There’s a wholesome earthiness about the New Year’s food traditions in virtually every culture. A particular personal favorite is lentils, of which there are many recipes The Selective Echo has tried. However, I am immediately drawn to a family recipe provided by Utah’s most famous salami and charcuterie master Cristiano Creminelli.

The lentil recipe with the Italian staple cotechino, which Creminelli has offered as part of this year’s holiday season, is fragrant, satisfying, and a perfect party side dish. The recipe, which can be found here, incorporates the cotechino sausage, which is simply a cooked form of salami, and, like all of Creminell products, is handmade.

Creminelli puts his own distinctive imprint upon the cotechino, which typically is stuffed into the deboned front leg of a pig. Creminelli’s cotechino, which has a distinctive porky flavor nuanced with garlic and cloves, is stuffed into a beef casing. It’s easy to use the cotechino in Creminell’s recipe. All one has to do is boil the sausage in its plastic pouch for 20 minutes. Afterward, remove the plastic, the string and casing; score and slice the sausage, and arrange it on the lentils.

Another great favorite this holiday season is his wild boar mortadella, which has a prominent silky texture and an incredibly smooth finish on taste. Of course, the mortadella sliced paper thin, makes for a perfect sandwich but it also is an ideal addition to an antipasto tray when it’s cubed.

Not a bad way to start the year.

Look no further than the impressively diverse chocolate collection at Tony Caputo’s Market and Deli for the definitive example of an Occupy Chocolate movement.

Here, words and phrases such as “fair trade,” “rainforest alliance,” “organic,” “certified,” and “single estate” lose their overblown and over-promoted promise of value. From tasting the bars of already well-known producers such as Amedei, Amano, and Pralus to the newest players such as Potomac Chocolate and The Chocolate Conspiracy, customers also get a transparent glimpse of what genuine ethical models of trade should really look like. These companies work with buyers who don’t force economically disadvantaged farmers to cut corners in their work – even in how they would ferment and dry the cacao beans.

For example, Alessio and Cecilia Tessieri, the siblings who started Amedei in 1990, pay farmers at least six times the prevailing market rates and make it a point to connect personally regularly with the growers. In the eyes of the connoisseur, chocolate making now appears less like an industry than as a laboratory where culinary risks, experimentation and hard work lead to a transcendental experience.

Through sample tastings, chocolate education classes, and their store purchases, customers begin to understand the need to preserve high-quality crops of cacao beans and to support farmers who should be rewarded for producing a crop that offers exceptional flavor profiles cultivated in the best sustainable agricultural environment possible.

For Ben Rasmussen, the epiphany changed his life. Two years ago, at Christmas, Rasmussen, who always had been content with a Three Musketeers bar to satisfy his chocolate craving, sampled chocolates that his brother purchased after he attended a class at Caputo’s. Rasmussen, a BYU-Idaho graduate who was living in Virginia and working as a computer systems administrator, was so impressed that he encouraged his brother to repeat the sample tastings for other holiday visitors.

‘I had a pretty terrible palate and I never considered myself a lover of dark chocolate,’ he recalls. ‘I certainly wasn’t a foodie in the traditional sense and I even warned my brother not to get his hopes up with me. However, after tasting the gateway drugs – a Valrhona Manjari, Amedei Chuao, Amano Ocumare, and Domori Java Blond – I fell in love immediately.’

By the Fourth of July in 2010, Rasmussen had tempered his first batch of chocolate with beans from the Ivory Coast and he was so hooked that he shuttered his sideline business as a wedding photographer and launched Potomac Chocolate. With a voracious appetite for continuous improvement, he quickly accelerated his learning curve, gaining the attention of the Biagio Fine Chocolate shop in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Potomac Chocolate debuted late last year at a chocolate symposium at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

‘Nobody knew we were in the room and the moderator milked the room for comments, which were quite positive,’ he says. ‘There was a woman sitting two rows in front of me who spat out the sample and she was mortified when we were introduced.’ Ironically, Rasmussen has yet to meet Matt Caputo in person.

This Christmas, Rasmussen’s Upala bar with nibs, made from beans in Costa Rica that have not been featured extensively in other bean-to-bar productions, is available at Caputo’s and Potomac Chocolate can be found in at least two dozen other shops including Calgary and London. The bar explodes with promise and it is hard to believe that someone within such a short timespan has been able to achieve such a remarkable product.

The roast is unquestionably rich and deep but Rasmussen shows a deft hand with bringing out lightened, smoothed tones of molasses, berries, and spice. It is a bold bar not necessarily the most complex or refined but it is a memorably satisfying example of chocolate’s elemental perfection.

Boldness is a common trait among many of the products found at Caputo’s. In Utah, The Chocolate Conspiracy is angling to promote chocolate’s full health benefits by offering raw chocolate bars, made from heirloom Nacional beans from Ecuador. A. J. Wentworth, whose culinary background is focused on raw, vegan, and integrative nutritional techniques, then processes the chocolate through 70 hours of grinding and sweetens it with raw, unfiltered honey from a local producer. Other ingredients might include Himalayan pink salt and raw vanilla bean.

