Few people have ever heard of a vanilla cellar, and yet the tiny, arched grotto beneath Olivier Roellinger's spice store in Paris holds some of the finest treasures the Michelin three-star chef has brought home from his travels. Inside his Paris store, Roellinger leads visitors eagerly down the stairs to the tiny stone cellar, where vanilla pods of a dozen different origins are stored for up to four years at 17℃, and constant humidity of around 75 percent.

很少有人聽說過香草地窖，但羅林格巴黎香料鋪下方拱形狹小的洞穴中，便儲存著這位米其林三星名廚到海外旅行帶回來的一些上等香料珍品。在他位於巴黎的香料鋪內，羅林格帶著訪客迫不及待走下樓梯，到地下室狹小的石窖內，裡頭來自10餘個不同地方的香草豆莢，在攝氏17度中存放了長達4年，恆定濕度約75%左右。

After three decades at the top of his game, Roellinger has hung up his apron -- and Michelin stars -- for a life as a spice hunter, a way of paying tribute to a prized network of spice growers, and to the seafarers of his native Brittany. “I was lucky enough to be born in a Corsair's house -- the house of a spice hunter,” the 55-year-old told AFP at his Paris spice outlet, its wall-to-wall wood shelves stacked high with powdered mixes, rare peppercorns and vanilla.

在睥睨廚藝界30年後，羅林格決定高掛圍裙和米其林星星，換跑道當起香料獵人，希望以這種方式禮讚珍貴的香料種植者、網路和他家鄉布列塔尼的水手。這位 55歲的名廚在巴黎的香料鋪中告訴法新社：「我很幸運能出生在一棟海盜住過的房子，一個香料獵人的房子裡。」店面四壁木架上堆疊著罕見的胡椒和香草的混合粉末。

Setting up his restaurant in the family home in the port of Cancale, Roellinger hoped to “tell the story of this place, caught between sky and sea” -- an ambition that would earn him three coveted Michelin stars. But once a year he and his wife Jane would board up and “set off on the routes once travelled by Brittany's sailors,” bringing back 10 to 20 kilos of spices to create new dishes, each one telling “a new maritime adventure story”.

羅林格的餐廳開在老家康卡勒港口，他希望「藉此訴說位於海天之間這個土地的故事」，這種強烈的企圖心，為他贏得夢寐以求的米其林三星榮耀。但每年一次，他和妻子珍妮會用木板封死餐廳門窗，「順著布列塔尼水手一度走過的路線」，帶回10至20公斤香料以開發新菜餚，每一道菜分別述說著「一個新的海上冒險故事」。

Roellinger is captivated by the history of spices, their role in fuelling early maritime trade and explorers of the New World. “Once heated up, these barks, root and seeds offered a glimpse of the world beyond, of something spiritual,” he said, while in the kitchen “it's as if you suddenly had 15 extra primary colors to paint with.”

羅林格對香料史著迷，也對香料在助長早期海上貿易和新大陸探險家上扮演的角色痴迷。他說：「這些樹皮、樹根和種子一旦加熱，就讓人得以窺見一個遙遠的世界，一種精神層面的東西。」而在廚房裡，「你好像憑空多了15種色彩可以做畫。」

After three decades at the helm, manning the stoves week in week out, Roellinger decided it was time for something new. So two years ago he closed his three-star table. Setting his crew to work on his second restaurant in Cancale, a lower-key affair with cookery school and seaside cabins attached, he has since focused his own energies on the spice trade. “Anyone can open a spice store,” he says. “But for decades I spent two to three hours a day with a spoon in my mouth.”

在掌廚30年後，周復一周進出爐灶間，羅林格決定，是該嘗試新東西的時候了。因此2年前，他毅然關閉了三星級餐廳，並安排手下廚師在康卡勒港開了他第二家餐廳，低調地和烹飪學校合作，並在海邊加蓋小木屋。此後他把全部精力全放在自己的香料生意上。他說：「任何人都可以開香料鋪，但數十年來，我每天花兩三個小時用勺子在嘴裡測試味蕾。」

He said two years ago that “after 26 years of happiness at the oven it is becoming increasingly difficult by the day to cope with the physical demands.” He was also the fourth Michelin three-star chef to throw in the towel in the last few years, starting with former “chef of the century” Joel Robuchon, who gave up his stars in 1996 at the age of 51, saying life in the top lane was too stressful. He was followed by Alain Senderens in 2005 and Alain Westermann in 2006. The three have since opened new award-winning eateries.

