My grandfather was a restaurant owner. My father was a restaurant owner. My name is Vincent Yeow Lim. I'm a chef, content creator and restaurant owner. Owning and running a Chinese restaurant is one of the hardest and most valuable things I think you can do.
我的祖父是个餐馆老板。 我父亲是个餐馆老板, 我的名字是林耀。 我是一个厨师、内容创作者 还是一个餐馆老板。 拥有并经营一家中餐馆 是最困难也是令人 最有价值感的事情之一。
When we first arrived in Australia, my dad opened a Chinese restaurant. I would go there every single day to help him out. That was my way to spend time with him. And slowly I developed my love for cooking. At the age of 15, I was able to use a wok to cook and to serve customers. Now I’m running a 100-seater Chinese restaurant. The hard work that I saw my dad put into Chinese food makes me feel really proud. Proud that I was lucky enough to learn from a master. When I tell people that I'm a chef cooking Chinese food, I want people to value it the same way that I do.
当我们刚到澳大利亚的时候 我爸爸开了一家中餐馆。 我每天都 会去那里帮忙。 这是我与他相处的方式。 在此期间我也逐渐发现了 我对烹饪的热爱。 在15岁的时候, 我就能够使用 炒锅来为顾客做菜。 现在我正经营着 一家100座的中国餐馆。 我看到了父亲在中餐上 倾注的心血 这让我感到非常自豪。 自豪我足够幸运能跟着 一位大师学习。 当我告诉别人 我是一名中餐厨师时, 我想要人们 像我一样重视它。
So what is the value of Chinese food? Is it the taste? Is it the hard work and the training? Or is it the dish's history and the nostalgia it makes us feel? To me, it is all of those things. But being in the restaurant industry, I can tell you the most obvious value of food. And that is the price at which we choose to set it at.
那么中餐的价值是什么? 是味道吗? 是辛勤的工作和训练吗? 还是因为这道菜的历史 抑或是被它引发的思乡之情? 对我来说,以上都是。 但是,身处餐饮业 我可以告诉你 食物最直接的价值。 即餐厅对 这道菜的定价。
The perception of Chinese food is that it is indulgent, yet cheap. But the value of Chinese food is so much more than that. There is no formal culinary school to train to be a Chinese chef. And after the pandemic, there was a shortage of Chinese chefs in Australia. Now the cost of ingredients, labor and demand for Chinese food is high. The amount of skill required to cook the first dish that I ever learned doesn't match up to the price.
人们对于中餐的印象 往往是多样的, 同时也是便宜的。 而中餐的价值远 不止于此。 这里没有专门培养中餐 厨师的烹饪院校。 而在新冠之后, 澳大利亚的中餐界 出现了厨师短缺期。 中餐原料、人工的成本以及 中餐的烹饪要求是很高的。 我学会的第一道菜 所需的技术含量 和它的价格并不相称。
The first dish that I ever learned to cook was the fried rice. Fried rice is the easiest dish to cook, but also the hardest dish to get right. I actually wasn't allowed to serve customers until I got this dish right.
我学会的第一道菜是炒饭。 炒饭是最简单但 却是最难做好的菜之一。 实际上我得先做好这道菜 才能去服务食客。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
The oil goes into the wok first, but only when the wok is hot enough. The egg goes in next. This creates a nonstick coating for when the rice hits the hot wok.
油先下锅, 但下油之前得充分热锅。 接着放入鸡蛋。 这一步骤能够在下入米饭前形成 一个不粘锅的保护层。 (炉子嘟嘟声)
(Stove beeps)
From experience, you can tell when the rice is too wet or if the wok is too hot or too cold. All these small factors will create a different end result. If the rice is too wet, you lose the smoky aromatic flavor. But if the rice is too dry, you're basically eating pebbles.
你可以根据经验判断 米饭是否水分过多 锅的温度过高或过低。 以上细节都会 影响餐品最后的味道。 如果米饭的水分过多 你就会失去烟熏的芳香味道 但如果米饭太干了, 你基本上是在吃石头。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Now we add a little bit of yum, yum.
现在我们施加一点美味魔法
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Now we add the cooked meats and vegetables. I'm tossing it to combine the flavors of the meat and vegetables with the rice. Even if we were to remove all the meat and vegetables, your rice should still have all the flavor.
