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晚餐演講分會慶祝吃及說話

譯者：鄭小玲 Sherry, 新竹

William Shakespeare once said, “If music be the food of love, play on.” I say, “If love of food is the music of life, then it’s time for a scrumptious symphony.”
威廉.莎士比亞曾經說過：「如果音樂是愛情的精神糧食，那就繼續彈奏下去吧！」我說：「假如食物的愛戀，是生活的音樂，那麼是到了絕妙交響樂的時候了。＂

Indeed, “The Scrumptious Symphony” was the theme for a recent meeting of a unique and creative club: Le Gourmet Toastmasters. Based in Costa Mesa, California, the club holds dinner meetings in a different restaurant each month. This particular meeting, however, had a personal touch: It was held in my home and our members met around my dining room table. As the self-appointed “executive chef,” I prepared a six-course gourmet dinner for the group, and the Toastmaster and I carefully coordinated the meal with the meeting agenda.
的確：「絕妙交響樂」一個很特別且有創意分會：美食演講會，最近例會的主題。該會位於加州科斯塔梅薩市，每月在不同的餐館舉行晚餐例會。然而，這次特別的例會，就比較私人風格了：在我家舉行，會員們圍繞在我家餐桌。我自許為「行政主廚」，我為大家準備了六道菜的美食，我與會員們也很小心的，依據例會的議程，來處理我們的菜餚。

When I first heard about the Le Gourmet club nearly five years ago, I was excited. A Toastmasters club that meets in fine restaurants? It’s the perfect combination for someone like me, who relishes speaking almost as much as he does eating. When I found out that the club counted among its members an unusually high proportion of Distinguished Toastmasters (DTMs), past district and division governors, and speech contest winners, I was sold. Here was my opportunity to learn from some of Toastmasters’ finest while savoring, perhaps, the textures and complex flavors of a Tournedos Rossini with a Cabernet reduction.
當我第一次聽到美食家演講會，差不多是在五年前，那時我覺得很興奮。一個在餐廳開會的演講會？對某些像我這樣，又喜歡說話又喜歡吃東西的人，是一種完美的結合。當我發現成員當中，有不尋常高比例的傑出會員DTM、前任地區總會長及部總監、甚至還有演講比賽的冠軍，我馬上就加入為會員。在這裡，我有機會品嘗，一些菁英演講會裡學習到東西，或許，Cabernet reduction牛排的質地，和加柏奈紅葡萄酒壓味的綜合風味。

But, alas, few affordable restaurants these days rarely, if ever, offer anything that comes close to earning the much-desired “gourmet” accolade. Nonetheless, gathering in a different restaurant every month offers club members the opportunity to learn different communication and leadership skills, such as meeting planning, price negotiation, fixed-price menu planning and cooperating with restaurant managers and their staff. As a result of the occasionally high ambient noise levels in restaurants’ public areas, we also gain experience in the real-world challenge of simply making ourselves heard above those around us. This is truly the art of public speaking.
但是，唉，現在很少有負擔得起的餐館，假如有，提供容易贏得渴望想得到「美食家」盛重讚美。然而，每月在不同的餐應聚集，提供會員們有機會學習不同的溝通和領導技能，如會議策劃、價格談判、與餐廳經理和工作人員協商等。由於在餐廳這種公眾場合，偶爾會有高的噪聲，我們也接受現實的挑戰，在吵雜聲中，聽到我們想要聽到的事項。這才叫真正的公眾演講。

Food and Toastmasters is a recurring connection, shown in numerous breakfast clubs as well as groups such as the Panasonic Flying Toasters, a corporate club in Lake Forest, California, that holds lunchtime brown-bag meetings and features potlucks twice a year as successful recruiting events. I know of other clubs that do the same. Eating food is a biological imperative, but the sharing of food is one of the most basic societal norms around the world. A sense of bonding and club community is strengthened when people break bread together. 
食物和演講會是一個反覆循環的連接，出現在眾多的早餐分會和團體，如松下飛行演講會，一個企業分會，在加州森林湖市，它們自備午餐袋，以及一年二次的「百樂餐」(參加者各帶一盤菜餚)，他們就以此為特色，成功的招募新會員。據我所知，其他分會也有類似的活動。吃東西，是生物生存的條件，但分享食物，在世界上是一種最基本的社會規範。當我們一起用餐時，和分會社區的結合感是鞏固的。

