我為美食狂：羊角甜甜圈的誘惑

OK. You’ve probably never tasted this， but you may have heard of it， the cronut， that deep-fried cross between a donut and a croissant. 1）Pastry chef Dominique Ansel invented it in May at his small bakery in New York City. And since then， it’s taken off. 2）Scalpers are selling them at a huge markup， and imitators around the world are trying to tap in on the success.

Reporter： Dominique Ansel only makes about 300 cronuts a day. Some customers camp out overnight to get their hands on one. And some leave disappointed. The cronut always sells out. Still on a recent hot morning， the sidewalks of New York City hosted hopeful and 3）intrepid customers from far and wide.

Lee Hatch （Customer）： We actually heard it on the radio in Sydney， Australia.

Amir Borenstein （Customer）： From my wife， actually. She saw it on German TV. And then we are by chance here in a hotel nearby， and we saw the line， and then we decided to queue up.

Jeff Leplante （Customer）： I’m on vacation from 4）Montreal. I read about it， so I want to try it.

Hatch： This is our third attempt of lining up here. And we thought， well， we’re on holiday. So we’re here for a month， so we’ll give it a go if it’s the last thing we do before we go home.

Reporter： So what is this thing？

Dominique Ansel： Something that has a donut shape. It’s flaky like a croissant， that’s why it’s called a cronut. It’s like somewhere between a croissant and a donut.

Reporter： That’s the mastermind behind it， Dominique Ansel， chef-owner of the Dominique Ansel Bakery.

Ansel： I worked on the 5）recipe for about two months before coming up with a recipe that could fry up easily with a dough that could like be filled with cream and glaze and still have nice consistency and not being too 6）chewy or too soft.

Reporter： Obviously， a winning formula. It sounds good. But a lot of pastries are good. There’s got to be more to the cronut craze. I asked Irma Zandl about it. She’s an expert on consumer behavior and trends.

Irma Zandl： There’s parts of the brain that become super active when a fad idea is heard. And people want to pass it on.

Reporter： Allison Carruth is author of the new book Global Appetites： American Power and the Literature in Food. She says you can trace food trends back to the renaissance when chocolate and 7）spices took off. In a way， it’s not complicated. We like things that taste good.

Allison Cartuth： We need to indulge. There’s a kind of fundamental and even primal impulse in the human brain for food to also be pleasurable and to be communal and shared and delicious.

Reporter： But a big difference between the renaissance and today， technology.

Zandl： One of the things that we’ve seen with the advent of all these blogs and social media is that people’s desire to be tapped in and to be perceived to be somebody who’s in the know is much greater.

Reporter： The food blog Grub Street wrote about the cronut when Dominique Ansel first made just a couple dozen. He says that same day， they told him traffic went up 300 percent with more than 140，000 links to their website. And it was then Ansel knew he had a hit. And those long lines？ Turns out it’s all part of it.

Megan Byrd （Customer）： It’s all about the experience. You have to come wait in line， get excited. You can smell the sugar coming out of the bakery.

Reporter： That’s Megan Byrd. But for those who can’t make it to New York City and smell that sugar， imitations have sprung up all over. Ansel has trademarked the name cronut， but in Washington， D.C.， you can buy a doissant. In Vancouver， a frissant， and in the Philippines， Dunkin’ Donuts has introduced the donut croissant. A Dunkin’ Donut spokesman says they don’t have any plans to sell it in the United States at this time. But is the media glare and all the copycats overkill setting up the cronut for a collapse？

Carruth： We can only sustain so long one product， one brand， one entrepreneur having the spotlight. And so I would be surprised if a year from now there are still 10，000 tweets a month about the cronut.

Reporter： Dominique Ansel says he’s not interested in mass-producing the cronut or 8）jacking up the price. For now， he’s still charging the original $5 per cronut and limiting customers to just two. It’s Ann Duckett’s reward for her two-hour wait.

Ann Duckett （Customer）： It’s a little on the small side. Nice color. The blackberry looks pretty. I’m going to take a bite. Mm. Totally worth it. Totally worth it.

好吧。可能你以前從未嘗過這個，但你也許已經聽說過——“羊角甜甜圈”，即甜甜圈和羊角包的油炸混合版。它自五月份問世于紐約市的甜點大廚多米尼克·安塞爾的小面包房里。從那伊始便一發不可收拾。炒家們翻數倍價格炒賣，而世界各地的效仿者們都試圖分一杯羹。

記者：多米尼克·安塞爾每天只做約三百個羊角甜甜圈。有些顧客為了能夠弄到一個竟在店外露營過夜。而有些人只能失望而歸。羊角甜甜圈總是銷售一空。而最近在一個炎熱的清晨，紐約市的人行道上擠滿了來自四面八方的滿懷希望且勇敢無畏的顧客。

李·赫奇（顧客）：我們其實是從澳洲悉尼市的廣播里聽說的。

埃米爾·鮑倫斯坦（顧客）：其實我是從我妻子那兒聽說的。她是在德國電視節目上看到羊角甜甜圈的。然后我們碰巧住在附近的一個旅館里，又看到了這條長隊，于是我們決定排隊等等。

杰夫·萊普朗特（顧客）：我是從蒙特利爾過來度假的。我讀過關于它的報道，所以想要嘗一嘗。

赫奇：這是我第三次嘗試在這里排隊了。而且我們覺得，嗯，我們正在度假。既然我們要在這里待上一個月，要問我們回去前想做的最后一件事，那自然是要來碰碰運氣了。

記者：那么這個東西是什么？

多米尼克·安塞爾：某個有著甜甜圈外型的東西。它吃起來脆脆的像羊角包，這就是為什么它叫羊角甜甜圈的原因。它就是介于羊角包和甜甜圈之間的東西。

記者：這就是我們的幕后大師，多米尼克·安塞爾，也就是多米尼克·安塞爾面包房的大廚兼店主。……