Roux and Albert

0328期

Michel Roux: Cooking with Albert

Michel Roux died on March 11th
The chef and restaurateur who, with his brother, transformed British dining was 78.

The sight was so awful that Michel Roux, then only in his 20s and new to London, quickly turned his face away. Through the window of the Lyons Corner House near Marble Arch he could see people eating British peas. The peas were fluorescent, big as quails’ eggs. And there was worse: on each side-plate a piece of sliced bread, limp as a handkerchief and bleached frighteningly white. He realised then that he had come to a land that was still in the culinary Dark Ages. And it was all Albert’s fault.

往事不堪回首，Michel Roux在他20岁的时候来到伦敦，当时的光景并不好。在Marble Arch附近，透过Lyons Corner的窗户，他能看到人们在吃英国豌豆的情形。那是一种有光泽的豆子，它们大得就像鹌鹑蛋一样。而更糟的是，每个小吃盘里面都有一块切片面包，他们像手帕一样软，白得瘆人。他当即意识到，他来到了一个烹饪的黑暗时代^[1]。而这，都是Albert的错。

turned his face away 并不是指的光景不好，而是被英国的饮食吓到。
Marble Arch: 指的是大理石拱门，位于英国^[2]。

His older brother had persuaded him to come. He had been working as a chef in London for eight years, and now had plans. Those eventually led to the founding of two restaurants, Le Gavroche in Chelsea and the Waterside Inn at Bray in Berkshire, which transformed fine dining and the whole food scene in Britain. Each venue earned three Michelin stars, something the country had never experienced before. But as Michel stood aghast in the street that day, he was torn between revolutionary fervour and despair.

他的兄弟曾劝说他来这里发展。他曾在伦敦担任厨师长八年之久，现在他有了自己的计划。最终，他们的想法促成了两座餐厅，并改写Britain的精致餐饮和整个食品行业，它们分别坐落于Chelsea^[3]的Le Gavroche^[4]，和Berkshire的The Waterside Inn^[5]。这两个餐厅都获得了米其林三星^[6]，这是这个国度从未有过的。那一天，Michel惊呆了，泪流满面，百感交集。

he was torn between revolutionary fervour and despair 指的是，改革激情和绝望中摇摆，tear应该译为 分裂 相近的意思，摇摆。

Despite the fact that Albert was dark, dumpy and short, and he was tall, fair and much handsomer, he had always looked up to him, so to speak. If Albert had been a fireman, he would have been a fireman too. As it was, Albert went young to be apprenticed to a pastry-chef, so at 14 he did the same. There at last he surpassed his brother, becoming so good at pastries and desserts that for many years he held the title of Best Pastrycook[^BestPastrycook] in France. No one could make an omelette soufflé Rothschild (succulent with apricots, perfumed with Cointreau, his tour de force when he was Cécile de Rothschild’s chef for nearly six years), the way he could. (Albert was more of a sauce man.) They bickered all the time, doing a TV cookery show later in which they flirted with filleting each other, but they made a good team; so in 1967 they bought their 90-seater restaurant in Lower Sloane Street and shook up London together.

Albert很黑，又胖又矮，Roux很高，白皙而且英俊。但可以说，他一直都很敬重Albert。如果Albert成了一个消防员，那他也会是一个消防员。事实上，Albert很小的时候就成了糕点师的学徒，14岁的时候Roux也走了一样的路。不仅如此，他还超过了他的哥哥，他同时擅长糕点和甜点，在相当长的一段时间，他都享有法国最佳糕点师的称号。没有人会做那种soufflé Rothschild奶蛋酥。 (多汁的杏子, 散发着 Cointreau^[7]的香味，这是他的绝技，6年来他都是Cécile de Rothschild^[8]的大厨)。他们总是在吵，之后的一个TV秀，他们互相挑逗着吃生鱼片，即使如此，他们仍然是绝佳的团队；1946年，他们在Lower Sloane Street买下了一座90个席位的餐厅，他们就是在这里让整个伦敦为之一震。

soufflé omelette 奶蛋酥，舒芙蕾^[9]。

What they offered was classic French-restaurant cuisine, short menus cooked fresh à la minute; not, as was the custom even in high-class British restaurants then, dishes reheated from frozen or cooked far in advance. Every ingredient was fresh too, often sourced from French suppliers whom they knew as friends. (Later, they ordered in almost everything from Rungis market in Paris.) As the business expanded, first with the Waterside Inn, then with two smaller restaurants in London, then with more down-market eateries that plain folk could almost afford, the same philosophy was applied to all of them, and a host of eager young British chefs were trained, some with Roux Scholarships, to run them.

