的菜餚，這一點與墨西哥城自身的發展方向不謀而合。A visit to the 48-seat Pujol reveals a space-age kitchen containing 27 cooks, including a number of stagiaires who have flown thousands of miles to work for free-one spends hours picking cilantro flowers with tweezers; another is making his fifth attempt to perfect an apparently simple dish. As Pujol has become a place that attracts free labor ('if you want to stage here now, you have to wait until 2014,' says Olvera), the chef has begun to think more about bringing Mexican cooks home from the U.S. He'd like them to move past the glass ceiling that exists in America (despite the number of Mexicans working in U.S. restaurants, 'you rarely see a Mexican head chef in a New York kitchen,' Olvera points out) and advance their careers on their home turf. As Olvera guides his cooks through lunchtime service-'Hey, make that blob of sauce more the size of a walnut'; 'You: pull your hat down'-he talks about coming home, tradition and innovation, and how a Disney movie changed one of the world's best restaurants.
Pujol餐廳共有48個座位，它的超現代的廚房中現在有27名廚師，包括一羣從數千英里之外飛來免費幹活的實習廚師。其中一名實習廚師要花數個小時用鑷子挑選香菜花，另一人則在第五次嘗試使一道表面上簡單的菜品變得完美。由於Pujol已成爲一個能吸引免費勞力的地方（奧爾韋拉稱：“如果你想在這兒實習，那得等到2014年了。”），奧爾韋拉已經開始考慮要將墨西哥廚師從美國吸引回國。他希望他們能繞過存在於美國的“玻璃天花板”（儘管有大量墨西哥廚師在美國的餐廳工作，但奧爾韋拉指出“你在紐約的餐廳很少能看到一位墨西哥主廚”），回到自己的國家發展他們的事業。他一邊指導廚師們準備午餐――“喂，把那團醬弄成一個核桃的大小”；“你，把帽子拉低些”――一邊談論著有關回國、傳統與創新的問題，以及一部迪斯尼(Disney)的影片如何改變了這家位列全球最佳的餐廳。ENRIQUE OLVERA: 'Mexico City is changing quickly, and restaurants are in a really good spot. There's more attention from the rest of the world on Mexican food. Fifteen years ago, I wouldn't have thought it would be considered a high-level cuisine and valued the same as Italian or Spanish food-especially in Mexico. Foreigners have always liked our food, but they thought of it as very causal, almost like street food. Now they're realizing there's sophistication to it, and there's potential to make not just tasty food but also food of a very high quality.
墨西哥城在迅速改變，餐飲處於一個非常有利的位置，世界其他地方更關注墨西哥美食了。放在15年前，我不會想到它會被人視爲高端菜系，會和意大利菜和西班牙菜受到同樣的重視――尤其是在墨西哥。外國人一直都喜歡我們的食物，但以前他們認爲它是非常簡便隨意的，幾乎就像街邊小吃一樣。現在他們意識到它也有精妙複雜之處，它不僅能夠提供美味的食物，也能夠提供品質非常高的食物。
This is a cosmopolitan city with influences from Europe, the local culture and the U.S. It's a very nice mix of the three components, and Mexicans are starting to fall in love with that mix. If you look at Pujol, with the decoration and the food, it's Mexican-you feel like you are in Polanco; you don't feel like you're in New York-but it's not all pink with mariachis and crap like that, because that's not Mexico City.
這是一個國際化都市，受到歐洲、本土文化及美國的影響。它是這三個要素的絕佳融合體，如今墨西哥人開始喜歡上了這種融合。看看Pujol，它的這些裝飾和食物，你會發現它是墨西哥風格的，你會感覺自己身在波蘭科，不會覺得自己在紐約。但是，它一點也不低俗，沒有像墨西哥流浪樂隊那樣的低俗表演，因爲這不是墨西哥城的風格。At the restaurant we used to do a lot of reinterpretations of traditional Mexican dishes, but then we got tired of it and started trying to create new dishes with a very strong Mexican base. Until two or three years ago, all the ingredients had to be Mexican and they also had to be authentic, so, for example, we wouldn't use parsnip. But you know that movie Ratatouille? In the beginning, the head chef, Gusteau, is on TV and he says, 'You cannot limit your creativity because of the place that you were born,' and I remembered that later and figured it was true. So we started incorporating ingredients that are originally from other parts of the world. We said, 'If it grows in Mexico, fine, we use it.' For example, now a lot of Mexicans eat broccoli. It's the second-largest crop in the center of the country, so why shouldn't we do broccoli? We brought in a little more of our own vision. That was the first year we got on the list of 'The World's 50 Best Restaurants.'
