摘要：FEW SCANDALS in China provoke as much outrage as those relating to food. This is perhaps only natural in a country that takes imme
A restaurant scandal sticks in China ’ s throat
FEW SCANDALS in China provoke as much outrage as those relating to food. This is perhaps only natural in a country that takes immense and justified pride in its wondrous culinary heritage. Concerns about public safety, corporate responsibility and regulatory capacity all distil into one essential question: can the food on your table be trusted?
在中国，鲜有哪类丑闻能引发如此强烈的愤怒，尤其是涉及食物的丑闻。这也许是可以理解的，因为中国人对其丰富的烹饪遗产有着极大的自豪感，并且这种自豪感是有充分理由的。涉及公众安全、企业责任以及监管能力的所有担忧，最终都凝聚成一个核心问题：你餐桌上的食物能信任吗？
A furore that has gripped China in recent days poses the question in a different way. It revolves not around safety, but rather around food quality and the very definition of cooking. Anger has erupted at a popular fast-casual restaurant chain, Xibei, which bills its north-western-style food as fresh and family-friendly. Think of it, roughly, as a big upgrade on America ’ s Olive Garden chain (with extra-scrumptious roast lamb). Xibei was revealed to be serving dishes made with frozen ingredients, often whipped up in advance in central kitchens. The controversy stings because it touches on deeper anxieties — about authenticity in China ’ s hyper-urban landscape and the emergence of new class divisions.
最近在中国引发轩然大波的一场风波，以不同的方式提出了这一问题。它关注的不是安全，而是食物的质量，以及烹饪这一行为的定义。愤怒的焦点集中在一个受欢迎的快餐连锁品牌 ——西贝，西贝宣称其提供的是西北风味的“新鲜”和“家庭友好型”食物。可以将其粗略地比作美国的橄榄园（Olive Garden）连锁餐厅的升级版（再加上一道特别美味的烤羊肉）。然而，西贝被曝光在其菜品中使用了冷冻食材，且许多菜肴是提前在中央厨房里制作好的。这场争议的痛点在于它触及了更深层的焦虑——关于中国超城市化背景下的“真实性”和新兴的阶层分化。
It all began innocuously enough, with an acerbic comment from a dissatisfied customer, the kind seen on social media anywhere in the world. “ Almost all pre-made dishes, and still so expensive. Really disgusting, ” fumed Luo Yonghao, an entrepreneur-cum-influencer. Mr Luo has 1.4m followers on Weibo, so his message was bound to attract eyeballs. But Xibei made it even worse. Along with threatening to sue Mr Luo for defamation, Jia Guolong, Xibei ’ s spirited owner, opened its kitchens for curious customers to see for themselves. And see they did: frozen broccoli with a shelf life of two years; expensive soups that consisted of tossing bouillon into boiling water; and chefs with minimal training. For middle-class families who viewed Xibei as an affordable indulgence — pricier than their daily choices but perfect for weekends or children ’ s birthdays — it felt like a betrayal.
事情的起因并不复杂，源自一位不满顾客的辛辣评论，这类评论在全球的社交媒体上屡见不鲜。 “几乎所有菜肴都是预制的，但价格还那么贵。真让人恶心。”企业家兼网红罗永浩愤怒地说道。罗永浩在微博上有140万粉丝，他的言论自然吸引了大量关注。但西贝的反应则让事情变得更糟。除了威胁起诉罗永浩诽谤，西贝的老板贾国龙还主动开放了餐厅厨房，让顾客亲自去看一看。结果是，顾客看到的包括：冷冻的西兰花，保质期长达两年的；昂贵的汤品，居然只是将浓缩高汤倒入开水中；而且厨师的培训也很简陋。对于那些曾把西贝视为“周末或孩子生日时偶尔犒劳自己”的中产阶级家庭来说，这无疑是一种背叛。
Much of the anger has focused on Xibei ’ s hypocrisy. With nearly 400 outlets and more than 6bn yuan ($840m) in annual revenue, it trades on a metropolitan craving for field-fresh nourishment. Its restaurants have wooden interiors and tables covered in red-and-white gingham cloths. Screens play videos of chefs kneading dough or lovingly selecting fish for the wok. Windows open onto the kitchens where staff in crisp white uniforms labour over dishes — or, as it turns out, put the pre-made parts together.
愤怒的情绪大多集中在西贝的虚伪上。作为一个拥有近 400家门店、年收入超过60亿元人民币（约合8.4亿美元）的连锁品牌，西贝曾凭借都市人对“新鲜食材”的渴望而大受欢迎。它的餐厅装修采用木质风格，桌子上铺着红白相间的方格布。餐厅内播放着厨师们擀面或精心挑选食材的画面。窗外则是开放式厨房，顾客可以看到穿着整洁白色制服的员工在做饭，或者，正如现在所揭示的那样，他们是在拼装预制的食材。
At an outlet in Beijing a few days after the controversy began, just a few tables had customers — far fewer than normal. Some were gastronomic rubberneckers. “ I wanted to see for myself, ” said Mr Shang, a young man in a fashionable black T-shirt. Others were peeved, but not enough to boycott it. “ Pre-made dishes are obviously convenient, but they should indicate that they are made this way, ” said Mr Yue, a silver-haired customer.
