本文選自經(jīng)濟學人，和學長一起看餐廳的歷史變遷。

學長建議

1. 在語境中學習表達用法；

2. 著重把握學長標注的內(nèi)容；

3. 帶著問題去閱讀文章。

Reading Comprehension

1. What is the direct impact of the epidemic on people's dining patterns?

2. Why were the pubs at first more like takeaways?

3. Why is eating out seen as an indulgence today?

4. Why did the rich prefer to eat at home in the past?

5. What were the reasons for the accelerated growth of restaurants in the 20th century?

6. Why is eating out becoming more economically viable?

7. Why do the wealthiest people prefer to eat out today?

8. According to the article, what can restaurants do next?

AN ECONOMIC HISTORY OF RESTAURANTS

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And how the pandemic may change them

April 9th 2020 was the restaurant industry’s darkest day. The imposition of lockdowns to slow the spread of covid-19, combined with people voluntarily avoiding others, meant that on that Thursday bookings in America, Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Mexico via OpenTable, a restaurant-reservation website, normally in their millions, fell to zero. Now, as economies unlock, many restaurants, even the fanciest, are facing labour shortages. Le Gavroche, one of London’s swankiest French offerings, has had to stop its lunch service and has lost its general manager.

2020年4月9日是餐飲業(yè)最黑暗的一天。實施封鎖以減緩covid-19的傳播，加上人們自愿避開他人，意味著在那個星期四，美國、澳大利亞、英國、加拿大、德國、愛爾蘭和墨西哥通過餐廳預訂網(wǎng)站OpenTable的預訂量，通常是數(shù)以百萬計的，下降到零。現(xiàn)在，隨著經(jīng)濟的發(fā)展，許多餐廳，甚至是最豪華的餐廳，都面臨著勞動力短缺的問題。倫敦最豪華的法國餐廳之一Le Gavroche不得不停止其午餐服務，并失去了總經(jīng)理

Covid brought to a halt an astonishing expansion. In 2010-19 the number of licensed restaurants in Britain grew by 26%. Americans were, for the first time, spending more than half their total food budget on eating out. Well-paid folk from Hong Kong to Los Angeles were hAppily renting kitchenless apartments: why bother cooking when good food was so lavishly available beyond your front door?

Covid使其驚人的擴張停止了。在2010-19年，英國有執(zhí)照的餐館數(shù)量增長了26%。美國人首次將其總食品預算的一半以上用于外出就餐。從香港到洛杉磯的高薪人士都愉快地租下沒有廚房的公寓：既然好的食物在你的前門外就能買到，為什么還要費心做飯？

Being deprived of restaurants has made people realise how much they value them. Eating out fulfils needs which seem fundamental to human nature. People need to date, to seal deals and to peer at their fellow humans. At a good restaurant you can travel without travelling, or simply feel coddled.

被剝奪了餐館的權(quán)利使人們意識到他們是多么重視餐館。外出就餐滿足了似乎是人類本性的基本需求。人們需要約會，需要達成交易，需要跟隨他們的同伴。在一家好的餐廳，你可以不用旅行而可以感覺到被呵護。

Yet restaurants in their current form are a few hundred years old at most. They do not satisfy some primeval urge, but rather those of particular sorts of societies. Economic and social forces, from political reform to urbanisation to changing labour markets, have created both the supply of and demand for restaurants. Their history also hints at what their future could look like in a post-pandemic world.

然而，目前形式的餐館最多只有幾百年的歷史。它們并不滿足于某種原始的沖動，而是滿足于那些特殊類型的社會。經(jīng)濟和社會力量，從政治改革到城市化，再到不斷變化的勞動力市場，都創(chuàng)造了對餐館的供應和需求。它們的歷史也暗示了它們在后大流行時代的未來會是什么樣子。

People have long feasted outside the home. Archaeologists have counted 158 snack bars in Pompeii, a city destroyed by a volcano in 79ad—one for every 60-100 people, a higher ratio than many global cities today. Ready-cooked meat, game and fish were available for Londoners to eat from at least the 1170s. Samuel Cole, an early settler, opened what is considered to be the first American tavern in 1634, in Boston.

長期以來，人們一直在家庭之外大吃大喝。考古學家在龐貝（79年被火山摧毀的城市）統(tǒng)計出158家小吃店，每60-100人就有一家，這個比例比今天許多全球城市都要高。至少從1170年代開始，倫敦人就可以吃到現(xiàn)成的肉類、野味和魚類。早期定居者塞繆爾-科爾于1634年在波士頓開設(shè)了被認為是美國第一家酒館的餐廳。

These were more like takeaways, though, or stands where food might be thrown in with a drink, than restaurants. The table , which Appeared in France around Cole’s time, most closely resembled a modern restaurant. Clients sat at a single table and ate what they were given (trends now making a comeback). Many of these proto-restaurants resembled community kitchens, or quasi-charities, which existed for the benefit of locals. Strangers were not always welcome.