以前我們的餐廳常常做很多重新詮釋傳統墨西哥菜餚的菜品，後來我們感到厭煩，開始嘗試創造擁有非常厚重的墨西哥傳統根基的新菜品。直到兩三年前，所有的食材還都必須是墨西哥的，而且必須是正宗的，比如說我們就不會採用歐洲蘿蔔。你知道《美食總動員》(Ratatouille)這部電影嗎？影片一開始，廚師長古斯多(Gusteau)就在電視上講道，‘你不能讓你出生的地方限制了你的創造力’，後來我想起了這句話，明白了事實確實如此。因此，我們開始混入源自世界其他地區的食材。我們說：“如果它生長在墨西哥，那好，我們就用它。’比如說，現在很多墨西哥人都吃西蘭花了。它是我們國家中部地區的第二大作物，所以我們爲什麼不用西蘭花做菜呢？我們加入了更多一些我們自己的想象。那是我們登上“全球50大最佳餐廳”榜單的第一年。Most people think they have to choose between tradition and doing modern food. We do both-they can coexist nicely in a dish and definitely on a menu. You always cherish where you come from, but I also have the need for new sensations, and to improve on those old traditions. It's not just about innovation for its own sake-it's to get to a better dish. For example, when you nixtamalize corn to make tortillas, the traditional recipe is to boil the corn with limestone, let it sit overnight outside, then grind it at the mill. But perhaps you can get to a better masa if you sous-vide the corn at 65 degrees, without the huge temperature shock. You might, so why not do it? You try it, and if it's better, you change it; if it's not, you keep doing the traditional style. If you were an architect, it would be really stupid to be building houses like you were 50 years ago. The kitchen's the same thing. If you want tradition to be alive, you have to keep doing things with it. Time will tell who's doing good stuff.
大多數人都認爲他們必須在傳統菜與現代菜之間做出選擇。我們兩樣都做，它們能很好地共存於一道菜中，當然也能在同一份菜單上共存。人總是珍視自己的傳統，但我也需要新感覺，也需要改進那些舊傳統。這不只是爲了創新而創新，而是爲了做出一盤更美味的菜。例如，如果你想用 性溶液處理玉米去做玉米粉圓餅，傳統方法是煮玉米時加入石灰石，接下來把玉米放在外面涼一晚，然後再去磨坊將它磨成粉。然而，假如你在華氏65度的溫度下用真空低溫烹飪法對它進行處理，沒有了劇烈的溫度變化，磨出來的粉或許會更好。你能這麼做，那麼爲什麼不去做呢？你可以去試試，如果效果更好，你就改變方法；如果效果並沒有更好，那你就繼續按傳統方式做。假如你是位建築師，如果你還像50年前一樣建房子是非常愚蠢的行爲。廚房之事也是一樣，如果你想讓傳統延續下去，你就得不斷地對它進行改進，時間會告訴大家誰做的是好事。The Mexican cooks in the U.S. didn't go there to cook; it's just poor people that have no opportunities, that don't see a future in Mexico, so they go to the U.S. Once they arrive, they have very few options for work. My dream-and I think it's the dream of a lot of people here-is that they don't need to go there and feel unwanted. If they go, it's fine, but they should be hired. People should call you and say, 'I want you to come and work at my restaurant,' like they do with other nationalities. It's the nature of how it works and I understand that. But if we can change that a little it'd be nice.
在美國的墨西哥廚師當初去那兒並不是爲了做廚師的，他們只是沒有機會、在墨西哥又看不到未來的窮人，所以他們去了美國。到了那兒之後，他們可選擇的工作非常少。我的夢想是――而且我認爲這也是很多人的夢想――有一天他們不需要跑去那兒感覺自己是多餘的。如果他們去了，沒問題，但是他們應該有就業機會。應當有人打電話給他們說，‘我希望你來我的餐廳工作’，就像他們對待其他族裔的人一樣。當然，事情的發展原本就是這樣的，我也理解這一點，但是如果我們能對它做一點點改變，那也是不錯的。I don't think cooks abroad realize Mexico has changed cuisinewise. And when they come back they see there's this huge potential. I think we should spread the word that there are good restaurants here in Mexico. If you compare the amount of money you make and the quality of life, it's almost the same. Yes, in New York you might earn $60,000 as a pastry chef, and here you might earn $3,000, but the rent is much cheaper, you don't have to be sending money home and you're with your own people. Most of the cooks here have worked in Europe or the States, and when they come back they appreciate the ingredients more and they see the possibilities of working with Mexican products. I also like the idea of Mexicans leaving Mexico and coming back because I did it myself. You realize what you like about your own country when you're outside it.'
我覺得在國外的廚師沒有意識到墨西哥在烹飪方面發生了變化。他們回來時就會發現這兒原來有這麼巨大的潛力，我認爲我們應當向世界傳播墨西哥也有好餐廳的消息。如果你對收入的數量與生活的質量進行比較，在墨西哥和在國外幾乎都是一樣的。是的，在紐約做糕點廚師你或許能掙60,000美元，在這兒也許你只能掙3,000美元，但是這兒的房租要便宜得多，你不必把錢寄回家，而且你能和自己的家人呆在一起。我們這兒的大多數廚師都曾在歐洲或美國工作過，他們回來後對於食材有了更多的理解和認識，能看到利用墨西哥食材進行烹飪的種種可能。我也喜歡墨西哥人離開自己國家然後再回來，因爲我自己就是這麼做的。當你身處異國時，你會明白你喜歡自己國家的哪些方面。
