周英華與屹立不倒的中餐館傳奇

Michael Chow looked at ease in his favorite banquette at the Carlyle hotel, beneath a portrait of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in their Easy Rider prime, but something in his peripheral vision nagged at him.

周英華看上去輕鬆自在，他坐在卡萊爾飯店自己最心愛的靠牆軟座裏，頭上是一幅彼得•方達(Peter Fonda)與丹尼斯•霍珀(Dennis Hopper)的照片，照片上的兩人正值出演《逍遙騎士》(Easy Rider)的全盛時期。但是透過眼角餘光，他看到的景象有點讓他心煩。

A nearby couple had gotten up to avail themselves of the breakfast buffet, leaving their table askew.

不遠處有對伴侶起身去拿自助早餐，他們的桌子歪歪斜斜地放在那兒。

Through his signature circular spectacles, Mr Chow kept darting glances that way.

周英華透過他標誌性的圓形眼鏡不住地盯着那邊。

The table’s not straight, he finally said, giving the impression that he was prepared to get up and tackle the symmetry issue on his own if need be.

桌子放得不正，最後他說，讓人覺得，如果有必要，他好像打算親自過去解決這個對稱問題。

I’ve been in the restaurant business too long.

我在餐飲行業待得太久了。

That longevity, he contends, has hinged on his paying attention to countless details, both great and small.

他強調，正是由於對各種細節事無鉅細的關注，他才能這麼持久。

Mr Chow opened Mr Chow — the original, in a glamorous neighborhood of London — on Valentine’s Day in 1968.

1968年的情人節那天，周英華在倫敦的繁華地帶開了最早的一家Mr Chow餐廳。

Almost half a century later, at the age of 77, he can remember how that felt.

將近半個世紀之後，77歲的他還記得當時的感覺。

On the first night, everybody came: the Stones, the Beatles, he said.

第一天晚上，所有人都來了：滾石(Stones)、披頭士(Beatles)，他說。

Everybody was rocking.

所有人都那麼搖滾。

The energy there was fantastic.

氣場棒極了。

It snowballed.

他的生意越做越大。

A Beverly Hills, Calif., branch opened in 1974; in 1978, Mr Chow came to East 57th Street, and 10 years ago, to TriBeCa.

1974年，他在加利福尼亞州的比佛利山莊開了分店；1978年，Mr Chow來到了東57街；10年前，又來到了翠貝卡。

Everything that was surging in high art and pop culture seemed to converge and collide over noodles and dumplings at Mr Chow.

高雅藝術和流行文化界的一切新潮似乎都在Mr Chow餐廳擺列麪條和餃子的餐桌上融匯、碰撞。

He ticked off the names of film directors, musicians, actors, painters and models like Federico Fellini, Daniel Barenboim, Jack Nicholson, David Hockney, Yoko Ono, Jerry Hall.

他談起不少電影導演、音樂家、演員、畫家和模特的名字，比如費德里科•費里尼(Federico Fellini)、丹尼爾•巴倫博伊姆(Daniel Barenboim)、傑克•尼克爾森(Jack Nicholson)、大衛•霍克尼(David Hockney)、小野洋子和傑莉•霍爾(Jerry Hall)。

But along with success came scrutiny, including a scathing zero-star review in The New York Times from Frank Bruni, who wrote in 2006 of a lamb shank at the TriBeCa restaurant: If I learned that it had been plucked from a freezer after the better part of a decade and then nuked in a microwave for the better part of a day, I’d be shocked.

但是伴隨成功而來的還有挑剔。比如2006年，《紐約時報》上就曾經刊登過一篇尖刻的餐評，給Mr Chow打了零星，作者是弗蘭克•布魯尼(Frank Bruni)。他這樣描寫翠貝卡餐廳的一份羊腿肉：如果我知道它是在冰箱裏放了快10年纔拿出來，然後又在微波爐里加熱了差不多有一天，我會震驚的。

It didn’t taste nearly that tender or flavorful.

它嚐起來遠沒有那麼柔嫩美味。

Adam Platt, the New York magazine critic, reported that a dish called Drunken Fish ($31 à la carte) consisted of a couple of wet pieces of sole sunk in a curious gelatinous substance which had no color and very little taste and looked perilously like pond slime.

《紐約》(New York)雜誌的評論家亞當•普拉特(Adam Platt)寫道：一盤名叫醉魚（單點31美元）的菜裏有兩片溼呼呼的鰈魚，泡在沒有顏色，也沒什麼味道的奇怪膠質物裏面，看上去簡直有點像池塘裏的爛泥。

Under normal circumstances, lines like those would be enough to sink a restaurant. Yet the Mr Chows in Los Angeles and New York are still thriving, drawing celebrities and other customers who weren’t born yet in 1968, or 1974, or 1978.