他们提供的是传统的法式菜，简洁的菜单很快就做好了^[10]；即便是在当时高级的法国餐厅，也没有将食物解冻或者提前加热的习惯。所有的食材都是新鲜的，通常是由法国供应，他们再熟悉不过。（他们从Paris的Rungis市场^[11]采购是之后的事情了。）后来，他们的生意做大了，他们又开了一家Waterside Inn，接着是在London的两家小一点的餐厅，再然后是一些普通人也消费的起的低档餐馆，同样的理念也适用于他们，于是一大批热情的年轻厨师们受到了栽培，其中不乏有人获得了Roux奖学金^[12]来经营他们的餐厅。

这个not，后面翻译错了，是否定，not, as was the custom even in high-class British restaurants then, dishes reheated from frozen or cooked far in advance. 意为：这是一种传统，甚至是高级的法国餐厅也是这样做的——熟食加热或者提前做好。

All this made Michel enormously proud, yet it was hardly what he had expected. He had wavered about being a chef. With his looks and his deep voice—in his kitchen, he never needed a microphone—he might have made an opera singer. But love of food ran deep. Growing up as the son of a charcutier, he had learned whether it was Monday or Tuesday from the smell of boudin or andouillettes on thestairs; and his earliest memory was of beating up egg yolks which, as if by magic, thickened in the hot stock into sauce for his mother’s blanquette of veal. To run just one restaurant with Albert would have been good enough. And it was hard work: so hard that he was hardly ever at home, and his first wife divorced him. Though he knew almost no English, he still had to take his turn at front-of-house while Albert was manning the stove. They cooked and played host in alternate weeks, knowing well that if they tried to share service there might be blood.

这使得Michel无比自豪，虽然这不是他所期待的，他也曾犹豫是否要成为一个厨师。他以英俊的面孔示人，带着一副深沉的嗓音——在他的厨房里，他从来都不需要扩音器——或许他应该成为一个歌剧演唱家。但是，他对食物的爱更甚。他以一个食品商之子长大，他甚至能从飘过来的味道判断香肠的存储时间；似乎有着魔力，母亲加热着蛋黄，让它在高汤中变浓变稠，最后做成的酱汁搭配小牛肉，那样的情形在他的记忆深处萦绕不去。和Albert一起开一家餐厅，也许他应该知足了，但是这是一个棘手的事情：他几乎不在家，他的第一任妻子和他离婚了。虽然他几乎不会英语，但他还是和Albert轮流负责前厅和掌厨，几周轮换一次，他们很清楚，如果不这样，可能会影响他们的合作。

there might be blood：指的是，吵翻，结合文章来看，他们在一起总是吵架，所以他俩分工，后台下厨和前台招待。

Both of them came up with ideas, but his strength lay in details. Precision and patience were a pastrycook’s skills. It mattered to him, for instance, that commis waiters should not talk to the customers and that diners should wear ties (he almost refused entry to the Rolling Stones when they turned up without them). Every ingredient had its right place, too, and as each arrived he would taste it, unseasoned, to judge exactly where it might sit within a dish. When he and Albert produced cookery books, spreading the revolution to ordinary British kitchens, he, being a perfectionist, wrote the words, just as on their cookery shows he was the suave and particular main presenter. And in 1986 it made sense to split their interests, so that while his brother went bustling after new business he departed for Bray, to run the whitewashed former pub on the Thames they had opened a decade before.

