從意大利到重慶，故鄉(xiāng)的夢(mèng)在異鄉(xiāng)成了真

◇ 文 |見習(xí)記者 胡 婷 圖| 劉汪洋 受訪者供圖

從意大利到重慶，故鄉(xiāng)的夢(mèng)在異鄉(xiāng)成了真

◇ 文 |見習(xí)記者 胡 婷 圖| 劉汪洋 受訪者供圖

在渝中區(qū)較場(chǎng)口得意世界，一家名為Alessi的意式餐廳被許多重慶人熟知。老板兼主廚是Alex，意大利人，從11歲起就迷上了做菜，夢(mèng)想著擁有自己的餐廳。

在歐洲工作多年后，Alex人生的第一間餐廳，竟然開在了萬里之外的重慶。

不過，遙遠(yuǎn)的距離和迥異的城市，并沒有給他帶來陌生感。在重慶生活了7年，他腦海中的故鄉(xiāng)和異鄉(xiāng)，幾乎融為了一體。

In the Deyishijie, Jiao Chang Kou, Yuzhong District, an Italian restaurant called Alessi is familiar to many people in Chongqing. Alex, the owner and chef from Italy, has dreamed of opening his own restaurant since he fell in love with cooking at the age of 11.

After working in Europe for a few years, Alex finally opened his first restaurant in Chongqing thousands of miles away.

However, the distant and totally different city was not strange to him. After 7 years living in Chongqing, this city is no more a foreign land but almost his hometown.

偷吃一顆土豆做的“糖”

Driven by a “Sugar” Made from Potato

初見Alex，他穿著一身白色廚師服，頭發(fā)用發(fā)膠立起，整潔干練。他的眼神安靜柔和，散發(fā)出意大利男人特有的浪漫氣息。“我在中國(guó)生活了12年，在重慶呆了7年。”時(shí)間的印記似乎是最簡(jiǎn)單又最有力的城市體驗(yàn)。大部分時(shí)間，他都在自己的餐廳里，而他的廚師生涯早在11歲那年便開啟了。

那時(shí)，Alex看見媽媽在廚房切菜，形狀看上去像是糖，趁媽媽不注意，他便偷偷吃了一顆。沒想到，這“糖”竟然是土豆和面粉做的。媽媽告訴他，這是意大利的傳統(tǒng)食物——土豆團(tuán)面。“好神奇！從面粉、土豆、再到成型的土豆團(tuán)面，竟是這樣！”回憶起往事，Alex滿臉孩子般驚奇興奮的神情。從那以后，他開始跟母親學(xué)習(xí)做菜，12歲時(shí)，已經(jīng)能獨(dú)立制作蛋糕了，“雖然臉上和衣服上到都處沾滿面粉，但還是很驚喜。”

“我想要知道得更多。”靠著這個(gè)念頭，Alex敲開了職業(yè)生涯的大門。

2003年，他從意大利一所烹飪學(xué)校畢業(yè)，開始輾轉(zhuǎn)于歐洲餐飲界。當(dāng)他得知中國(guó)擁有和西方完全不同的飲食文化時(shí)，“想要知道更多”又驅(qū)使他來到中國(guó)。

At first sight of Alex, he wore a white chef suit with hair gelled up, clean and tidy. His eyes are quiet and soft, radiating the signature romance of Italian gentleman. “I have been in China for 12 years, 7 years living in Chongqing.” Time seems to be the simplest but most powerful proof of one’s city experience. He spent most of his time in his restaurant, and his career could be set back to the year as early as he was eleven.

At that time, Alex saw his mother chopping something sugar-shaped in the kitchen. Taking advantage of his mother’s inobservance, he sneaked one and ate it. Beyond his expectation, the “sugar”was actually made from potato and flour. Mom told him that it is the traditional Italian food, potato gnocchi. “Fantastic! Flour and potato just could be made into a shaped potato pastry.” Alex was still surprised and excited like a child. Since then, he has started to learn cooking from his mother. When he was 12, he was able to make a cake all by himself. “I was quite pleasantly surprised, although my face and cloth were covered with flour.”

“I want to know more about cooking.” thinking about this, Alex embarked on his cooking career.

After graduating from a cooking school in Italy in 2003, he began to fight his way in European catering field. When he learned that China has a completely different food culture from the West, the idea of “wanted to know more”was driving him to China.

開了像家一樣的餐廳

Run a Home-style Restaurant

2007年，Alex在上海一家意大利餐廳擔(dān)任行政總廚，還在上海遇到了他的女朋友、現(xiàn)在的妻子Tina。2011年，倆人來到重慶，Alex很容易就找到了大酒店的工作。

然而擁有一家屬于自己的餐廳，是廚師Alex始終沒有忘記的夢(mèng)。

童年時(shí)，他常和母親一起做菜。在他看來，用餐的地方就該像家一樣，輕松、愉悅、溫暖。于是，Alex把餐廳布置成了濃濃的意式家庭風(fēng)。墻體用不規(guī)則的石塊堆砌，木桌帶有古老年輪質(zhì)感，桌上有明亮的燭臺(tái)……除了家鄉(xiāng)的設(shè)計(jì)，原汁原味的“家鄉(xiāng)菜”更是他的拿手好戲。Alex的想法很簡(jiǎn)單，就是讓重慶人民感受真正的意大利美食和文化。

2014年12月，他的意大利餐廳Alessi在較場(chǎng)口開業(yè)了。

難的是，很多意大利菜的食材重慶幾乎沒有，“比如新鮮的香料，像羅勒、芝麻菜等等，很難找到，還有很多食材需要進(jìn)口，如火腿芝士等。”Alex選擇“入鄉(xiāng)隨俗”。他用不太流利的普通話說出了空心菜、苦瓜、綠色的嫩南瓜這些意大利沒有的蔬菜，他說在認(rèn)識(shí)了這些新的食材后，他嘗試用意式方法烹飪出來。不過對(duì)于菜品品質(zhì)、上菜流程，他依然堅(jiān)持嚴(yán)格和嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)，有的菜如果原材料缺了，他就堅(jiān)決不做。

In 2007, Alex served as the executive chef in anItalian restaurant in Shanghai where he met his girlfriend, now his wife Tina. They came to Chongqing in 2011, and Alex easily found a job in a hotel.