一般情況下，這樣的評論足夠毀掉一家餐廳，但是洛杉磯和紐約的Mr Chow餐廳仍然紅火，吸引着各界名流和其他在1968年、1974年和1978年還沒出生的賓客們。

Somehow, at a time when 10 years seems a full life span for big-city restaurants, Mr Chow persists, and even grows.

如今這個時代，對於大城市的餐廳來說，10年似乎已經足以走完從盛到衰的生命歷程，但是Mr Chow卻生存下來，而且還在發展壯大。

A Las Vegas outpost arrived at Caesars Palace late last year; a Mexico City version is around the corner, and Mr Chow is building a 60,000-square-foot art and cuisine center in Los Angeles.

去年年底，它的拉斯維加斯分店在凱撒宮開張；墨西哥城店也快要開了，周英華目前還在洛杉磯打造一家佔地6萬平方英尺的藝術與美食中心。

In this sense, the Mr Chow brand has evolved into a prime example of the bulletproof restaurant.

在這個意義上，Mr Chow已經發展爲一個屹立不倒的餐廳的典型。

Just as there are superhero movies and hit songs that continue to rally a wide audience despite the wincing disapproval of critics, the allure of Mr Chow does not seem to dim no matter how many times customers are told that they’re crazy to pay that much for stir-fry.

雖有評論家們的皺眉反對，超級英雄電影和熱門金曲還在繼續吸引大批觀衆和聽衆；同理，不管消費者被告知多少次，花那麼多錢吃Mr Chow的炒菜簡直是發瘋，它的魅力似乎依然沒有減弱分毫。

If critics tend to say that nobody goes to Mr Chow for the food, Mr Chow and his wife, Eva, who plays a key role in the brand’s expansion, beg to differ.

評論家們會說，人們去Mr Chow根本不是爲了吃飯，周英華和他的妻子，在品牌擴張中發揮了關鍵作用的艾娃(Eva)對此不能苟同。

Their fare is an authentic reflection of Beijing cuisine, they say, and they recruit chefs and cooks from Hong Kong and Beijing to prepare it.

他們說，他們的菜餚是北京菜的真實反映，而且，他們的主廚和廚師都是從香港和北京聘請的。

Sticky-sweet, gooey-sweet and crunchy-sweet can seem to be the dominant effects, but for diners who hew closely to the dependable territory of soup dumplings and salt-and-pepper prawns, a pleasant meal can be had.

菜品的主要口感似乎是甜膩、甜糊和甜脆，但是對於那些只點可靠的菜餚，比如餛飩與鹹辣口味的對蝦的食客們來說，他們還是可以享受到愉快的一餐。

Should you point out that the prices seem punishingly high (Beijing duck, for instance, is $74 per person), Mr Chow will smile and nod in affirmation.

如果你說，這裏的菜價實在高得過分（比如，北京烤鴨是74美元一位），周英華會笑着點頭表示同意。

Steep prices are part of the strategy.

極高的價格也是戰略的一部分。

People say, ‘Oh, it’s so expensive,’ he said.

人們會說，‘啊，太貴了’，他說。

I say, ‘Fantastic!’ He added: Expensive is important.

我卻說，‘太棒了！’他補充說，昂貴是很重要的。

Very important.

非常重要。

First off, charging exorbitant prices has allowed him to make a statement about the cuisine of his homeland. (His name at birth, in Shanghai, was Zhou Yinghua; his father, Zhou Xinfang, was a titanic star of the Peking Opera.)

首先，定高價是他對自己家鄉菜的一種宣示（周英華在上海出生，他的父親周信芳是一位京劇大師）。

Chinese food was supposed to be cheap, Mr Chow said.

中國菜過去一直被當做便宜貨，周英華說。

I changed all that.

我改變了這一點。

But it took me almost half a century.

但是這花了我將近半個世紀的時間。

He is happy to go further. (Too old to be too cautious, he said.)

他還樂於走得更遠（我太老了，來不及謹慎行事了，他說）。

Are those pricey portions at Mr Chow noticeably small? Yes, he said, on purpose.

Mr Chow的昂貴菜品菜量是不是特別少呢？是的，他說，這是故意的。

He always wanted portion sizes to stand in stark opposition to the heaping platters at chain restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory, where you might dig into a salad you keep eating for two hours.

他一直希望Mr Chow的菜量和Cheesecake Factory之類連鎖店的大盤子大碗形成鮮明對比，在那樣的地方，沙拉能讓你吃上兩個鐘頭。

(At breakfast in the Carlyle, he consumed only a bowl of plain yogurt.)