不過，這些酒館更像是外賣店，或者在飲料中加入食物的攤位，而不是餐館。在科爾時代左右出現(xiàn)在法國的 "餐桌"與現(xiàn)代餐廳最為相似。客戶坐在一張桌子上，吃他們所得到的東西（現(xiàn)在的趨勢正在卷土重來）。這些原生餐廳中有許多類似于社區(qū)廚房，或準慈善機構(gòu)，為當?shù)厝说睦娑嬖?。陌生人并不總是受歡迎。

Nor were they destinations predominantly for the well-heeled. Before the use of coal became widespread in England in the 17th century, preparing food at home involved spending a lot on wood or peat. Professional kitchens, by contrast, benefited from economies of scale in energy consumption and so could provide meals at a lower cost than people could themselves. Today dining out is seen as an indulgence, but it was the cheapest way to eat for most of human history.

它們也不是主要為富人服務的地方。在17世紀煤炭在英國廣泛使用之前，在家里準備食物需要花費大量的木材或泥炭。相比之下，專業(yè)廚房從能源消耗的規(guī)模經(jīng)濟中受益，因此能夠以比人們自己更低的成本提供膳食。今天，外出就餐被視為一種放縱，但在人類歷史的大部分時間里，這是最便宜的飲食方式。

It was, thus, a low-status activity. Cicero and Horace reckoned that a visitor to a bar might as well have visited a brothel. According to “Piers Plowman”, a late-14th-century poem, cooks would “poison the people privily and oft”. Some rich types rented private dining rooms; Samuel Pepys, a 17th-century diarist, enjoyed eating “in the French style” (that is, with communal dishes) at one in London. But most wealthy people preferred to eat at home, enjoying the luxury of having staff to cook and clean up.

因此，它是一種低地位的活動。西塞羅和賀拉斯認為，去酒吧的人還不如去妓院。根據(jù)14世紀末的詩歌 "Piers Plowman"，廚師們會 "私下里經(jīng)常毒害人們"。一些富人租用私人餐廳；17世紀的日記作者塞繆爾-佩皮斯（Samuel Pepys）在倫敦的一個餐廳享受 "法國式 "的飲食（即使用公共菜肴）。但大多數(shù)富人喜歡在家里吃飯，享受有工作人員做飯和打掃衛(wèi)生的奢侈。

Over time, however, the notion that a respectable person might eat a meal in public gradually took hold. Wilton’s, a fish restaurant in London, got going in 1742. Dublin’s oldest, established in 1775, traded under the name of the “Three Blackbirds” and was “noted for a good bottle of Madeira, as well as for a Chop from the Charcoal Grill”. Fraunces Tavern, New York City’s oldest restaurant, probably opened in 1762 (it is still open today and serves determinedly American fare from clam chowder to New York prime strip steaks).

然而，隨著時間的推移，一個受人尊敬的人可以在公共場合進餐的觀念逐漸深入人心。倫敦的威爾頓魚館于1742年開始營業(yè)。都柏林最古老的餐廳成立于1775年，以 "三只黑鳥 "的名義進行交易，"以一瓶上好的馬德拉酒和炭火烤肉而聞名"。Fraunces Tavern，紐約市最古老的餐廳，可能于1762年開業(yè)（至今仍在營業(yè)，提供從蛤蜊湯到紐約頂級牛排的堅定的美國菜）。

Some historians look to the supply side to explain this shift, arguing that the restaurant emerged as a result of improvements in competition policy. Powerful guilds often made it hard for a business to sell two different products simultaneously. Butchers monopolised the sale of meat; vintners that of wine. The growth of the restaurant, which serves many different things, required breaking down these barriers to trade.

一些歷史學家從供給方面來解釋這一轉(zhuǎn)變，認為餐廳的出現(xiàn)是競爭政策改善的結(jié)果。強大的行會往往使一個企業(yè)很難同時銷售兩種不同的產(chǎn)品。屠夫壟斷了肉類的銷售；酒商壟斷了葡萄酒的銷售。提供多種不同服務的餐廳的發(fā)展需要打破這些貿(mào)易壁壘。

A Monsieur Boulanger, a soup-maker in Paris, may have been the first to do so. He dared sell a dish of “sheep’s feet in white-wine sauce”. The city’s traiteurs (caterers) claimed the dish contained a ragout, a meat dish only they were allowed to prepare, and was therefore illegal. They took their case to court, but Boulanger triumphed. The tale, supposedly marking the beginning of a movement in mid-18th-century France towards more open markets, is probably apocryphal. But other regulatory changes did help. In Britain reformers worried about public drunkenness passed a law in 1860 allowing places serving food to serve wine as well (thus encouraging people to eat something to sop up the booze). Around the same time American states started passing food-safety laws, giving customers more confidence in the quality of the food.

