Let me divulge a little-known fact that most chefs would rather I did not mention: very few of them bake their own bread. A few insist on executing this intensive labour of love – but not the majority. Investigating the commercial arrangements between chefs and the bakers they work with revealed a more secretive world than I had expected.

    讓我透露一個鮮為人知的事實，或許大部分廚師寧愿我保密：很少廚師自己烘焙面包。某些廚師——但并非大多數，堅持熱愛這項精細的勞動。對于廚師和面包師之間的商業合作的調查，揭開了一個比我想象中更加秘密的世界。

    My investigation began after a conversation with one baker who supplies London's leading hotels and restaurants with more than £750,000 worth of loaves, croissants and rolls a year. He had just had lunch in one of the restaurants he knew his driver had delivered to that morning but, out of curiosity, he asked the waitress who supplied the restaurant with their bread. She didn't know the answer, went off to the kitchen and returned a couple of minutes later to say how pleased they were that he liked the bread as they had baked it themselves!

    我的調查始于與一位面包師的談話。這位面包師每年為倫敦頂級的酒店和餐廳供應超過75萬英鎊的長條面包、牛角包和面包卷。他剛在一家餐廳用完午膳，而這家餐廳是當天早上他的司機送面包的其中一家，出于好奇，他問服務員餐廳的面包是誰供應的。服務員不知道，便往廚房詢問，數分鐘后，她回來，說他們非常開心，因為他喜歡他們餐廳自己烘焙的面包！

    I had hoped to visit this bakery but the initial enthusiasm on the baker's part soon gave way to reticence and my visit was cancelled. But not before I had begun to form a picture of the complex relationship that unites, and often divides, those involved in the seemingly simple world of bread-making for restaurants.

    我曾希望參觀面包店，但是最初對面包師那部分的熱忱不再，我的行程取消了。但是，那時我已經開始理清為餐廳烘焙面包、那看似簡單的世界里，時而聯合，時而分離的人們的復雜關系。

    The nub of it is the difficult, often dysfunctional, relationship between baker, pastry chef and chef. To prosper, restaurants need harmony between the last two but often that is not easy: the chefs view pastry chefs as essential but with a tendency to be prima donnas. Pastry chefs often consider chefs as overbearing, bordering on “control freaks”, as one of them curtly put it.

    關鍵是面包師、點心師和廚師之間難以處理、時而失調的關系。為了生意興隆，餐廳需要后兩者關系和諧，但往往不是那么容易：廚師認為點心師不可或缺，但是覺得他們愛慕虛榮。點心師常常認為廚師傲慢專橫，一位點心師簡稱他們為“控制狂”。

    Surprisingly, bakers and pastry chefs don't mix either. One restaurateur who has had first-hand experience of both described this relationship as “invariably like oil and water”. This is perhaps difficult to comprehend because their essential tools and ingredients are so similar. But pastry chefs, and particularly classically trained French p?tissiers, tend to think of themselves as the stars of the show and bakers as mere journeymen.

    奇怪的是，面包師和點心師能和諧相處。一位擁有兩者直接經驗的餐廳老板把這種關系描述為“如同油和水永不變更”。或許這難以理解，因為他們的基本工具和配料如此相似。但是，點心師，特別是受過正統訓練的法國點心師，會覺得自己是演出的主角，面包師僅僅是技工而已。

    There is also a significant difference in their sense of involvement. Pastry chefs have to be part of a team while the appeal of a baker's life is that once you are prepared for the antisocial hours that the profession demands your independence is guaranteed.

    他們的參與意識也很不一樣。點心師必須是團隊的一份子，而面包師這一職業的魅力在于，當職業需求一些非社交時間時，他可以相對獨立些。

    Yet despite all these challenges there is no doubt that many more chefs would like to bake their own bread. Chefs who have just opened their own restaurant frequently admit that they are initially buying their bread in but claim that as soon as their business has settled down they intend to bake their own.

    然而，雖然面臨這些挑戰，毫無疑問，更多廚師愿意自己烘焙面包。剛開始經營自己餐廳的廚師常常承認開始的時候，買入面包，但是宣稱一旦生意稍有起色，他們傾向于自己烘焙面包。

    This usually does not happen, however. As a result, over the past decade a number of excellent bakeries have opened around London to supply restaurants with their daily bread. They include Bagatelle, Clarke's, Exeter Street Bakery, Gail Force, Millers, St John, Paul and Flourpower. Some supply both retail and wholesale; others just supply restaurants; some extend their range to include cakes, biscuits and chocolates. 

