【雅思阅读】经济学人Restaurants:Giving up the ghost

Economist, 经济学人杂志。是一份由伦敦经济学人报纸有限公司出版的杂志，于1843年9月由詹姆士�威尔逊创办。杂志的大多数文章写得机智，幽默，有力度，严肃又不失诙谐，并且注重于怎样在最小的篇幅内告诉读者最多的信息。杂志主要关注政治和商业方面的新闻，但是每期也有一两篇针对科技和艺术的报导，以及一些书评。

杂志中所有文章都不署名，而且往往带有鲜明的立场，但又处处用事实说话。主编们认为：写出了什么东西，比出自谁的手笔更重要。从2012年1月28日的那一期杂志开始《经济学人》杂志开辟了中国专栏，为有关中国的文章提供更多的版面。同时，《经济学人》也是极好的雅思阅读课外读物，很多时候，雅思阅读考试的文章就是出自其中。可以说经济学人相比较于其他国内外语报纸的态度更客观，视角更宽。

THE curry house is a British institution. Every townhas at least one. Ballater, a tiny village in the icyremoteness of northernScotland, boasts two. It is also the economic bulwark of a community.Bangladeshis run most of the country's Indian restaurants, and they depend heavily on thetrade. Fully 42% of working-age Bangladeshi men toil in restaurants. But changes in eatinghabits, immigration rules and growing aspirations 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%%u7684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, saysOli Khan, a Bangladeshi chef who owns four establishments. Now even the takeaway trade isstruggling. A quarter of curry-lovers say they have swapped restaurant meals or takeaways forsupermarket 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%%u3002

Indian restaurants have missed the trend for casual dining, says Helena Spicer, an analyst atMintel, another market researcher. Other eateries focus on particular groups of diners—therushed, the monied—but curry houses try to appeal to everyone. Rising food and gas bills areeating into profits. Most are independent so reap none of the benefits of economies of scale.Nor can they run big marketing 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 restaurateurand founder of the British Curry Awards. Importing them has been made difficult. Visa rulesmean chefs must speak English and earn at least 20,300 (32,500) a year. On Caterer.com, arecruitment site for the hospitality industry, salaries for chefs with three years' experiencespecialising in Indian food start at 13,500. Chefs are on the government's “occupationshortage” list, but only if the job demands five years' experience, pays at least 29,570 and isnot 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 arereluctant. The Hospitality Guild runs six-week training courses at three colleges that lead toyear-long apprenticeships. So far just 15 people have gone on to apprenticeships, not all aschefs. Ranjit Mathrani, who runs several posh Indian restaurants and a small chain of cheaperones, offers traineeships. Not a single white Briton has applied.

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 Bangladeshimen who work in restaurants is falling: in 2004 it was 55%. The young know that they can dobetter. Their performance at school is steadily improving: in 2011 they outperformed whites,getting more good GCSEs, the exams normally taken at 16. They want to become journalistsand 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%%u3002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。 翻译：黄佳欣 校对：尤熠