A Tradition is Born
傳統誕生
The Le Gourmet club’s November meeting typically had low attendance because of the American Thanksgiving holiday; restaurants weren’t interested in a group of eight, or fewer, who wanted fixed-price menus and separate dining areas. So club meetings were held at various members’ houses, with perhaps spaghetti Bolognese, pizza or a pot of chili as fare. This was about to change.
十一月份因為感恩節的緣故，美食家分會出席率特別低；餐廳對少於8位顧客的團體比較沒興趣，他們以套餐固定價格的方式，區隔不同的用餐區塊。所以我們的例會，在不同的會員家裡舉辦，以義大利麵、披薩、或一鍋的紅蕃辣椒為食物。這樣方式即將要改變。

After joining the club in 2006, I volunteered my table, kitchen and cooking skills to offer a fine-dining experience in November – all for about the same price as the usual “rubber-chicken” restaurant meal. Eighteen people signed up! We planned and then published a menu for club members. The five-course lavish meal we created that night was savored by all, and a precedent was set. November 2008 continued the pattern with an encore performance.
我在2006年參加分會後，在一月份的例會，我自願挪出我的餐桌、廚房和烹調技巧，提供一個美好用餐經驗 - 全部的餐費，跟以前在餐廳「硬的橡皮雞肉」一樣。十八位報名參加！我們計畫並公布菜單給分會會員。我們那晚有五道豐富的菜餚給大家品嘗，並創下了先例。到2008年11月這種模式，一直繼續的輪流演出。

Now, I know what you’re thinking: You would not expect a man from England – a country not well known for its culinary excellence (to say the least) – to turn out to be a gourmand, let alone an aspiring gourmet chef. But I’ve been cooking from the age of 13, when I persuaded a skeptical headmaster of an English grammar school to allow the formation of an after-school “2nd Form Boys’ Cookery Club.” The rest, as they say, is (culinary) history.
現在我知道你在想甚麼：你本來不期望一位來自英國 - 一個烹調不是很有名的國家(至少我可以這樣說) - 最後變成一位美食家，更別提是一位有抱負的美食主廚。可是我從13歲就一直在做飯，當我說服一位心有疑慮的私校校長，開闢一個八年級課後烹飪社團。其他就如同他們說的，成為烹飪歷史了。

Fast-forward to 2010. Le Gourmet Toastmasters is strong with many new members. The dinner meeting at my home has become a tradition. As the November event approaches, this is how the meeting is shaping up: a six-course meal, with 20 people seated around the table, staring down more cutlery than most have ever seen in their lives.
快轉到2010年，美食家演講會成員眾多，變得更茁壯。在我家的晚餐例會變成傳統。當時一月份例會將近，以下是例會即將形成：六道餐點，20位坐在餐桌周圍，凝視比以前生命中更多套正式餐具。

I was executive chef for the event, and I had the active and skilled support of my life – and culinary – partner, Kandi Christian, as head chef. This year’s more elaborate meal would be a veritable gourmet feast requiring additional hands in the kitchen, so we recruited Colleen Hildebrand (a member of faculty at the nearby University of California, Irvine) to be our sous-chef. 
我在此例會是行政主廚，在我活躍，又有技術的太太當助手，Kandi Christian，為當天的主廚。今年，更是精心製作的餐點，稱的上是美食的宴會，需要額外的幫手，所以我們招募Colleen Hildebrand (一位教職人員，爾灣城，加州大學附近)成為我們的二廚。

Coordinating the Meal with the Meeting
協調例會和餐點
As the head of the culinary team, I met with the Toastmaster a week before the meeting to plan the complex coordination of agenda and course-service times. We also charted when club members could be “volunteered” to act as waiters and busboys for one course each, so as not to interrupt their participation in the meeting.
身為烹調組的組長，我在例會一週前，與例會總主持人會面，計畫複雜的議程，和出菜時間。我們也在計畫每出菜時，一些會員可以志願當服務員或雜役，並避免打擾參與例會。

Paralleling the sequence of a Toastmasters meeting, the appetizer was a Flag Salute Plate offering Red, White and Blue Cheese morsels, a three-meat charcuterie and a major whimsy of sauces, crackers, honeycomb, endives, pickled onion slices and toasted almonds. That was followed by the Grammarian Soup, made from wild mushrooms and leeks with alphabet pasta letters – can you spell the Word of the Day?
相似於演講會例會的順序，開胃菜是一道提供三種-紅、白、藍色小片起司的Flag Salute 盤，一個以三種肉類製成的香腸，量多且參雜新奇口味的沾醬，薄脆鹹餅乾、糖果、萵苣菜、醃製的洋蔥條、烤過的杏仁。接下來的餐點是「文法大師湯』，野菇和韭菜，加上有英文字母的通心麵 –你能拼出每日一字嗎?

