缙云烧饼:从中国乡村走向世界
2018-08-06施力维朱映归刘思佳
施力维 朱映归 刘思佳
不久前,缙云县收到一份大礼——欧盟知识产权办公室颁发的商标注册证书。这是当地推动本土烧饼品牌建设4年来首次取得海外注册商标。这也意味着,今后缙云烧饼在海外的推广,有了更坚实的基础。
在面积不足20平方米的缙云烧饼品牌建设办公室(简称烧饼办)里,挂着3幅地图:一幅红点遍布的浙江地图,一幅多点开花的中国地图,以及一张开始落子的世界地图。
截至2017年底,缙云烧饼产业年产值突破15亿元,烧饼师傅平均年收入超过10万元,烧饼品牌示范店已累计多达431家,遍及全国各省(区、市)和欧美、东南亚等12个国家和地区。
小吃是餐饮业发展的突破口,也是地方文化的重要载体。做好缙云烧饼的海外推广,不仅开辟了传统小吃的新市场,拓展了产业富民的新渠道,更有利于以美食美味传递中华文化,推进中外文化的交流与认同。
与此同时,在与海外餐饮行业的贴身竞争中,国外的管理模式、先进经验,也会助推缙云烧饼等传统小吃更好地发展。
短短几年时间,缙云烧饼是如何实现快速崛起的?“灰头土脸”的路边摊,又如何通过特色化改造成为品牌店?烧饼师傅走遍中国,跨出国门,又如何在新时代实现新突破?近日,笔者来到缙云,追寻这只烧饼背后的传奇故事。
特色化:赵一均的烧饼,做出了披萨味
30年前,当19岁的农村小伙赵一均来到缙云县城,在街头摆烧饼摊讨生活时,不会想到自己有一天会成为欧洲人的座上宾:在意大利国家电视台的镜头前,给当地名流现场烤制烧饼,侃侃而谈中国烧饼和意大利披萨的历史渊源。
“炉传三百世,饼香五千年”,在赵一均的讲述下,缙云烧饼悠久的历史和神奇的传说,让意大利人直呼不可思议。相传,远古时期的轩辕黄帝在缙云仙都的石笋上用仙鼎炼丹,腹饥时就以山泉和面,揉成团贴在炼丹炉内壁,烤出的饼色泽金黄,酥糯可口,香飘四野。当地百姓闻香而动,有心人仿效轩辕仙鼎以竹木为外桶、窑土为内壁制成土鼎,又名烧桶,专用于烤制烧饼之用。该工艺世代承传,成就了风味独特的缙云烧饼。
据专家考证,缙云烧饼技艺的成熟,大约在南宋至元朝前后,至今已有千年历史。缙云发现的溪滩窑址群,出土了大量宋元时期的窑具,有垫饼、垫圈、匣钵等,它们与燒饼桶制作工艺相仿。这表明了烧饼桶出现的时间不早于宋元时期(南宋之后),与小麦、家猪肉在南方的推广应用时间基本吻合。
过去在缙云,父携子、夫携妻,缙云人挑着烤桶远赴他乡,靠着吃苦耐劳赚些钱。虽然烧饼烤制技艺历史悠久,但大家觉得这是小打小闹,总归成不了气候。
但当地干部却不这样认为。经过系统调研,缙云决心要把烧饼做成一个有影响力、也能帮助农民增收的产业。2014年初,缙云县政府推动成立烧饼办,注册统一商标、设计统一门店形象,还整合各方资源,利用“缙云烧饼文化节”、省农博会等载体进行宣传推介。
赵一均还记得2014年在缙云县城开出第一家烧饼品牌店时的忐忑。这么大的装修费用、租金投入,能赚回来吗?没想到,红底黄字的“缙云烧饼”大招牌,整洁有序的店内环境,加上美味喷香的烧饼,引来一波又一波食客,生意火爆得出乎赵一均的意料。
经过多年经营,靠着手艺和勤奋,赵一均也成为了“烤烧饼、开大奔”者中的一员,他和在全国各地做生意的老乡一起经常上网络热搜,“现在一谈起烧饼,大家都想到缙云”。2016年,缙云烧饼成功入选浙江省非物质文化遗产。
当地为了加快拓展市场,启动了海外商标注册的前期工作。2017年下半年,缙云烧饼协会派出赵一均夫妇,专程赴意大利米兰推广宣传烧饼。行程共计11天,夫妻俩原本打算留两天时间在意大利走走看看,但外国友人对烧饼的热爱打乱了他们的计划。“每天忙前忙后要做200多个烧饼,连威尼斯这样的景点都没去成。”赵一均说,虽然留有遗憾,但这场“烧饼之旅”让他感到兴奋。
