2015年经济学人 餐馆 放弃印式

 

Restaurants

餐馆

Giving up the gosht

放弃印式

The future of curry¹ houses looks grim

咖喱屋的未来看起来很严峻

THE curry house is a British institution. Every town has at least one. Ballater, a tiny village in the icy remoteness of northernScotland, boasts two. It is also the economic bulwark² of a community. Bangladeshis run most of the country's Indian restaurants, and they depend heavily on the trade. Fully³ 42% of working-age Bangladeshi men toil⁴ in restaurants. But changes in eating habits, immigration rules and growing aspirations⁵ add up to trouble for the industry.

咖喱屋是英国的习俗。每个乡镇至少都有一个。在寒冷的苏格兰北部偏远的一个小村庄—巴拉特，拥有两家。这也是一个社会的经济堡垒。孟加拉国人经营着英国多数的印度餐馆，他们在很大程度上依赖于贸易。孟加拉国42％的处于劳动年龄的男子都在餐馆中劳碌。但是英国民众饮食习惯的改变、现行的英国移民政策以及孟加拉国民对刺激日益增长的热情，都为行业发展增添了困难。

Following the financial crisis, people cut back on eating out but ordered more takeaways, says Oli Khan, a Bangladeshi chef who owns four establishments. Now even the takeaway trade is struggling. A quarter of curry-lovers say they have swapped⁶ restaurant meals or takeaways for supermarket ready meals. Spending on poppadums rose by 40% between 2009 and 2013, according to Kantar Worldpanel, a research firm.

拥有四个场所的孟加拉国厨师—奥利汗表示，在金融危机之后，人们减少了外出就餐，但增加了叫外卖的次数。现在连外卖行业都是夹缝求生。有四分之一的咖喱爱好者表示，他们已经不再餐厅用餐或叫外卖，而是吃超市现成的饭菜。Kantar Worldpanel表示，2009至2013年间印度薄饼的销售量增长了40%。

Indian restaurants have missed the trend for casual dining, says Helena Spicer, an analyst⁷ at Mintel, another market researcher. Other eateries focus on particular groups of diners—the rushed, the monied—but curry houses try to appeal to everyone. Rising food and gas bills are eating into profits. Most are independent so reap none of the benefits of economies of scale. Nor can they run big marketing⁸ campaigns.

另一家市场研究公司—敏特公司的分析师海伦娜斯派塞分析：印度餐馆已经偏离了休闲餐饮的主流。其它的一些餐馆关注于特定食客群体，匆忙的，有钱的，但是咖喱屋试图做到面向大众。上涨的食品费和燃气费正在抵消所获利润。大多数餐馆都是独立经营所以没有从规模经济中获得的好处。当然也不可能经营大型市场营销活动。

And staff costs are soaring. “Chefs have become like gold dust,” says Enam Ali, a restaurateur and founder⁹ of the British Curry Awards. Importing them has been made difficult. Visa rules mean chefs must speak English and earn at least 20,300 (32,500) a year. On Caterer¹⁰.com, a recruitment site for the hospitality industry, salaries for chefs with three years' experience specialising in Indian food start at 13,500. Chefs are on the government's “occupation shortage” list, but only if the job demands five years' experience, pays at least 29,570 and is not in an establishment which provides a takeaway service. That rules out most curry houses.

员工成本也在大幅攀升。英国咖喱奖的创始人同时也作为餐馆老板的Enam Ali表示， “厨师异常珍贵，将他们引入是个难题。签证规则意味着厨师必须会说英语”，并且一年内至少要赚20,300（32,500）。在Caterer.com—一个为酒店业服务的招聘网站上写着，专攻印度菜并且拥有三年工作经验的厨师起薪为13,500。：厨师这一职业已登上政府的职业人才短缺表，但该短缺也仅限于那些有五年以上工作经验、起薪29570英镑以及不提供外卖服务的餐厅，所以咖喱屋就不属于该范畴之内了。

Some reckon the answer is teaching natives to cook chicken tikka masala. But they are reluctant. The Hospitality Guild¹¹ runs six-week training courses at three colleges that lead to year-long apprenticeships. So far just 15 people have gone on to apprenticeships, not all as chefs. Ranjit Mathrani, who runs several posh Indian restaurants and a small chain of cheaper ones, offers traineeships. Not a single white Briton has applied¹².

一些人认为解决问题的办法就是交本地人煮玛莎拉鸡。但他们都很不情愿。好客的工会在三所学院里进行了为期六周的学徒培训课。目前为止，仅有15人到达了学徒程度，不是所有人都是厨师。经营着几家豪华印度餐厅和价格相对低廉的小型连锁餐馆的店主Ranjit Mathrani表示他愿意提供实习机会。然而没有一个纯英国人报名。

Nor are young British Asians filling the gap. Although still huge, the proportion of Bangladeshi men who work in restaurants is falling: in 2004 it was 55%. The young know that they can do better. Their performance at school is steadily¹³ improving: in 2011 they outperformed whites, getting more good GCSEs, the exams normally taken at 16. They want to become journalists and lawyers, says Mr Ali, not chefs. Good for Bangladeshis. Too bad for British curry-lovers.

也并没有亚裔年轻人来填补这一空缺。尽管比重仍大，孟加拉国男性在餐馆工作的比例持续下降：2004年为55％。年轻人知道他们可以做的更好。他们在学校的表现正在逐步提高：在2011年他们的表现比白人还好，参加了更多优秀的英国普通初级中学文凭课程（GCSEs）—一般来说考16门。Enam Ali说他们想成为记者和律师而不是厨师。对于孟加拉人来说这是个好消息，但对于英国的咖喱爱好者来说这再坏不过了。

1 curry   

n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革

参考例句：

• Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish.有咖喱的菜配米饭最棒。
• Add a teaspoonful of curry powder.加一茶匙咖喱粉。

2 bulwark   

n.堡垒，保障，防御

参考例句：

• That country is a bulwark of freedom.那个国家是自由的堡垒。
• Law and morality are the bulwark of society.法律和道德是社会的防御工具。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 toil   

vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事

参考例句：

• The wealth comes from the toil of the masses.财富来自大众的辛勤劳动。
• Every single grain is the result of toil.每一粒粮食都来之不易。

5 aspirations   

强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音

参考例句：

• I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。

6 swapped   

交换（工作）( swap的过去式和过去分词 )； 用…替换，把…换成，掉换（过来）

参考例句：

• I liked her coat and she liked mine, so we swapped. 我喜欢她的外套，她喜欢我的外套，于是我们就交换了。
• At half-time the manager swapped some of the players around. 经理在半场时把几名队员换下了场。

7 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

8 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

9 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

10 caterer   

n. 备办食物者，备办宴席者

参考例句：

• My wife went to a lot of trouble; she called a caterer. 我太太花了很多心血，她找了专办派对的人来。
• The wedding reception has been organized by an outside caterer. 婚宴由外界的饮食公司承办。

11 guild   

n.行会，同业公会，协会

参考例句：

• He used to be a member of the Writers' Guild of America.他曾是美国作家协会的一员。
• You had better incorporate the firm into your guild.你最好把这个公司并入你的行业协会。

12 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

13 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。