他们都在为此出谋划策，Roux更工于细节。精湛的技艺和绝佳的耐心是一个糕点师的王牌。但是也有难倒他的事情，比如，侍者不应该和顾客有交流，用餐者应该系有领带（滚石乐队^[13]来访时，他差点因此拒绝他们。）每一种食材都有用武之地，在它们被端上桌之前，他都会亲自品尝，不加任何调料，来判断它最合理的摆放。Roux是一个完美主义者，与Albert一起出版了一本烹饪作品，并将这种改良输出到British的大众餐厅，就像他们的厨艺秀一样，他们是温文儒雅的特别主持人，他在书中如是说。1986年的时候，他们合理分割了财产，此后Albert忙于生意，而Roux去了Bray，经营一家他们在十年前装修过的旧酒吧。

1. It mattered to him：这里犯了一个低级错误，有些规矩很重要，或者，他也有一些原则
2. Commis waiter^[14]：一天一篇经济学人中提到，这个指的是初级服务生，Wiki给出了更多的解释，我觉得 初级服务生 或者 初级侍者 更加合理。
3. Every ingredient had its right place... where it might sit within a dish. 中 where it might sit within a dish，译为 在菜肴中的搭配，更合理。
4. When he and Albert ... wrote the words, 这句有人翻译为 他作为完美主义者，担任了书籍的主笔，我不知道是我理解错了还是翻译错了，存疑。

There, as the Waterside Inn reinforced its reputation (and kept its stars) with quenelles de brochet and his own sublime tarte Tatin, he could make a public virtue of being classic and old-fashioned. The dining rooms were padded deep with chintz. His wine cellar was exclusively French, for he loved his bordeaux and burgundies too well to stray—going to Bordeaux every year to taste the en primeur vintage, and cultivating his own vineyard at his villa near Saint-Tropez. Nouvelle cuisine passed him by: on his menus butter featured everywhere, irreplaceable and indispensable. And bad manners never ceased to infuriate him. The new generation of celebrity chefs struck him as sadly insecure, even unbalanced, using dreadful words and treating their underlings like dirt. He himself was kind to his chefs, and his kitchen was happy. He did not need to blanch their heads in boiling water to make sure he kept them.

这家泰晤士河畔的旧酒吧Waterside Inn凭借着quenelles de brochet^[15]和高级的tarte Tatin^[16]，其名声广为流传（并保留了原来的米其林评级），他能在古典餐饮和老式餐饮中博采众长。餐厅里铺了很厚的棉布。他的红酒是法国专供，bordeaux^[17]和burgundies^[18]是他的最爱，他不会轻易割舍——他每年都会品尝期酒^[19]，并在Saint-Tropez附近的别墅种植自己的葡萄园。一些小说中，对他一笔带过：在他的菜单中，黄油无处不在，无可替代，不可或缺。对不合礼仪的行为，他会非常愤怒。新一代的名厨使他感到强烈的不安，甚至让他发狂，他们说着可怕的话，把下属当成废物。而他总是礼貌待人，他的厨房里尽是欢声笑语。他不必责骂他们来树立威信。

1. and kept its stars：翻译错误，应该是，保持，而不是保留，没有透露出餐厅可能的降级。
2. Nouvelle cuisine passed him by，他对新式菜肴兴趣索然，此处nouvelle为新潮，新式烹饪^[20]，不是小说
3. 末尾 blanch their heads in boiling water to make sure he kept them：译为，用极端手段留住他们，kept翻译错误。

Had Britain really changed, then, since his arrival? He sometimes wondered. By 2020 London could boast three three-star Michelin restaurants—but Paris had ten. Britain now offered cuisines from all over the world, but too many new dishes were merely visual, picnic stuff that lacked depth. The best of British cooking was still the afternoon tea, with treacle tart and sponge cake and scones with jam and cream, which he and Albert both loved greedily and which had persuaded them, in the beginning, that there was hope to be found somewhere. But those peas, alas, were not yet right. They had to be fresh-shelled, to start with; cooked in butter, never water; and then, preferably, cut one by one in half before they could ever grace a plate. ■