去年,缙云烧饼登陆加拿大多伦多。试水营业当天,谁都没想到,每个售价为2.5加元、折合人民币约12元的缙云烧饼,开业当天就卖出500多个,并且一直保持旺盛人气,许多顾客只能按号排队,隔天取饼。
在赵一均看来,海外的实践表明,缙云烧饼和披萨、汉堡一样,完全有成为全球风靡小吃的潜质,可以在海外大力推广,“烧饼的馅料、炉温、时间都可量化控制,可复制推广”。在意大利,他在馅料上稍作了改良,添加了乳酪,制作出蘑菇、火腿肉馅的烧饼,一经推出,极受当地人喜欢。
国外顾客盈门的烧饼店以及赵一均夫妇火热的意大利之旅,坚定了缙云人走国际化道路、将烧饼打造成全国乃至全球知名小吃的决心。“向外国人推广烧饼,我们不仅瞄准国外庞大的市场,也期待突破乡土小吃的低端定位。”缙云县农办相关负责人说,国外餐饮行业在食品质量安全管控、服务细节等方面的经验十分值得学习。
为了让烧饼更有国际范,近来,缙云烧饼办还专门更新了包括烧饼门店装修、制作工艺规范等要求。在该负责人看来,新规程的建立,既符合国际化的需求,又留住烧饼制作传统技艺的精髓,有助于进一步提升乡土小吃的品质和竞争力。现在,意大利、西班牙、塞尔维亚、加拿大、俄罗斯等一些国家和地区都有了缙云烧饼门店,生意火爆。
标准化:农闲田的芥菜,粗细精确到毫米
在加拿大求学、工作、定居近30年的学者赵月枝,依然带着浓浓的缙云乡音,依然最爱缙云味道,每次探亲回家,缙云烧饼肯定要吃,返回时还会在行李箱里塞上缙云面条和菜干。
2015年,赵月枝得知家乡小吃发展得轰轰烈烈,便带着研究团队前来,试图解读它的现状、发展和未来。一份6万字的报告——《舌尖上的缙云烧饼中的乾坤——缙云烧饼品牌推广与产业培育评估与建议》出炉了。缙云烧饼也由此在华侨的推动下,从普通的小吃成为了一种经济、文化现象被学者们研究。
研究表明,在当下中国,社会的流动、城乡的变迁,让乡土美食有着丰富而深刻的家园意义,乡愁总能激起大范围的共鸣,因此也有了前所未有的巨大市场。
但当小吃迈出国门走向更广阔的市场、面对更多元的受众时,怎么发展?
“对于缙云烧饼这样的全县的品牌,县级层面需要在商业与法律、速度与效益、求快与求稳上进行统筹并保持定力。“赵月枝说。
为此,缙云烧饼办的工作人员研读国外法律,积极开展商标申请工作。另一方面,缙云烧饼坚持产品标准化和原产地的保护。“守住缙云烧饼的品质,宁可扩张得慢一点,也必须扫清可能存在的法律风险。”缙云烧饼办相关负责人表示。
不管在哪里,一只味道浓郁、入口香醇的缙云烧饼,离不开三样东西:面粉、菜干、炉膛。可喜的是,在全球任何一家缙云烧饼店,这三大件,全部由缙云本土提供,这给烧饼的质量提供了保证。
缙云县东方镇九头芥主产区,每到腌制干菜的时节,利用冬闲种下的芥菜鲜嫩欲滴,农民们仔细收割、晾晒、腌制,最终成为制作缙云烧饼必不可少的干菜。
“收来做烧饼的菜干得筛选过,不能超过7毫米,粗一点都不行。”东方镇里种了一辈子芥菜的老农民不明白,年纪轻轻的徐生可为何如此死板,对一根干菜的粗细,吹毛求疵到了毫米的程度。
徐生可,今年30岁刚出头。因为缙云烧饼的红火,大学毕业后他放弃了在杭州的工作,到缙云下田收干菜。他的合作社每年为缙云烧饼专供20万公斤干菜馅料。
“干菜超过7毫米,制成的薄饼就容易在口中留渣,不符合缙云烧饼选用的原料标准。”从徐生可的话里我们不难发现,缙云烧饼能快速实现品牌化,并被市场接受,有一个重要的前提,就是通过原料、工艺、场地的标准化,保持口感的稳定性。
“烧饼,如果在杭州、上海、多伦多、莫斯科吃,与在缙云吃是截然不同的味道,那品牌化推广就无从谈起。”缙云县烧饼办副主任应耀强说,为确保烧饼口感的稳定优质,在剔除烧饼师傅个人手艺的细微差异后,各门店在菜干、烧饼桶、炉芯等方面都实现了标准化。
依托缙云烧饼的标准化建设,缙云菜干、炉芯烧造等传统产业也得到复苏。在东方镇古楼村,通过种植芥菜,农民每亩地增收人民币7000元至8000元。在东山村,有的村民一年能卖出六七千个陶炉膛。此外,缙云建立了小麦种植基地、原木炭基地等,通过保底分红、股份合作、利润返还等多种形式,让农民共享全产业链增值收益。