加入煮好的肉类和蔬菜 我通过翻炒将肉和蔬菜的 风味与米饭的风味结合到一起。 即便我们之后去掉 所有的肉和蔬菜, 炒饭里仍拥有 全部食材的风味。
(Sizzling)
(食材发出的嘶嘶声)
From years of experience, I can tell you the difference between a good fried rice just from the feel and from the smell, without even having to take a bite.
经年累月的经验, 让我可以不用品尝而 仅通过感官和嗅觉分辨出 一份炒饭的好坏。
(Applause)
(掌声)
And I thought -- I thought that was enough. But I realized cooking with one wok was way too slow. So I took the knowledge from my dad and taught myself the dual wok cooking technique, using two woks to cook two different dishes at the same time. This requires coordination, organization and years of training. What makes it harder is the combination of dishes coming up next. They have endless possibilities. Chow mein, sizzling garlic prawns, egg foo young. When one is cooking, the other is served. When the other is cooking, the next is served. The goal is that no matter the combination, all the dishes get to the table at the same time. People expect this in a Chinese restaurant. People expect variety. In a Western restaurant, you open the menu, there's 20 items. When I first started, I had 300.
在我以为这 已经够好的时候, 我发现用一只炒锅烹饪 实在是太慢了。 于是我借鉴我父亲 自学成了 “无敌”双锅炒菜法, 同时用两个锅 炒两个不同的菜。 这需要协调能力、 统筹能力以及多年的训练。 可更难的是 出餐的组合。 不同的菜品的出餐时间不同。 炒面、蒜蓉大虾、 芙蓉蛋。 一个菜正在做,另一个菜就装盘了 那个菜在做的时候,下个菜就装盘了 反正目标是 不管这些菜如何组合 所有的菜要在同一时间 端上餐桌。 人们希望 中餐馆这样做。 人们期待多样性。 在西餐厅, 你打开菜单, 上面有二十道餐点。 我入行的时候,上面有300道中餐。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
In a Western restaurant, you can often judge the food by the decor, the plating of the dishes or even by the number of different forks for each course. But in a Chinese restaurant, it's a little bit different. You can often judge it by things like the kids sitting on the first table doing their homework. That's when you know a Chinese restaurant will have amazing food.
在西餐厅, 你可以通过装饰来评判食物, 或者是菜肴的装盘 甚至是每道菜 搭配叉子的数量。 但在中餐馆, 评判标准就有些不一样了。 比如你可以通过坐在 第一桌做作业的孩子来进行判断。 这时你就会知道这家 中餐馆的味道不错。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
(Applause)
(掌声)
I was that kid.
我曾就是那个小屁孩。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
To a lot of us Chinese immigrants who started our own restaurants, the restaurant isn't just a business. It's a part of our lives. We eat almost three meals a day there, and often we just use our homes as a place to sleep. We dedicate our lives to these restaurants and to making delicious food.
对很多创办了自己餐馆 的中国移民来说, 饭店不仅仅是一门生意。 它是我们生命的一部分。 我们经常会在餐馆里享用一日三餐, 而家往往只是一个 用来睡觉的地方。 我们把自己的生命献给了这些餐馆 以制作美味的食物。
In Chinese cooking, we use a lot of strong flavors like ginger, garlic, chilies and even shrimp paste. The different flavors, I think, are why people like Chinese food, because every bite is different, and you never really get bored. But flavors, flavors are also built with the tools we use. When you use a wok, you get wok hei, known as "breath of the dragon." Wok hei is the reason why noodles and rice always taste better at a restaurant than when you try to cook it at home. Wok hei is the combustion of oils in the air that make that smoky aromatic flavor.