However, running his own hotel is a long-lasting dream of Chef Alex.

In December, 2014, his Italian restaurant, Alessi, opened in Jiao Chang Kou.

As he often cooked with his mother in childhood, in his mind, the place for eating should be like home, cozy, pleasant and warm.Therefore, Alex arranged the restaurant into a strong Italian family style with the wall piled with irregular stones, the wooden tables featured with years of annual rings, the tables adorned with bright candles in stick…In addition, authentic “home cooking” is his forte. Alex’s idea is quite simple, to introduce the authentic Italian food and culture to the people in Chongqing.

He found it is difficult to get some Italian food ingredients in Chongqing, “fresh spices like basil, Eruca sativa etc. are hard to see, and many ingredients need to im-port, such as ham and cheese.”Alex chose to do “in Rome as Rome does”. He listed the vegetables that Italy does not have in a little bit influent mandarin, like the spinach, bitter gourd, green tender pumpkin. He tried to cook his newly known ingredients in the Italian way, but is still very strict and rigorous in the quality of dishes and their serving process. He would rather not do some dishes if the raw material for them is unavailable.

兩種熱情異曲同工

The Shared Warmth

Alex出生在意大利威尼托，那里的地貌和重慶有些相似。“所以當(dāng)初來重慶的時(shí)候，我很快就適應(yīng)了整個(gè)城市的交通。”Alex還記得，那時(shí)解放碑是重慶最繁華的地方，“這幾年，重慶發(fā)展很快，高樓林立，滿眼的都市感。”

除了地理環(huán)境相似，Alex發(fā)現(xiàn)重慶和他的家鄉(xiāng)都富有激情和生命力。“在意大利，熟人相見會(huì)特別熱情地說‘Ciao’，然后擁抱，我覺得這與重慶人的熱情和直爽有著異曲同工之妙。”不過，他眼中的重慶人還有著自由隨性的一面。“重慶人夏天吃火鍋，有的會(huì)自然地把衣服撩起來，或是光著膀子，喝著啤酒。如果我今晚去吃火鍋，也有可能這樣。”

身為廚師，Alex總是習(xí)慣像這樣用食物來梳理自己對(duì)重慶的認(rèn)知。他用略顯生硬的中文細(xì)數(shù)著喜愛的重慶美食：“炒五花肉、辣子雞丁、宮保雞丁……我最喜歡的是小面和牛肉面。”

“你認(rèn)為哪一道菜最能形容意大利和重慶的關(guān)系？”他的答案是意大利肉醬寬面。“重慶人很喜歡吃面，這和意大利很類似。意大利肉醬寬面和重慶的雜醬面很相似的，都有面和肉沫。但肉醬的做法和面的材質(zhì)都是不一樣的。”

在Alex看來，無論是意式美食還是中餐，所傳遞的不只是食物本身，還有食物代表的文化，外來人適應(yīng)當(dāng)?shù)氐氖澄铮鹬禺?dāng)?shù)孛朗澄幕统蔀榱巳谌氘?dāng)?shù)匚幕倪^程。

Alex was born in Veneto, Italy, where the landscape is somewhat similar to that of Chongqing. “So, I quickly adapted to the city’s traffic when I first came to Chongqing.” Alex still remembers that Jiefangbei at that time was the most prosperous place in Chongqing, “Chongqing has developed rapidly in recent years, as you can see modern skyscrapers mushroomed.”

In addition to geographical similarity, Alex found that Chongqing is as passionate and vital as his hometown. “Italians will warmly say‘Ciao’and then hug each other when they meet. I think people in Chongqing share the same warmth and are as welcoming as our Italians.” Moreover, Chongqing people are free and casual. “They eat hot-pot in summer, and some would up-roll the cloth to bare the stomach or arms, enjoying the beer. If I go to eat hot pot tonight, I would be so.”

As a chef, Alex is always used to sorting out his perception of Chongqing with food. He counts his favorite Chongqing food in a bit stiff mandarin:“fried pork, spicy chicken, Kung Pao Chicken ... and xiaomian (Chongqing noodles) and beef noodles are my favorite.”

“What kind of dish do you think is the best one to describe the relationsbetween Italy and Chongqing?”His answer is Ragu alla Bolognese(a kind of Italian pasta).“Both Chongqing people and Italians like eating noodles. Ragu alla Bolognese is similar to Chongqing’s zhajiangmian(noodles with soy bean paste), and both have noodles and diced meat. But the practice of the paste and the noodles are different.”

In Alex’s view, no matter Italian food or Chinese food, they both convey not only the food itself but also the culture behind. To adapt to and respect the local food is the way for foreigners to integrate into the local culture.

An Italian Dream Weaver in Chongqing

Article | Hu Ting Pictures | Liu Wangyang Interviewee