“过去在乡村有许多特色产业和手艺,却无法进行大规模推广,一个重要原因是缺乏标准化建设,导致产品质量参差不齐,影响了产业的生命力。”应耀强说,如今,通过原料标准化、原产地供应等方式,一条以缙云烧饼为龙头带动乡村全产业链的致富路线,已经清晰可见。
国际化:“土师傅”走出国门,洋徒弟上门学艺
有师傅把烧饼桶搬到了国外,也有洋徒弟想把美味带回老家。
2018年4月的一个清晨,在缙云城区的一家烧饼店内,26岁的菲律宾小伙阿德里安和姑姑伊丽莎白向师傅周凯作揖告别。他们准备在菲律宾开烧饼店。
阿德里安的父亲是一名成功商人,在菲律宾拥有豪宅和庄园。阿德里安是家里的长子,这位本来跟着父亲做生意的富二代,因为一次偶然的机会吃到了缙云烧饼,竟然念念不忘。之后,阿德里安找到周凯开始学做缙云烧饼。
“父亲的钱是父亲赚的,我也要学会赚钱。我喜欢吃烧饼,我要在菲律宾开家烧饼店,我相信烧饼会在菲律宾畅销。”阿德里安准备在菲律宾开三家烧饼店。“菲律宾人喜欢这种口味,我相信会火爆的,我干得一定不会比父亲差。”
缙云县香溢大酒店是该县唯一的四星级酒店,阿德里安和姑姑在此已经居住了半个月。晚上7时到早晨7时,姑侄俩住在酒店,其他时间他们都呆在周凯的烧饼店里。
41岁的周凯是缙云烧饼手艺的传承人,2016年,他被评为缙云县“烧饼高级师傅”。
阿德里安和姑姑来店里学手艺半个月,每人要交5000元的学费,对此周凯和阿德里安都非常坦然。“学习当然要交学费了,收了钱我会负责教会他们。”周凯说。
阿德里安和姑姑在厨房里和面、包馅,往烤炉里贴烧饼,用火钳夹出烤熟的烧饼,动作虽然不熟练,但做得细致认真,周凯不时地在一旁指点一二。
阿德里安是华裔,会生涩的中文,能勉强和周凯沟通交流。做完一炉烧饼后,周凯会细心点评。阿德里安随身带着笔记本,周凯的评点和指正,阿德里安都会用英文记录下来,“我要好好温习,争取早日出师。”
“做馅料、包烧饼、往炉内贴烧饼的手艺他们已经初步掌握,但和面发酵技术还欠火候,这也是缙云烧饼里最难的技术。他们离开缙云后,我会每天抽时间在网上对他们的和面技术进行指导,直到他们学会为止。”周凯说。
“像阿德里安这样来中国學习做烧饼的人越来越多,缙云烧饼正以中国披萨的形象被海外人士接受。”缙云烧饼办副主任应耀强说。
当然,实现美好愿景的道路上,仍然有许多挑战。“从‘区域小品牌迈向‘国际大品牌,不可能一蹴而就。”应耀强说,目前,缙云烧饼的经营者仍是从农村出来的传统意义上的“小商贩”,要在全国甚至全球站稳脚跟,必须进一步提高“烤”的技艺、提升“卖”的能力,实现从乡土烧饼师傅向现代经营者的转型。
值得欣喜的是,2018年,已有越来越多像徐生可、赵一均这样的从业者加入缙云烧饼行业,还有赵月枝、阿德里安这样的华侨华裔共同参与推动。他们或年轻、或有阅历,将给走遍全国、跨出国门的缙云烧饼带来新力量。
Jinyun, a rural county in the south of Zhejiang, received in March 2018 the certificate of registration of Jinyun from European Union Intellectual Property Office, an important recognition of the trademark. The certificate indicates the latest success of a brand strategy started seriously four years ago in the county for It is the countys first overseas registration of the brand.