巴黎的一位制湯師Monsieur Boulanger可能是第一個這樣做的人。他敢于出售一道 "白葡萄酒醬汁羊蹄 "的菜肴。該市的餐飲業(yè)者聲稱，這道菜含有_ragout_，一種只有他們才被允許準備的肉類菜肴，因此是非法的。他們向法院提起訴訟，但布蘭格取得了勝利。這個故事?lián)f標志著18世紀中期法國走向更開放的市場的開始，但這可能是個虛構(gòu)的故事。但其他的監(jiān)管變化確實有幫助。在英國，擔心公眾醉酒的改革者在1860年通過了一項法律，允許提供食物的地方也提供葡萄酒（從而鼓勵人們吃點東西來喝掉酒）。大約在同一時間，美國各州開始通過食品安全法，使顧客對食品的質(zhì)量更有信心。

Yet for restaurants to flourish, richer people had to demand what Pepys did not: eating in full view of others. Until the 18th century elites largely viewed public spaces as dirty and dangerous, or as an arena of spectacle. But as capitalism took off, public spaces became sites of rational dialogue which were (putatively) open to all. And, as Charles Baudelaire, a French poet, observed, 19th-century cities also became places where people indulged in conspicuous consumption.

然而，為了使餐館蓬勃發(fā)展，更富有的人不得不要求佩皮斯所沒有的東西：在別人的注視下吃飯。在18世紀之前，精英們大多將公共場所視為骯臟和危險的地方，或視為觀賞性的舞臺。但隨著資本主義的發(fā)展，公共空間成為理性對話的場所，（據(jù)說）向所有人開放。而且，正如法國詩人查爾斯-波德萊爾（Charles Baudelaire）所觀察到的，19世紀的城市也成為了人們沉溺于炫耀性消費的地方。

The restaurant was the natural habitat of the flaneur, Baudelaire’s wandering observer of city life. Where better than a restaurant to see and be seen? Out went the set menu of the table d'h?te; in came the à la carte kind. Shared tables gave way to private ones. Eating out became less of a communal activity focused on calorie intake and more of a cultural experience—and a place, as Baudelaire wrote, where people could show off their wealth by ordering more food than they could eat and drinking more than they needed.

餐館是 "旅行者 "的自然棲息地，波德萊爾是城市生活的漫游者。有什么地方比餐廳更適合看和被看呢？飯店的固定菜單被淘汰了，進來的是 "點菜 "的形式。共用餐桌讓位于私人餐桌。外出就餐不再是一種關(guān)注卡路里攝入量的公共活動，而是一種文化體驗——正如波德萊爾所寫的那樣，人們可以通過點更多的食物和喝更多的酒來炫耀他們的財富。

Restaurants’ growth accelerated in the 20th century. American employment in food service quadrupled as a share of the workforce over this period. The Michelin Guide was first published in 1900; the stars came 26 years later. And yet the continued rise of the restaurant up until the pandemic nonetheless presents an economic puzzle. Cooking at home was becoming ever easier. Average house sizes grew. Appliances such as the food processor and the dishwasher reduced preparation and clean-up times. Dining out became relatively more expensive: in America in 1930 a restaurant meal was 25% costlier than an equivalent meal at home, but by 2014 the gap had risen to 280%. From 2007-20 “French Laundry inflation”, describing the cost of a meal at a three-Michelin-star restaurant in California, was twice the core inflation rate.

餐館的發(fā)展在20世紀加速了。在此期間，美國餐飲業(yè)的就業(yè)人數(shù)在勞動力中的比例翻了兩番。米其林指南》于1900年首次出版；26年后才有了星級標準。然而，直到大流行病發(fā)生之前，餐館的持續(xù)興起還是帶來了一個經(jīng)濟難題。在家做飯正變得越來越容易。平均住房面積增加。食品加工機和洗碗機等電器縮短了準備和清理時間。外出就餐變得相對更昂貴：1930年在美國，在餐館就餐比在家里就餐要貴25%，但到2014年，這一差距已經(jīng)上升到280%。從2007年到20年，"法國洗衣店通貨膨脹"，描述的是在加州一家米其林三星餐廳吃飯的成本，是核心通貨膨脹率的兩倍。

And yet three economic changes ensured that demand for restaurants grew despite rising prices. The first is immigration. In the 50 years after the second world war the net flow of migrants into rich countries, relative to population, more than quadrupled. Starting a restaurant is a good career move for new arrivals; it neither requires formal qualifications nor, at least for chefs, fluency in the local language. Migrants tend to improve the quality of an area’s restaurants. London’s became far better in the era of free movement with the European Union. The melting pot that is Singapore has some of the best food in the world. Restaurants became more tempting, even as prices went up.