此后Britain餐饮界发生了翻天覆地的变化，是因为他的缘故吗？他自己也很好奇。2020年，London有三家Michelin三星餐厅拿得出手——但是巴黎有十家。现在，Britain向全世界提供餐饮服务，但是太多的新菜品仅仅体现在视觉表现上，那只是一种缺乏深度的食物。那些裹着蜜糖的馅饼，松软的蛋糕，蘸着奶油和酱的烤饼，再佐以下午茶，这才是最地道的British饮食。这是Roux和Albert的钟爱，也是他们在一开始就坚持的，那是英国餐饮的希望所在。至于那些豆子，它们并没有得到正确的烹调，一开始要保证它们的新鲜再去壳；然后它们放进黄油中，不加一点水；最后，在添加调料之前将它们一分为二。■

参考

修改参考一天一篇经济学人的翻译

1. 黑暗时代（欧洲史上约为公元476-1000年），欧洲中世纪。是18世纪左右开始使用的一个名词，指中世纪早期的西欧历史；随着罗马帝国的衰落，西欧进入一个所谓的黑暗时代。 ↩

2. Marble Arch is a 19th-century white marble-faced triumphal arch in London, England. The structure was designed by John Nash in 1827 to be the state entrance to the cour d'honneur of Buckingham Palace; it stood near the site of what is today the three-bayed, central projection of the palace containing the well-known balcony. ↩

3. 伦敦自治城市，为文艺界人士聚居地 ↩

4. Le Gavroche (The Urchin) is a restaurant at 43 Upper Brook Street in Mayfair, London. It was opened in 1967 by Michel and Albert Roux although the original premises were at 61 Lower Sloane Street until 1981. ↩

5. The Waterside Inn, located in Bray, Berkshire, England, was founded by the brothers Michel and Albert Roux after the success of Le Gavroche. It is currently run by Michel's son, Alain. The restaurant has three Michelin stars, and in 2010 it became the first restaurant outside France to retain all three stars for twenty-five years. ↩

6. In 1900, there were fewer than 3,000 cars on the roads of France. To increase the demand for cars and, accordingly, car tires, car tire manufacturers and brothers Édouard and André Michelin published a guide for French motorists, the Michelin Guide. Nearly 35,000 copies of this first, free edition of the guide were distributed; it provided useful information to motorists, such as maps, tire repair and replacement instructions, car mechanics listings, hotels, and petrol stations throughout France.1 star : "A very good restaurant in its category" (Une très bonne table dans sa catégorie).2 stars : "Excellent cooking, worth a detour" (Table excellente, mérite un détour).3 stars: "Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey" (Une des meilleures tables, vaut le voyage).ps：评级标注 ↩

7. Cointreau是君度酒，水果类利口酒，君度橙酒水晶般色泽，晶莹澄澈。君度香橙是由法国的阿道来在18世纪初创造的，君度家族已成为当今世界最大的酒商之一。Cointreau is an orange-flavoured liqueur produced in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, France. It is consumed as an apéritif and digestif, and is a component of several well-known cocktails. It was originally called Curaçao Blanco. Despite the orange bottle, Cointreau is colourless. ↩

8. Cécile de Rothschild是Soufflé Rothschild的后人。a dessert soufflé created by Marie-Antoine Carême for Baron James Mayer de Rothschild (1792–1868) and Baroness Betty de Rothschild (1805–1886) in the 1820s. The Baron was a notable French banker and diplomat. It was originally flavoured with Goldwasser but is now flavoured with a variety of other liqueurs and spirits including kirsch. This dessert was a favourite of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1900–2002). ↩

9. A soufflé is a baked egg-based dish which originated in early eighteenth-century France. It is made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert. ↩

10. à la minute是法语，意为 很快，马上。 ↩

11. The Rungis International Market (French: Marché International de Rungis) is the principal market of Paris, mainly for food and horticultural products, located in the commune of Rungis, in the southern suburbs. It is the largest wholesale food market in the world. ↩

12. The Roux Scholarship is a cooking competition for up and coming chefs in the UK. Set up by the brothers Michel and Albert Roux, and now run by their sons Alain Roux and Michel Roux Jr. It was first run in 1984 with Andrew Fairlie being named the first winner. It has since been run on a yearly basis, with winners going on to win a three-month placement in a Michelin starred restaurants including the French Laundry and Maison Pic. ↩