In the 20-m2 office of the Jinyun Brand Development Office (locally known as Office), there are three maps indicating where Jinyun shops are: on a map of Zhejiang are the largest arrays of red dots; on a map of China, red dots are spread far and wide; red dots on a map of the world indicate the beginning of a world strategy. By the end of 2017, the annual output value of the -related transactions topped 1.5 billion yuan; there were 431 franchised sales outlets across China and in 12 countries and regions across the world.
is a local cake baked in an oven. The history of the delicacy in Jinyun can trace back to over 1,000 years ago. Archaeological finds in the rural county indicate the pottery oven unearthed looks exactly like those we see today. The pottery oven appeared around the same time as wheat and pork came to the south when the royal house of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) came southward and founded the dynasty in Linan (the present-day Hangzhou). In the past, making and selling the cake was always a small family business. Vendors went everywhere to make a living by baking the cake in an oven, which they could carry about easily with a shoulder pole.
While makers thought nothing of such a small business, the county government saw a big picture in the small cake. In early 2014, the county government ambitiously set up a special office to make it into a big business. The government office has registered a trademark for all the makers of Jinyun. It has produced a unified shop decoration plan for all the outlets to follow. The office holds events in Jinyun and beyond to promote the brand.
Zhao Yijun, who started his business in the capital of Jinyun 30 years ago at age 19, wouldnt have thought about the day he would operate in a finely decorated bakery in Jinyun. In 2014, he restarted his Bakery in Jinyun with the government subsidies. The government had helped redecorated the shop. Zhao was worried about the big investment into the decoration and the rental for the larger space. But his misgivings were gone after day one. Customers flocked to his bakery. His business has boomed with a big bang. Now he is one of the makers who drive a Mercedes-Benz car. In 2017, the county was making preparations for the registration of the Jinyun Shao Bing with Europe Union when the office sent Zhao Yijun and his wife to Italy to promote the Jinyun delicacy. They planned two days out of the 11-day trip for sightseeing in Venice. But they didnt have the luxury for tourism. They were busy with making the new version of Jinyun in the pizza style using mushroom and other Italian food ingredients such as bacon and cheese for the stuffing. Jinyun made similar sensational sales in Toronto, Canada in 2017.
Zhao thinks that Jinyunhas the potential to become a top seller like pizza and hamburger. “The stuffing, the oven temperature, and the baking time are all controllable, quantifiable and repeatable,” he emphasizes.
The office has updated its decoration standard and baking procedure so as to adapt to the internationalization of the delicacy and retain the essence of the traditional cake.
Zhao Yuezhi, a native of Jinyun who has been working as a research scholar in Canada for over 30 years, brought back a team to Jinyun in 2015 and did a thorough field study of the cake phenomenon. The team produced a 60,000-word report on the small delicacy. The report made a number of suggestions to the government: effective measures and strategies must be formulated and adopted to ensure the business grows in compliance with laws and regulations in overseas markets, and to ensure unified quality control and stable growth. The suggestions were adopted.
Nowadays, Jinyun has standardized three essential ingredients of the cake making: wheat flour, the dehydrated and pickled leaf mustard used in the stuffing, and the pottery oven chamber.
The leaves of the leaf mustard must be no more than 7 millimeters in thickness, says Xu Shengke, a Jinyun native and college graduate whose co-op now provides 200,000 kilograms of the dried and pickled leaves as a key ingredient for the Shao Bing. “Leaves thicker than 7 millimeters would leave dregs in the mouth,” he pointed out. He buys the dried and pickled mustard leaves from individual farmers who have contracts with his co-op. With the unified and standardized operation, Jinyun tastes the same in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Toronto, and Moscow, just to name a few places where Jinyun Shao Bing are sold. “The brand would be pointless if the cake in different places offered different tastes,” says Ying Yaoqiang, vice director of the Office of Jinyun.
The standards have brought back the farming and manufacturing business of the dried leave mustard and pottery over chamber, two traditional products of Jinyun.
“Many regional products have failed to reach provincial or national markets, let alone international market, primarily because there was no standardization, which led to the poor control of quality,” pointed out Ying Yaoqiang. Nowadays, Jinyun controls the quality by promoting unified standards and by making sure all the key things come from Jinyun. The county hopes that the industry can really become big and become a huge pillar of the countys economy.
The internationalization of Jinyun has attracted foreigners to learn about the trade and start up their own business in their own countries. The 26-year-old Adrian, a Filipino, and his aunt Elisabeth, just finished their apprentice in Jinyun at a Shao Bing bakery operated by the 41-year-old Zhou Kai in Jinyun. Adrian is a rich kid, but he wants to start his own business. After running into Jinyun Shao Bing by chance, he decided to learn the trade. Adrian and Elisabeth stayed in a four-star hotel in the county capital from seven in the evening to the seven in the morning and spent the next 12 hours at the bakery learning the trade. In April they graduated and went back to the Philippines. Zhou Kai will provide face-to-face advice through the internet until they get everything okay. Adrian plans to open three shops in the island nation. He believes his fellow Filipinos will love the delicacy from Jinyun.