几天后，争议爆发之际，北京的一家西贝门店里顾客寥寥，远不如平时热闹。有人是来 “围观”的美食猎奇者。一位穿着时尚黑色T恤的年轻顾客商先生说道：“我想亲自看看。”还有些顾客虽然不满，但并未到达要抵制的程度。一位银发顾客岳先生则表示：“预制菜当然方便，但应该标明它们是这种做法。”
The humbling of Xibei will certainly not spell the end of the pre-made trend. China ’ s vastly expanded middle class demands the good life at good prices. Frozen food from central kitchens solves multiple problems: the results are tasty, relatively inexpensive and utterly consistent. How else to satisfy customers in a country that has gone from majority rural just 15 years ago to nearly 70% urban today? It all exposes an inescapable tension. The Chinese culinary dream was captured in “ A Bite of China ” , the most-watched television documentary of the past decade, which featured exquisite ingredients and heavenly cooking, often in idyllic rural settings. The closest many urbanites can actually come to such fare lies down the glossy corridor of a shopping mall and within a chain like Xibei.
西贝的 “下坡路”无疑无法终结预制菜的趋势。中国庞大的中产阶级群体渴望享受高品质的生活，同时又追求合理的价格。中央厨房的冷冻食品解决了多个问题：它们既美味、又相对便宜、且口味稳定。如何满足一个15年前还是以农村为主，今天已接近70%是城市人口的国家的顾客需求？这其中暴露了一个无法回避的矛盾：中国的饮食梦想曾在十年前的纪录片《舌尖上的中国》中展现，那些精致的食材与天赐的烹饪技艺通常发生在田园诗般的农村背景下。而今天，很多都市人要想体验这些美味，最近的选择大概是走进购物中心的光鲜走廊，进入像西贝这样的连锁餐厅。
The shift towards pre-made food stems not just from urbanisation but also the evolution of the labour market. Traditionally, being a chef has meant long hours, few holidays, low pay and a hot, smoky kitchen. Few embrace such gruelling work. Centralising cooking thus makes sense, but it also takes romance away from the food. The growth of pre-made food has been, and will remain, tremendous. Industry analysts estimate that it generated revenue of 400bn yuan in 2022 and will exceed 1trn yuan next year. Vast improvements in China ’ s cold chain, from storage to distribution, have also helped to bring the experience of Xibei, and restaurants like it, into cities in the hinterland that were once underserved. The government, appreciating the importance of prepared food, drafted its first standards last year. But these were oddly structured: they defined pre-made food as reheatable pre-packaged dishes, so long as they do not include preservatives or come from central kitchens. (Perversely, restaurants using central kitchens and preservatives can thus claim not to be serving pre-made food, as officially defined.)
预制食品的兴起，不仅与城市化进程相关，也与劳动力市场的变化密切相关。传统上，做厨师意味着长时间工作、没有假期、薪酬低、厨房炎热且充满烟雾。鲜有厨师愿意接受如此辛苦的工作。因此，将烹饪工作集中到中央厨房是合乎逻辑的，但它也剥夺了食物本身的浪漫性。预制食品的增长已经，并将继续是巨大的。行业分析人士预计， 2022年预制食品的行业收入为4000亿元人民币，预计明年将突破1万亿元。中国冷链技术的飞速发展，从储存到分销，都帮助像西贝这样的餐厅将体验带入了曾经供应匮乏的内陆城市。政府也意识到了预制食品的重要性，去年出台了相关标准。但这些标准却显得有些不合常规：它们定义预制食品为可重新加热的预包装菜肴，前提是不含防腐剂且不来自中央厨房。（荒谬的是，使用中央厨房和防腐剂的餐厅可以不被认定为提供预制食品。）
Unfair portions
The endpoint may be a two-tiered Chinese restaurant scene, says Xiang Dongliang, a cultural commentator. Most of the market will consist of chains like Xibei — clean, reliable reheaters of decent and sometimes delicious food. Then there will be an upper tier of restaurants cooking truly fresh food. Chefs at these will be stars, commanding high salaries and experimenting with new takes on old favourites. “ It will be a polarised situation, ” he says.
文化评论员向东亮表示，中国的餐饮行业最终可能会形成 “两极分化”的局面：大多数市场将由像西贝这样的连锁餐厅主导——这些餐厅清洁、可靠，提供美味且有时可口的食物；而上层则会有一类餐厅提供真正新鲜的食物，厨师将成为明星，享有高薪并尝试对经典菜肴进行创新。“这将是一个极化的局面，”他说。
At its best, pre-made food should be seen as a great leveller. Take “ Buddha jumps over the wall ” , a complex Fujianese seafood stew. It used to require ordering a day ahead at posh restaurants. Now it is available everywhere, any time. A foodie like Mr Xiang rates the pre-made version highly: not as refined as the fresh original, but close enough. To have raised the art of pre-made cooking to such a standard is a true accomplishment. But for those who love their food — and that is most in China — how galling it is to know that the best you can regularly afford comes from a vacuum-packed bag, cut open and cast into a bowl.
从最佳的角度来看，预制食品应该被视为一个伟大的平衡器。以 “佛跳墙”为例，这道复杂的福建海鲜炖品曾需要在高档餐厅提前预定。如今，它随时都能在各地找到。像向先生这样的美食爱好者，认为预制版的佛跳墙也值得一试：虽然不如新鲜制作的版本精致，但差不多。将预制食品提升到如此水平，无疑是一项了不起的成就。但对于那些真正热爱食物的人来说——这在中国几乎是所有人——知道自己经常能吃到的美食，竟然是从真空包装袋里取出、扔进碗里的，这种感觉实在令人失望。
来源：趣闻捕手一点号