在中餐烹饪里, 我们使用很多重口味的调味品 像生姜、大蒜、辣椒 甚至虾酱。 我认为,这些不同的口味正 是人们喜欢中国菜的原因。 因为每一口都是不同的, 你永远不会感到厌烦。 但是口味也是通过 工具创造的。 但你用炒锅时,菜会有锅气 人们称之为“龙之吐息”。 锅气使得餐馆的炒面和炒饭 永远比在家里做的更加好吃。 锅气是食用油在空中 燃烧产生的 它能制造出那种烟熏香味。
But wok hei also tastes like nostalgia. Growing up in Malaysia, the kitchens are outside, just like this. You can smell every ingredient that goes into the wok. The air is thick with humidity, and the fragrances of the food, they linger around so much longer. Those memories, they become nostalgic. The sense of home is what I feel when I taste Chinese wok cooking. Nostalgia is what makes a good dish taste ten times better and that much more valuable.
但锅气也有家乡的味道。 在马来西亚, 厨房是像这样放在外面的。 你可以闻到放入锅中的 每一种食材。 空气充满了湿气 和食物的香味, 它们的留存时间会很久。 那些记忆,它们染上了家乡的颜色。 当我品尝中锅炒菜时, 家的感觉就出来了。 乡愁让一道好菜味道好上十倍 也让一道菜更有价值。
But the value of Chinese food is often compared to fast food, quick and cheap. Although we've spent years developing skills to cook faster, Chinese food isn't fast food. It requires skills, mastery of ingredients and nostalgia.
但中餐的价值常常 和快餐放在一起作比较, 因为两者都是快速且便宜的。 虽然我们花了多年 开发出了更快的烹饪技巧, 但中餐可不是快餐。 它需要技巧, 对食材的掌握以及对家乡的思念。
In 2017, my dad passed away. I looked up to him. He was my best friend. When he passed away, I realized -- I realized my passion of cooking dishes from my childhood. I was working as a chef at an airline’s first class lounge at the time, but I didn't have any memories of the dishes I was cooking. I wanted to feel closer to my dad. So I quit. I dropped out of university on my last semester. I hopped onto a plane, and I flew over here to Sydney. And I took over the restaurant that I own today. I wanted to record everything that my dad taught me, so I shared it on social media. It went viral. Hundreds of millions of views. A lot of people related to the recipes that I was cooking because it was what they grew up eating with their parents. I remember this one fried rice he made. I was eight years old at the time. It was the first time I recall my dad stepping into the kitchen cooking. He made this fried rice with spam, seafood, peas and a little bit of dark soy sauce. It was a little bit salty, but it was the best fried rice that I've ever had.
2017年,我父亲去世了。 我一直将他视作偶像。 他也是我最好的朋友。 他过世时,我记起了我 一直以来对烹饪的热爱。 当时,我正在一家航空公司 头等舱休息室担任主厨, 但那时我所做的菜式 都全被我忘记了。 我想要在心里与父亲更近。 所以我选择了辞职。 我在大学的最后一个 学期退了学。 然后我登上飞机, 来到了悉尼。 我接手了我父亲的饭店 直至今日。 我想要记录下我父亲 教给我的所有东西, 所以我在社交平台上分享它们。 接着我就火了。 成千上万的观看量。 很多人对我 所做的菜感到共鸣 因为那是从小到大 他们和自己的父母吃的东西 我记得在我八岁那年 我父亲为我做的那一碗炒饭 那是我记忆中父亲第一次 走入厨房做饭。 他做了一份炒饭, 有火腿,海鲜和豌豆 和一点点的老抽。 味道有一点咸, 但我觉得那是我吃过 最好吃的炒饭。
I cook and I've always cooked because it was a way to connect to my dad. It was something that we shared. Cooking represents all the hard work and memories that we had, learning the art, mastering the skills and understanding the history of Chinese food. To me, the value of Chinese food is so much more than the prices you pay at my restaurant.
我喜爱做饭,也一直在做饭。 因为这是我缅怀我父亲的方式。 这是我俩的共通之处。 烹饪蕴含着我们所有的 努力和记忆, 学习这门艺术,掌握烹饪技术 以及理解 中餐背后的历史。 对我来说,中餐的价值远远超过 你在菜单上看到的标价。 所以下一次 你到访一家中餐馆时,
So the next time you visit a Chinese restaurant, just remember. It's not just a plate of fried rice. It's so much more than that.
请记得这一点。 那不仅是一份简单的炒饭, 其中还包含着比饭更有价值的意义。
Thank you.
谢谢大家。
(Applause)
(掌声)