（在卡萊爾飯店吃早飯時，他只吃了一碗原味酸奶）。

High prices have also allowed him to foster the see-and-be-seen cachet he wants to cultivate.

高昂的價格也讓他爲餐廳創造出那種上流場所的氣派，那正是他想要的。

To this day, a Champagne cart rolls up alongside your table when you sit down at Mr Chow.

直到今天，在Mr Chow入座時，侍者還會推着香檳車走過你的桌邊。

Champagne is luxury, he explained.

香檳是奢侈品，他解釋說。

There’s no luxury without fantasy.

有奢侈品就有幻想。

And no fantasy without sex.

有幻想就有性。

Does it seem like kind of a show? It’s supposed to.

這聽上去有點像作秀？要的就是這個效果。

It’s all about theater, said Mr Chow, also a painter whose artwork was recently shown in an exhibition at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

這一切都是戲劇性效果，周英華說。他也是一個畫家，作品前不久曾在匹茲堡的安迪•沃霍爾美術館展出。

It’s very important that you cast it like a theater.

像打造一齣戲劇那樣去塑造它，這很重要。

It’s all about, ‘Don’t bore the audience.’

一切都是爲了‘別讓觀衆感到無聊’。

Servers, whose ancestral homelands are apt to lie closer to the Mediterranean than to the Yellow Sea, hover like Broadway stagehands, making sure that props are in place.

餐廳服務員的祖國大多更靠近地中海，而不是黃海。他們像百老匯的舞臺工作人員一樣忙來忙去，確保道具就位。

At his table at the Carlyle, Mr Chow demonstrated how he always wants the tines of a fork to be pointed downward, toward the table.

在卡萊爾飯店的桌邊，周英華演示了他如何一直要求擺放叉子時，叉子尖一定要向下，衝着桌面（他總是擔心如果叉尖向上，如果有人不小心拍在上面，會讓叉子飛起來，刺中眼睛）。

(He harbors an anxiety that when they are pointed upward, someone could accidentally smack them and send the fork flying into an eye.) It can take weeks, he said, to teach a server to place the utensils properly.

他說，教會一個侍者怎樣擺好餐具可能需要花費好幾周的時間。

If you build an environment based on details like that, you will create a harmony, he said.

如果你營造這樣一種建立在細節基礎上的氛圍，就能創造出一種和諧，他說。

Every single thing you do properly.

每一件小事都做得恰如其分。

It’s all connected.

一切都是聯繫在一起的。

Julian Schnabel, the artist and filmmaker who has been a Mr Chow regular since around 1980, said that sense of harmony can be felt from the moment you pass through the front door.

藝術家、導演朱利安•施納貝爾(Julian Schnabel) 自從1980年左右便是Mr Chow的常客。他說，一走進大門，便可以感受到那種和諧。

You feel like you’re going somewhere auspicious when you go there, he said.

到那裏去，你會覺得來到了一個吉祥的地方，他說。

There’s a sense of ceremony about it.

有一種慶典的氛圍。

He’s got a method to his madness, I guess.

我猜他這種近乎瘋狂的做法自有它的道理。

In his 1996 film, Basquiat, a portrait of his friend the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mr Schnabel shot scenes in the Midtown Mr Chow to recreate the ambience of a place where stalwarts of the Upper East Side establishment could trade glances with strivers from the worlds of avant-garde painting and hip-hop.

施納貝爾1996年的電影《輕狂歲月》(Basquiat)描繪了他的朋友、畫家讓-米切爾•巴斯奎特(Jean-Michel Basquiat)。施納貝爾在中城的Mr Chow取景，重現了那種上東區主流社會的擁躉與前衛繪畫派和嘻哈樂圈的奮鬥者彼此對視的氛圍。

I think there’s a great understanding of spaces, in the places he has, so that people can see each other, he said.

我覺得他的餐廳有對空間的極好理解，人們可以相互看得見，他說。

The actress Olivia Wilde, a frequent customer at Mr Chow in TriBeCa and elsewhere, echoed that notion of ceremony.

女演員奧利維婭•懷爾德(Olivia Wilde)是翠貝卡及其他地區的Mr Chow餐廳的常客。

It makes you feel like you are part of something that is larger than just a meal, she said.

她也提到慶典這個概念。

I think that’s why people are drawn to it.

它讓你覺得你屬於某種比一頓飯更宏大的東西的一部分，她說，我覺得那是它吸引人的原因。

If there is something cinematic about the mise-en-scène, that is probably no accident.

如果說餐廳的氛圍有某種電影的感覺，那很可能不是偶然。

Ms Wilde said that she and Mr Chow have a continuing conversation in which she will randomly mention the name of a movie from the past century.

