Kitchen Artistry on Ceramic Canvases
料理擺盤術 瓷盤當畫布
By Jeff Gordinier

If you happen to be dining in one of the more inventive restaurants in New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco or São Paulo, it’s possible that what you see recalls a canvas or sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art.
你若碰巧在紐約、哥本哈根、舊金山或聖保羅較有創意的餐廳用餐，你看到的，可能讓你想起現代美術館裡的一幅畫或一件雕塑作品。

Whether smeared and swirled across a white plate, stacked beneath a tower of flowers, or strewn like debris atop the surface of a log, the way the food is laid out reflects an aspect of a chef’s craftsmanship that can be just as crucial as the ingredients in the dish.
不論是在白色盤子上塗塗抹抹、畫漩渦、堆疊在花塔下，或灑在上面，像木頭表面的碎片，食物如何擺盤反映廚師的手工藝，與這道菜的食材同樣重要。

We’re talking here about plating, gastronomic jargon for how a chef arranges the food before it is served.
我們談的是擺盤，是在食物端給客人前，廚師如何擺放食物的廚藝術語。

An expert plater is attuned to color, temperature and serving size while dreaming up feats of edible engineering – and even, sometimes, whimsical experiments in consciousness expansion.
一位擺盤專家調和顏色、溫度和分量，想像著成就吃的工程壯舉，有時候是天馬行空的即興實驗。

Presentation has always been a mode of expression; think of the domes and carts and silver platters of French haute cuisine. Contemporary approaches to plating can be traced to a wide array of global chefs: Ferran and Albert Adrià, Alfred Portale, Alice Waters, the Arzak family of Spain, Grant Achatz, René Redzepi, to name but a few. By now, their various approaches have permeated the mainstream to such a degree that you may drop into your neighborhood bistro and get a Caesar salad that looks as if it were done by Jackson Pollock.
擺盤一直是一種表達的模式；想想法國高級料理的圓頂食器、推車和銀盤。當代的擺盤手法源自世界各地的諸多名廚：費蘭與亞伯特．阿德利亞兄弟、艾夫列．柏特利、愛莉絲．華特斯、西班牙的阿札克家族、葛蘭特．阿查茲、雷奈．瑞哲皮，此處只列舉幾個。如今，他們的手法在主流餐飲界已達到相當普及的程度，也許你走進住家附近的小餐館，點一盤凱薩沙拉，看起來就會像出自傑克森．波拉克之手。

We asked several New York City chefs to put together a dish that exemplifies their visual style, and to explain the inspiration.
我們請紐約幾位廚師擺出一道能代表他們視覺風格的菜，並解說靈感來源。

At Atera, Matthew Lightner oversaw the painstaking layering of what looked like a monochrome rosebud. Its petals were slivers of almond, razor clam and pickled garlic. Paul Liebrandt, the chef at the Elm, constructed a delicately Dr. Seussian tableau of squab, beet, tarragon flowers and pink dabs of crab apple juice. Mr. Liebrandt, whose plating is on full display in his new book, “To the Bone,” said the striking, complex dish had been inspired by the flavors of autumn.
在Atera餐廳，馬修．萊特納監督著極費工的堆疊功夫，堆起一個看似單色玫瑰花苞的東西。它的花瓣是杏仁、剃刀貝和醃大蒜的碎片。Elm餐廳大廚保羅．李布蘭特建構蘇斯博士的構圖，有乳鴿、甜葉、龍蒿和少許粉紅色的酸蘋果汁。他的擺盤在他的新書「見骨」中一覽無遺。李布蘭特說，這道搶眼、繁複的菜，靈感來自秋天的各種味道。

“If everyone could do this at home,” he said, “we’d go out of business. I know that this is not everyday food, but that’s the point. You couldn’t really say a Picasso is an everyday picture.”
他說：「如果人人在家都能做，我們就得關門了。我知道這不是家常菜，但這就是重點。你總不能說一幅畢卡索的畫是尋常的畫吧。」

There was also a strong sense of playfulness on many plates. Whether it happened to be Akiko Thurnauer of Family Recipe stuffing the mackerel for her fish tacos inside a sardine can, or Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 mentioning the stylistic influence of Betty Boop and Felix the Cat (“I tend toward more cartoonish geometry,” he said), the chefs described plating as a way to deliver a dose of delight and surprise.
許多擺盤也趣味感十足。不論是「家傳食譜」餐廳的晶子．杜諾耶在做墨西哥餅包魚肉時，把鯖魚塞在沙丁魚罐頭罐裡，或是WD-50餐廳的威利．杜佛瑞森提到「貝蒂」和「菲力貓」的風格影響（他說，「我傾向卡通式的美食烹飪」），這些大廚把擺盤稱作傳遞一份愉悅和驚喜的手法。

“I like that idea of instant recognition – and then instant confusion,” said Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy, who whipped up a spinach mille-feuille.
Dirt Candy餐廳的亞曼達．柯恩說：「我喜歡一眼識別，然後立即困惑的想法。」她做了一個菠菜千層酥派。

That said, she also hopes customers will crave a big, heaping forkful right away, and not just gaze at her handiwork. “I want people to jump in there,” she said. “The messier the plate looks at the end, the happier I feel.”
話雖如此，她也希望顧客會迫不及待地立刻吃掉滿滿的一叉子，而不只是盯著她的手工藝品。我要人們投入，最後盤子搞得越亂七八糟，我越開心。」

For Joey Campanaro of the Little Owl, Rita Sodi of I Sodi and Ignacio Mattos of Estela, appetizing messiness qualifies as something of an aesthetic ideal. They’re apt to toss out the tweezers and the nasturtiums, and just drop a pork chop onto a heap of beans, or put a mound of perfectly cooked pasta into a bowl.
對「小貓頭鷹」餐廳的喬伊．坎帕納羅、I Sodi餐廳的麗塔．索迪、Estela餐廳的伊格納西歐．馬托斯來說，令人胃口大開的一團亂糟糟的食物，也符合美學理想。他們往往會拋開鑷子和金蓮花，把一塊豬排扔在一堆豆子上，或是把煮到恰到好處的義大利麵放到碗裡，像座小山一樣。

“I don’t want to do anything sculptural,” Mr. Mattos said. “I enjoy knowing what I’m eating. You know what? It’s a plate of food. Pile it up.”
馬托斯說：「我不想精雕細琢，我樂於知道我在吃什麼，你知道嗎？這是一盤食物，把它堆起來便是了。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/dining/the-ceramic-canvas.html

Slideshow：Beautiful Plates
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/12/04/dining/20131204-PLATING.html

Video：The Art of Plating
http://nyti.ms/1jimO7P

2014-01-14聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS田思怡譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版右