他2年前說：「在爐灶邊度過26年幸福的日子後，體力日益難以負荷。」他也是過去幾年來第4位決定放棄換跑道的米其林三星主廚。最早是有「世紀名廚」美譽的侯布匈，他在1996年51歲那年放棄三星榮耀，理由是高處不勝寒，生活太緊張。之後在2005和 2006年，松德漢斯和韋斯特曼也相繼離去。後面這三位名廚旋即另起爐灶，另開新的餐廳，屢獲殊榮。

In Roellinger's book, spices are used to “set the pace, or to highlight” a flavor -- like punctuation marks in a text. “On their own these spices are nitroglycerin. My idea was to create spice powders, flavors, like a perfumer would create a fragrance for a woman. I already had this network around the world, of people producing cardamom, ginger. We wanted to give something back to the people who had enable us to create such a singular cuisine,” he said.

在羅林格的書中，香料就像一篇文章中的標點符號，用來「定調或提味」。他說：「這些香料本身就是硝化甘油。我的構想是要開發香料粉，讓這些香料像香水一樣使女人散發香氣。我已經為世界各地生產荳蔻和生薑的人架設一個網路。對那些幫助我們開發這種獨特美食的人，我們想給他們一點回饋。」

Today Roellinger buys from some 130 producers in India, mostly from southern Kerala but also from Rajasthan, he sources red and black pepper from Cambodia, vanilla, cloves and nutmeg from Madagascar, as well as spices from Brazil, Morocco, Uganda or Tahiti. The chef, who is heading back to Kerala in January for harvest time, pays his suppliers four times the market rate, along the guidelines of the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation.

今天，羅林格向印度約130個香料生產商進貨，主要來自南部喀拉拉省，有的則來自拉賈斯坦省，紅辣椒和黑胡椒來自柬埔寨，香草、丁香和肉荳蔻則來自馬達加斯加，還有來自巴西、摩洛哥、烏干達或大溪地的香料。今年1月喀拉拉省收成時，這位名廚要重回舊地，依公平貿易標籤組織指南，以高於市場價格4倍的行情向供應商購買香料。

The vanilla orchid flowers for just one day but it takes nine months to produce a mature pod. Picked at just the right moment, the pod is blanched, laid out to dry in a sunny courtyard, then wrapped in 10 layers overnight. Next day it goes back out in the sun -- and the whole operation is repeated over and over for three weeks. “It's like making wine -- if you get it wrong it'll taste like rot,” explains the chef.

香草蘭只開一天花，但要花9個月豆莢才會熟成。在適當時機採摘後，豆莢經浸泡後在陽光普照的庭院攤開晒乾，然後包上10層過夜。第二天再拿到陽光下接受日晒，整個作業一遍遍重複，為期三周。這位名廚解釋說：「跟釀酒一樣，搞錯了，味道很爛。」

The result? Notes of gingerbread from Tahiti, an apple-scented nose on a Kerala pod to go with rice pudding, a Reunion vanilla that is perfect with hot milk, or this one from Papua New Guinea that Roellinger recommends on seafood, “along with a dash of orange juice”. This file photo taken on February 25, 2010 shows French chef Roellinger posing at the Chateau Richeux in Cancale, western France.

結果呢？喀拉拉省豆莢蘋果風味的大溪地薑餅配上大米布丁風味絕佳，歡騰和熱牛奶超搭，或者羅林格建議，用巴布亞紐幾內亞香料搭配海鮮，「再加點鮮橙汁」。在這張攝於去年2月25日的檔案照中，法國名廚羅林格在他位於法國西部康卡勒的Chateau Richeux和香料留影。