懷爾德說，她和周英華一直在對話，當她隨便提到上個世紀某部電影的名字。

He can tell you the opening shot of the film, she said. I challenge you to challenge him.

他能告訴你那部電影的開場鏡頭，她說，我建議你也向他挑戰一下。

His attention to detail applies to customers, too.

他對細節的關注也用在顧客身上。

When her son, Otis, was 9 days old, Ms Wilde and her partner, the actor Jason Sudeikis, dropped into Mr Chow for a meal.

懷爾德的兒子奧蒂斯(Otis)9天大時，她和男友演員傑森•蘇代基斯(Jason Sudeikis)去Mr Chow餐廳吃飯。

She soon realized that she needed to heat up some milk to feed the baby.

她很快意識到需要熱點奶喂孩子。

Servers took note.

服務員注意到了。

They brought me the most beautiful silver bowl of water to warm up the breast milk, she said with a laugh.

他們拿來一個非常好看的銀碗，裏面盛着熱水，供我熱母乳，她大笑着說。

If there is one central principle that keeps the Mr Chow mission chugging along, it’s the same that applies to Shake Shack or Starbucks: consistency.

如果有一箇中心原則，推動周英華的生意不斷穩步前進，那就是與Shake Shack或星巴克(Starbucks)相同的原則：一致性。

If you are familiar with the menu at the Southern California branch of Mr Chow, and happen to drift into the Midtown Manhattan branch, don’t worry: The menu is essentially the same.

如果你熟悉Mr Chow南加州分店的菜單，然後偶然走進曼哈頓中城的分店，那你不必擔心：菜單本質上是一樣的。

I do love how loyal to the original menu they stay, Ms Wilde said. It’s so nice to be able to walk in and not look at a menu: ‘This is what I want.

我非常喜歡他們如此忠於最初的菜單，懷爾德說，這真是很美好的事：走進去，不用看菜單就說：‘我想要這個。

This is what I’m craving.’

這個我渴望已久。’

In Beverly Hills, we have waiters that have been with us since 1974, Ms Chow said.

周夫人說，在貝弗利山，有些服務員從1974年就在那裏工作了。

Many of today’s loyal customers, she added, are the children of their fans from the 1970s and ’80s.

她補充說，如今的很多忠實顧客是我們在20世紀七八十年代的粉絲的孩子。

The couple live in Los Angeles but are buying a place in Brooklyn.

這對夫婦住在洛杉磯，不過正在布魯克林購房。

Ms Chow recently worked closely with a manufacturer in Ohio to help create mass-market versions of three signature Mr Chow sauces.

周夫人最近正在與俄亥俄州的一個廠商密切合作，開發三種Mr Chow標誌性醬汁的大衆市場款。

Mr Chow has three children: China, Asia and Maximillian, who is the head of culinary operations for the restaurants.

周英華有三個孩子，分別名叫中國(China)、亞洲(Asia)和馬克西米利安(Maximillian)。

(He has been married three times, once to the fashion editor Grace Coddington.)

最後這位掌管餐廳的廚房運作（他結過三次婚，有一任妻子是時尚編輯格蕾絲•柯丁頓[Grace Coddington]）。

Ultimately, the secret behind Mr Chow may simply be Mr Chow himself.

說到底，Mr Chow餐廳背後的祕密，可能就是周英華本人。

There is a reason the man’s portrait has been painted by the likes of Warhol, Basquiat and Keith Haring.

沃霍爾(Warhol)、巴斯奎特(Basquiat)和基思•哈林(Keith Haring)等人畫過他的肖像是有原因的。

In person, he is effortlessly charming and unflappable, tossing out quotes from philosophers and smiling in a way that suggests that critics who harp on the air-kissy, grand-operatic excess of his restaurants are missing the point.

他輕鬆自如，充滿魅力，從容鎮定，經常引用哲學家的名言。他微笑的方式像是在暗示，那些大肆談論他的餐廳宏大奢華歌劇風格的批評家們沒有切中要點。

Running a restaurant is rumored to be impossible.

據說經營餐廳是一件不可能成功的事。

Mr Chow respectfully disagrees.

周英華不敢苟同。

Very easy, no? he said.

非常容易，不是嗎？他說。

Be true to yourself — you can’t go wrong.

忠於你自己——你不可能出錯。

Don’t follow trends.

不要追隨潮流。

Be yourself.

做你自己。

Just be true.

就是誠實。

Moments later, having left the Carlyle, he sent a text that signed off with his own emoticon:

片刻之後，離開卡萊爾飯店，他發來一條短信，以他自己的表情符號結尾：

~O-O~.

~O-O~。