    然而，這種情況鮮有發生。結果，過去20年，倫敦附近開了許多出色的面包店，為餐廳供應每天的面包。這些面包店有Bagatelle、Clarke's、Exeter Street Bakery、Gail Force、Millers、St John、Paul 和Flourpower。有些既批發又零售；有些僅為餐廳供應面包；有些拓展業務，制作蛋糕、餅干和巧克力等。

    What these companies also have in common are unglamorous surroundings. The bakeries are invariably located in purpose-built industrial units with access to public transport for their staff and access into the centre of London for their van drivers. A significant factor in bread-making is the ambient temperature and what is crucial is proximity between the final point of production and the area in which the bread is loaded into the van. Excess dampness and heat are the enemies.

    這些面包店的共同點是周邊環境很單調。面包店總是位于特別建造的工業單位，便于員工搭乘公共交通和貨車司機運貨到倫敦市中心。烘焙面包的一個重要因素就是周圍的溫度，面包制成的地點和把面包裝入貨車的距離是關鍵。烘焙面包忌諱潮濕和高溫。

    To discover the other secrets behind baking the best bread I set out late one morning for an industrial unit next to an Underground line and a busy arterial road. The front door was difficult to spot because of the thick plastic flaps surrounding it in order to maintain a constant temperature.

    為了發現烘焙最美味面包的其他秘訣，臨近正午的時候，我啟程前往毗鄰地鐵和忙碌公路干線的一個工業單位。很難發現它的前門，因為為了保溫，前門已被厚厚的塑料蓋子圍起來。

    Once inside, I was handed a white hat and coat by a friendly Frenchman dressed in white from head to toe and told to fill in a visitors' medical questionnaire in which I had to declare whether I was carrying typhoid or paratyphoid, or was suffering from skin rashes, boils or discharges. The storage area was piled high with staples such as British and French flour, yeast, salt and tubs of the ingredients required for the more fashionable breads such as walnuts, raisins and buttermilk as well as virgin olive oil for Italian ciabatta and focaccia.

    進入以后，一位友好的法國人馬上遞給我一頂白色的帽子和一件白色的大衣，這位法國人從頭到腳一身白衣，他讓我填寫一份訪客醫療問卷，在問卷中我必須說明我是否帶有傷寒、副傷寒，或是否患有皮疹、皮膚燙傷或皮膚潰瘍。儲藏區高高堆放著材料，例如：英國和法國面粉、酵粉、鹽，和一桶桶烘焙時下流行面包所需的原料，如核桃、葡萄干、脫脂乳，還有烘焙意大利ciabatta（查巴塔）和focaccia（佛卡夏）所需的初榨橄欖油。

    As I emerged into the main baking area I began to appreciate why these artisanal bakeries are such an integral part of restaurant life. Here, 11 bakers were hard at work in an area the size of a football pitch, bigger than any kitchen I have seen outside a large hotel or a cruise ship.

    進入主要的烘焙區域，我開始意識到，為何這些傳統手工作坊面包店是餐廳不可或缺的一部分。11位面包師在一個足球場大小的廚房里努力工作，這個廚房比我在大型酒店或郵輪外見過的任何廚房都大。

    The three mixers – 300kg, 200kg and 100kg models – looked even more imposing now they had finished for the day. The Kosovan head baker busily shaped, divided and rolled the loaves on a long mixing table. From there everything passed to a vast machine at the back, probably 20 metres wide and 6 metres high, far bigger than any set of commercial kitchen ovens. This enclosed the proover, which allows the shaped loaves to rise gently before going into the ovens on either side. From there the bread went next door to be packed.

    為當天準備的三個分別為300公斤、200公斤和100公斤的攪拌器模型，現在看起來更加壯觀。Kosovan的首席面包師在攪拌桌上忙著定型、切割和滾動長條面包。所有面包將被傳送到后面的一架大型機器，這架機器也許有20米寬，6米高，遠遠大于任何商用的廚房烤箱。校驗裝置附在烤箱上，讓成型的長條面包輕輕地上升到兩邊的烤箱里。接著，面包就會被運送到隔壁包裝。

    As we walked around, the baker left me in no doubt as to why he was happy to be out of restaurants. “It's war out there between the different chefs,” he claimed. But what he was most happy about at the moment was that he had just finished training someone who had started as a kitchen porter to become a baker. He feared, however, that it would not be too long before the young man headed back to his native Uzbekistan to open his own bakery.

    我們四周逛逛時，面包師讓我清楚明白，為何他如此樂意不在餐廳工作。他說：“在那里，不同的廚師之間有爭執。”但是，他現在最開心的是他剛培訓完一位小伙子，這位小伙子已開始擔任廚房雜工，將會成為面包師。可是，他擔心這位年輕的小伙子不久將回到自己的祖國烏茲別克斯坦開自己的面包房。

    Bread-making may be relatively straightforward but the process of getting the best bread to your restaurant table is anything but.

    相對而言，烘焙面包也許輕而易舉，但是，把最好的面包呈到你餐廳的過程卻絕非易事。