然而，有三個經(jīng)濟變化確保了對餐館的需求在價格上漲的情況下仍能增長。首先是移民。在第二次世界大戰(zhàn)后的50年里，相對于人口而言，進入富裕國家的移民凈流量增加了四倍多。對于新移民來說，開餐館是一個很好的職業(yè)發(fā)展，它既不需要正式的資格證書，至少對于廚師來說，也不需要流利的當?shù)卣Z言。移民往往能提高一個地區(qū)的餐館質(zhì)量。在與歐盟自由流動的時代，倫敦的餐廳變得更好。新加坡這個大熔爐有一些世界上最好的食物。餐館變得更加誘人，即使價格上漲也是如此。

The second factor was the changing microeconomics of the family. As a new paper by Rachel Griffith of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think-tank, and colleagues, shows, households’ choices about whether to make their own food or to buy it premade are shaped not only by the upfront cost of those things. They also depend on what economists call “shadow costs”.

第二個因素是家庭微觀經(jīng)濟的變化。正如智囊團財政研究所（Institute for Fiscal Studies）的瑞秋-格里菲斯（Rachel Griffith）及其同事的一篇新論文所顯示的那樣，家庭對自己制作食物還是購買預制食品的選擇，不僅受到這些東西的前期成本的影響。他們還取決于經(jīng)濟學家所說的 "影子成本"。

The true cost of an at-home meal involves not just the outlay for the ingredients, but the time spent on shopping and preparation. In an era of low female labour-force participation, shadow costs were low. A stay-at-home mother who cooked instead of eating out would have less leisure time. But as more women entered the workforce during the 20th century this equation changed, raising the shadow cost of cooking. Now a working woman who cooked dinner would be sacrificing time which might otherwise be used to earn money. And so eating out made increasing economic sense, even as it became more expensive.

在家吃飯的真正成本不僅包括食材的支出，還包括購物和準備的時間。在一個女性勞動力參與度低的時代，影子成本很低。一個在家做飯而不是在外面吃飯的母親，會有更少的休閑時間。但在20世紀，隨著越來越多的女性進入勞動力市場，這個等式發(fā)生了變化，提高了烹飪的影子成本。現(xiàn)在，一個工作的婦女如果做飯，就會犧牲掉原本可以用來掙錢的時間。因此，外出就餐變得越來越有經(jīng)濟意義，即使它變得更加昂貴。

The third factor was changing working patterns. Historically poor people have tended to work longer hours than rich ones. But in the latter half of the 20th century the opposite became true. The rise of knowledge-intensive jobs, and globalisation, made rich people’s work more financially rewarding—and enjoyable. Toiling into the night became a sign of status. The upshot was that the people with the most money to spend on dining out increasingly needed it most, since they had the least free time. In Britain the richest tenth of households devote a much bigger chunk of their overall spending to dining and drinking out than the poorest tenth, and the gap has grown in recent years.

第三個因素是工作模式的變化。歷史上，窮人的工作時間往往比富人長。但在20世紀后半葉，情況變得相反。知識密集型工作的興起，以及全球化，使富人的工作更有經(jīng)濟回報，也更有樂趣。熬夜工作成為地位的象征。結(jié)果是，擁有更多資金用于外出就餐的人越來越需要它，因為他們的空閑時間最少。在英國，最富有的十分之一的家庭用于外出就餐和飲酒的開支比最貧窮的十分之一的家庭大得多，而且近年來這種差距還在擴大。

What does the history of the restaurant say about its future? People have relished their reopening. In recent weeks global restaurant reservations have been near their pre-pandemic levels. The best ones are booked up for months: Silicon Valley nerds have created automated bots which instantly reserve tables.

該餐廳的歷史對其未來有何啟示？人們對其重新開業(yè)感到高興。最近幾周，全球餐廳的預訂量已接近大流行前的水平。最好的餐廳已經(jīng)被預訂了幾個月。硅谷的書呆子們已經(jīng)創(chuàng)造了自動機器人，可以立即預訂餐桌。

The long-term future of the restaurant is less clear. The pandemic has led to many people buying more takeout than before (Uber’s revenue from delivery now exceeds what it earns from helping people get around), while others have a newfound love of cooking. Restaurants have little choice but to continue to adapt. That means moving still further from the utilitarian model of the 18th century and before, and instead doubling down on what they do best: offering those who need to eat a taste of romance, glamour and love.

餐館的長期前景不太明朗。這場大流行導致許多人比以前更多地購買外賣（Uber的外賣收入現(xiàn)在超過了它幫助人們出行的收入），而其他人則對烹飪有了新的喜愛。餐館沒有什么選擇，只能繼續(xù)適應。這意味著要進一步遠離18世紀及以前的功利主義模式，而要加倍努力做他們最擅長的事情：為那些需要吃飯的人提供浪漫、魅力和愛情的味道。