7-3 没有天生的成功者

Winners Are Made, Not Born

 

Chef¹ Walter Potenza owns three thriving Italian restaurants in Rhode Island².

 

He studied and trained to be a chef, but he sees now that his abilities are the product of a lifetime education. When he opened his first restaurant, “All of a sudden my schooling¹, the knowledge and the history of my family, the ethics²³ of my father came into play⁴. It made me an academic, a person who explored the food business.”

 

And the learning never stops. “One of the secrets is, it’s a business where you constantly need to stay on top. Chefs are not born.” Walter explains that the process continues for him every day: “I’ m an obsessive³ reader. Every time you read a book, you get ideas. You introduce your ideas into your work place. Then you make that work better.”

 

And success in the cooking business is something he has a clear definition of: “The success that I would like to have is to be remembered as a man who was innovative⁴⁵, who believed in the culture of Italian cuisine⁵⁶ in America. Food is the link to the past and to family. Success to me is not how much money you make. But if at the end of the day I was able to make fifteen or twenty customers happy, I’ m a happy man.”

 

注释：

1. chef [Fef ] n. (餐馆等的)厨师长；厨师

2. Rhode [rEud] Island  罗得岛[美国州名]

3. ethics [5eWiks] [复] n. [用作单或复] 道德体系；行为准则

4. come into play 投入使用；起作用

5. innovative [`InEJveItIv] a. 革新的；富有革新精神的

6. cuisine [kwi(:)5zi:n] n. 烹饪术；菜肴，饭菜

 

没有天生的成功者

 

厨师长沃尔特·波滕扎在罗得岛州拥有3家生意兴隆的意大利餐馆。

他经过学习、训练成为一名厨师。但是现在他认识到，他今天的能力是终生学习的结果。谈到当年他开办第一家餐馆时的情形，他说：“我所受的教育、我的知识、我的家族史、我父亲的道德准则一下子都起了作用。这一切将我造就成一名研究者，一名餐饮业的探索者。”

学习从未间断。“我的秘诀之一是：厨师长是一项你必须始终保持领先地位的工作。厨师长不是天生的。”沃尔特解释道，对他而言，这一过程一天都未间断：“我这个人读书着迷。每读一本书，就会受到启发，然后就把它用到工作中去，工作就会做得更好。”

他对在餐饮业中取得成功有明确的定义：“我所想要的成功，是别人记得我是一个有创新精神的人，一个把意大利烹饪文化引进到美国的人。饮食是昨天和今天之间的纽带，是维系家庭的纽带。对我来说，成功并非赚了多少钱。但是，假如一天下来，我能让15位到20位顾客感到满意，那我也就心满意足了。”

 

1 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

2 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

3 obsessive   

adj. 着迷的, 强迫性的, 分神的

参考例句：

• Some people are obsessive about cleanliness.有些人有洁癖。
• He's becoming more and more obsessive about punctuality.他对守时要求越来越过分了。

4 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

5 cuisine   

n.烹调，烹饪法

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• This restaurant is renowned for its cuisine.这家餐馆以其精美的饭菜而闻名。