The next offering was the contest-themed Not-So-Tall-Tails Fish Course – a dish consisting of subtly spicy whitefish in a shallot and Boursin sauce, served in cups made from baked wonton wrappers. Then the palate-refreshing Timer’s Sorbets: a towering trio of red (cherry), yellow (pineapple) and green (lime) sorbets, served at the center of a clock face, the hours marked by tiny mint leaves with clock hands traced out in lines of cherry sauce. Then came the Speakers Course, the main prepared entrée featuring medallions of beef with an anchovy, paprika and parmesan butter; garlic and red pepper mashed potatoes; baby carrots glazed with just a touch of ginger; asparagus; and a panoply of wild mushrooms served with a dark savory gravy. This complex dish took far more than five to seven minutes (even with a 30- second grace period) to plate, let alone enjoy.
下一道提供的是有比賽主題的一道菜「沒有很長尾巴的魚」- 是一道微辣的白魚，浸上青蔥和Bourshin醬汁組成的，用烤過的餛飩皮以杯狀包裹。然後好吃的「計時員冰凍果子露」：卓越的三重奏 - 紅色(櫻桃)、黃色(鳳梨)、綠色(酸橙)果子露。盛裝在鐘面上的中間，鐘面上的時刻，以小薄荷葉標示。以櫻桃醬描出時針秒針的線條。接著出來的是「演說者餐」，主餐是一道有鯷魚，紅辣椒粉和巴馬乾酪奶油，像獎章大的牛；大蒜，紅辣椒和馬鈴薯製成泥；小紅羅蔔淋上些薑汁；龍鬚菜；和一道野菇的壯麗成列，還有深色的美味可口滷汁。這個綜合的菜餚多花5~10分鐘(甚至有30秒的寬限期)送到餐盤，更別提享受。

Finally, all club members were declared to be winners and got their just desserts, so to speak, in the sixth and final Awards Course – a light, chilled organic cranberry and orange torte.
最後，全部分會會員被宣布為最佳演講者時，會得到他們的甜點。第六道，最後一道「頒獎」菜餚- 少量的冷有機蔓越莓和橘色果仁蛋糕。

In between courses, the business of a Toastmasters meeting proceeded apace. Table Topics on the theme of “the scrumptious symphony” were posed, timed by the timer holding up large green, yellow and red bell peppers. Three speeches were served up and three evaluations offered. In place of the usual red, white and blue ribbons given to winning speakers, the awards were napkins hand-made by the head chef from red, white and blue Irish linen, each embroidered with our club’s name, the date and the award category. Club members cut out the usual end-of-the-meeting “restaurant review” speech and instead generously paid tribute to our culinary efforts with a standing ovation.
菜餚之間，演講會例會的事務快速的進行。即席演講的主題是「絕妙交響樂」，計時員舉著大綠、大黃、大紅的鐘型辣椒計時。例會有三位演講者和三位評講者。以往使用紅色、白色、藍色緞帶，頒給最佳演講者，這次我們主廚設計的紅色、白色、藍色愛爾蘭亞麻布製作成餐巾當獎品，每一條繡著我們分會的名字、日期、和得獎類別。會員們刪掉平時例會的最後的議程「餐廳評論」演說，我們以對本次烹飪活動，努力貢獻的會員們，予起立鼓掌，來取代最後議程。

So what exactly was this dinner meeting all about? A unique, (almost) one-of-a-kind magical evening of Toastmasters fellowship and an affirmation that the Gourmet was back in Le Gourmet Toastmasters, if only for one night. A feast for the Toastmaster soul, as much as it was for each Toastmaster body.
那我們的晚餐例會到底是甚麼？一個幾乎是獨一無二神奇的演講會成員聯誼會的夜晚，假如只為了一個夜晚，肯定的是，美食是美食演講會的後盾。宴會為演講會的靈魂如同它是演講會的主體。

If you’re looking for a way to build up a club, then consider this (to borrow from the movie Field of Dreams), “If you feed them, they will come.”
假如你正尋找一個方法去建立一個分會，那麼考慮這個(借用電影-夢幻成真的句子)。「假如你請客，他們將參加」。

Bon Appétit!
祝胃口大開

Nigel Blackwell, ACB, ALB, is a member of Le Gourmet Toastmasters in Costa Mesa, California, and the Panasonic Flying Toasters in Lake Forest, California. Reach him at royalit@pacbell.net.

作者：Nigel Blackwell，銅牌高級演講員，銅牌高級領導員，加州科斯塔梅薩市，美食家演講會，以及加州森林湖市松下飛行家演講會的會員。他電子郵件地址 royalit@pacbell.net.

譯者：鄭小玲Sherry, 新竹英語演講會