The ladies were puzzled. Cheryl Spangler, Valeria Borunda Jameson and Susan Puckett, three university-admissions workers on a training visit to Florence, Kentucky, had walked into a local barbecue joint called Chung Kiwha. But instead of sauce-covered mutton served up from the kitchen, they saw a buffet of uncooked meats and vegetables. Instead of knives and forks, they were given large scissors, chopsticks and metal tongs. No candle flickered at their table, but a bucket of fiery wood charcoal hissed in the tabletop grill pit. Chung Kiwha served barbecue, all right—cook-it-your-self Korean barbecue. “I didn’t realize there were restaurants like this,” marveled Spangler to her friends, who hail from Knoxville, Tennessee, and I worked in restaurants for 20 years.

　　The secret is out, thanks to the growing popularity of restaurants where the customer is the chef. Long a staple of immigrant communities in big cities, restaurants where diners chop, grill, boil, or dip their dip their food are hot in the American heartland. St.Paul, Minnesota, has Thai hot-pot cooking. Indianapolis, Indiana, has Japanese shabu-shabu (another type of hot pot). A pizzeria in Las Vegas lets customers roll the dough.

　　Why would people bother going out to cook their own meal? “Americans want control,” says Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association. “The cook-it-your-self experience embodies the American values of freedom of choice and independence.” With families spending 46% of their food budget on meals outside the home, they miss the cooking experience—sort of. “Psychologically, people want to be a little involved,” says Pamela Parseghian, executive food editor at Nation’s Restaurant News.

　　Not every diner, however, embraces the experience. Dragged in by enthusiastic wives, “men often sit with their arms crossed…that is, until we fill them up with good wine,” says Will Layfield, owner of the Melting Pot in Westwood, New Jersey. At the Vinoklet, diner Grey Schafer says, “I don’t cook at home, and if I’m going to pay good money, I want someone to do the cooking for me.” What’s more, do-it-your-self dining isn’t cheap. At the Minturn Country Club in Minturn, Colorado, Kobe beef costs $49.95—uncooked. Still, restaurant-owners insist that the customer knows best. “Who knows what to them is rare?” says Mikulic, owner of Vinoklet. “This way, if they screw it up, I get no complaints.” Back at Chung Kiwha in Florence, diner Puckett sees it this way: “We don’t have to clean up, do we?.”

　　參考譯文:

　　這些女士有些迷惑不解。謝麗爾.斯潘格勒，維麗瑞爾.波蘭達.達姆森，和蘇珊.帕克特是大學招生工作人員。在肯塔基州的弗羅倫斯培訓時，她們走進了當地一家叫做強.吉瓦的燒烤酒吧去吃飯。然而，他們看到的并不是從廚房端出來抹好了醬的羊肉，而是生肉和蔬菜。服務員給她們端上來的餐具也不是刀和叉，而是剪子、筷子和鉗子。餐桌上沒有閃爍的燭光，有的只是一桶在燒烤架上嘶嘶作響的燃燒著的木炭。強.吉瓦經營的是烤肉——韓式自助烤肉。“我在餐館里工作了20年，從來不知道還有這樣的餐館。”，來自田納西州洛克思爾的斯潘格勒好奇地對她的朋友說道。中華考試網

　　由于就餐的客人就是廚師的餐館數量在不斷增加，秘密也就隨之而被公開了。在美國中部大城市的主要移民聚集區，一些由顧客自己切、烤、煮、泡食物的餐廳非常火。明尼蘇達州的圣.保羅有泰式火鍋，印第安納的印第安納波利斯有日式涮鍋(另外一種火鍋)。拉斯維加斯的一家比薩店讓顧客自己動手和面團。

　　為什么人們不怕麻煩在飯店里自己動手做飯呢?國家酒店協會一個研究項目部的副主任哈德遜.瑞艾爾說，“美國人有很強的控制欲，這種自己動手做飯的體驗表現了美國自主選擇和獨立的價值觀。”對于那些把46%的飲食開銷都用于在外面吃飯的家庭來說，他們有點懷念自己動手做飯的體驗。“從心理學角度來說，人們想要參與進來。”帕米拉.帕斯伊恩這樣說，他是《國家酒店新聞報》食品專欄的主編。

　　然而，并不是每個去飯店吃飯的人都渴望有這種體驗。男人們被充滿熱情的妻子拉進飯店。“他們常常是雙臂交叉地坐在那兒…也就是說，直到我們用好酒填滿他們的肚子。”新澤西州威斯伍德一家叫做坩堝店的餐館老板威爾.雷菲爾德說到。在維諾克利特餐廳，一名叫格瑞德.斯凱夫的就餐者說，“我在家從不做飯。如果在外面吃飯要花好多錢的話，我就希望別人來為我做。”此外，在自助餐廳吃飯并不便宜。在科羅拉多州明特恩鄉村俱樂部，一份生的神戶牛排要49.95美元。餐館的老板仍然堅持說顧客清楚自己想要什么。“誰知道對他們來說，什么樣才是適合他們的?”維諾克利特的老析米庫利科說道，“這樣，如果他們興致很高，我也不落抱怨。”我們再回頭說說弗羅倫斯的強.吉瓦吧，在那兒就餐的帕克特這樣看問題：“最起碼我們不需要收拾碗筷，不是嗎?”