13. The Rolling Stones：滚石乐队是一支来自英国的摇滚乐队，成立于1962年，自成立以来一直延续着传统蓝调摇滚的路线。 ↩

14. In North America, a busser, more commonly known as a busboy or busgirl, is a person who works in the restaurant and catering industry clearing tables, taking dirty dishes to the dishwasher, setting tables, refilling and otherwise assisting the waiting staff. Speakers of British English may be unfamiliar with the terms, which are translated in British English as commis waiter, commis boy, or waiter's assistant. The term for a busser in the classic brigade de cuisine system is commis de débarrasseur, or simply débarrasseur. Busboys are typically placed beneath the waiting staff in organization charts, and are sometimes an apprentice or trainee to waiting staff positions. ↩

15. quenelles de brochet：白斑狗鱼蓉，传统做法是将白斑狗鱼（pike）打成软滑鱼蓉，混入忌廉及蛋白等材料后，经长时间发酵，再以双铁匙刮成榄球状煲熟。由于制法繁复，加上材料分量要拿捏准确。WIKI:A quenelle (French pronunciation: ​[kə.nɛl]) is a mixture of creamed fish or meat, sometimes combined with breadcrumbs, with a light egg binding, formed into an egg-like shape, and then cooked. The usual preparation is by poaching. Formerly, quenelles were often used as a garnish in haute cuisine. Today, they are more commonly served sauced as a dish in their own right. Similar items are found in many cuisines. ↩

16. tarte Tatin：法式反烤苹果派，a pastry in which the fruit (usually apples) is caramelised in butter and sugar before the tart is baked. It originated in France but has spread to other countries over the years. ↩

17. bordeaux：波尔多红酒是一种葡萄酒，波尔多葡萄酒享誉世界，有“法国葡萄酒皇后”的美称，是世界公认最大的葡萄酒产地。 ↩

18. Burgundy Wines：勃艮第葡萄酒：产于法国勃艮第地区的葡萄酒统称。勃艮第产区包含101个AOC法定产区，562个一级葡萄园，33个特级葡萄园和4000多家酒庄。“勃艮第无低等级酒”，勃艮第这101个AOC法定产区在数目上占到了全法国400多个AOC产区的四分之一，但实际上葡萄酒的年产量仅仅达到了约6%而已，绝大多数勃艮第葡萄酒都是属于AOC等级，地区餐酒“Vin de Pays”的产量非常少。勃艮第产区的葡萄酒力道浑厚坚韧，与波尔多葡萄酒的柔顺恰相对立，被称为"法国葡萄酒之王"。勃艮第产区的气候和地理条件好：勃艮第产区属大陆性气候，与波尔多的海洋性气候不同，但仍不失为好葡萄产区。 ↩

19. en primeur：法语，期酒。期酒指未上市的高级酒， 先以期货形式出售（级酒需要陈年18-24个月）每年春季，世界各地的名酒酒庄，会从前一年的橡木桶中取出少量葡萄酒，并举行隆重的期酒品酒会，以便让国际品委，酒商，经销商以及葡萄酒记者更了解此年份的品质。此品评所得出的期酒年份质量，会成为其议价的重要因素，也将决定此年份的现货价格。消费者以折扣价购入期酒，陈酿后支付税费与运费便可收到现货。对于酒商来说，这笔预支现金把窖存葡萄酒投资风险部分分化转移到了消费者身上。对于消费者则是以低价买到自己心仪的葡萄酒的大好机会。 ↩

20. Nouvelle cuisine (French: [nuvɛl kɥizin]; lit. "new cuisine") is an approach to cooking and food presentation in French cuisine. In contrast to cuisine classique, an older form of haute cuisine, nouvelle cuisine is characterized by lighter, more delicate dishes and an increased emphasis on presentation. It was popularized in the 1960s by the food critic Henri Gault, who invented the phrase, and his colleagues André Gayot and Christian Millau in a new restaurant guide, the Gault-Millau, or LNouveau Guide.欧洲新式烹饪史 ↩