Wentworth, who also has a patisserie background, has produced a line of bars that will surprise even detractors who have found other raw bars to be shallow and plastic in taste. His Goji Berry offering, in particular, is a first-rate infused bar that satisfies quite significantly with complex layers of texture and depth which normally would be apparent in bean-to-bar products with the sort of lighter roasts common in many Amano and Pralus chocolates. Part of his inspiration came from the challenges of making vegan chocolate desserts for customers and others, such as ‘my mother who always had been content with Hershey’s kisses,’ he explains.

Likewise, imaginative creations from other relative newcomers amplify the elemental flavors and healthful benefits of top-quality cacao beans. Missouri Chocolatier Alan ‘Patric’ McClure – whose seven years in business makes him a veteran relative to Rasmussen and Wentworth – achieves amazing results in bars such as his PBJ OMG (“peanut better and jelly” as part of the “oh my gosh” line). Using only five ingredients – roasted cacao beans, cocoa butter, cane sugar, sea salt, and peanut butter, McClure, whose other creations have won industry awards and accolades from observers such as Food & Wine Magazine, lets the fruit jelly notes come through the beans.

McClure pushes the boundaries in unprecedented ways, too, such as his collaboration with Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Company. Earlier this month, Patric Chocolate released coffee-based Cappuccino and Mocha bars that use an espresso bean as the base ingredient. The taste surprises – in a pleasing way, too.

At Caputo’s, names like Amedei, Amano, Pralus and others continue to anchor one of the region’s most extensive retail offerings of fine chocolate. Amedei always flexes its culinary muscle in many enriching ways. Its Toscano Red bar packs a generous portion of dried fruits – cherries, strawberries and raspberries – into its 70 percent dark chocolate form.

The Amedei 9 bar, which now has earned two major awards from the Academy of Chocolate in London, is a 75 percent creation with beans coming from nine plantations. It runs the gamut in tasting – floral, light, and fruit-scented to rich, darker tones. The finish is so clean that one almost has to do a double-take to make sure that this bar actually contains 75 percent cocoa solids.

Amedei also has moved some of its chocolate creations that used to be available in the small five-gram sample squares into its traditional 50-gram (1.75 ounce) bars. Its Venezuela bar gives generous tasting notes of floral and citrus character along with hints of coffee, cream, and subtle fleeting bits of nutmeg, cinnamon, and other dark spices.

The artisan chocolate world has changed and expanded so much in less than a decade that a few roguish upstarts look upon Amedei as playing it too conservatively or cleanly but no one should ever underestimate this pioneer because they always prove their merit as independent producers who willingly take the risks big chocolate producers would never entertain.

Only Amedei would dare blend white chocolate with the strongly flavored pistachios unique to the tiny Bronte area in Sicily. The nuts, normally used in pastas, ice cream, and baklava, mesh so well with white chocolate that this Amedei creation is undeniably one of the best infused white chocolate bars ever tasted personally.

In many respects, the Utah-based Amano Artisan Chocolate enterprise has become almost as well known and respected in the global chocolate connoisseur community. Its Madagascar bar received the second highest ranked score of any bar tasted by expert connoisseurs who write reviews for the industry’s authoritative online information source Seventy%. It has earned scores of honors in less than five years.

Two Amano bars worth mentioning include Amano Cuyagua, which offers notes of rum, sassafras, coffee, and even earthy morels but has an intriguing finish on the palate that is like the end of a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.

Special note should be given to its Morobe bar, which indicates precisely the type of rehabilitated cacao production by which farmers in Papua New Guinea. The bar epitomizes what Martin Christy, the internationally respected chocolate reviewer for Seventy% in London, believes is at the core of artisanal producers who seek to bring back the most cherished varietals of cacao – most specifically, Trinitario in this case. He rhapsodizes about Art Pollard’s creation:

‘As you let it melt in your mouth you will have those sharp grapefruit and lime flavours lifting off the bar, hitting the side of your mouth. It’s almost like a grapefruit vinaigrette with the acidity and the sweetness combined. But beneath that there is an utterly splendid caramel experience that holds it all together and well after the final melt you should get leather and a slight dusting of tobacco.’

Finally, Pralus offerings, as usual, should be checked out by customers at Caputo’s, too. Chocolate maker Francois Pralus, who worked as a pastry chef in France before turning his attention to chocolate, has produced bars that rank clearly among Amedei’s best efforts, matching them in terms of immensely pleasing silky tastes and creamy smooth textures.

He is as adventuresome as his Italian counterparts, producing, for example, a Vanuatu bar that contains cacao sourced from Epi, a tiny island part of the nation – really, a South Pacific archipelago with considerable volcanic activity nearly equidistant from Australia, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea.

The taste is a fascinating mélange that belies the expectations one expects from the geographical origin of the bean. Fruity and zesty, the bar has fleeting notes of ginger, warm spices, and nuts that seem more appropriate for a late autumn feast.

Another worthwhile Pralus confection is the Barre Infernale that tips its culinary hand to the creator’s patisserie expertise. This is the perfect praline treat.

Quantity should never be the guide here. Most of these artisanal bars include 12 squares and just 2 or 3 at a time impart such incredible taste sensations that the satisfaction is so complete. Therefore, one would hesitate to risk sensory fatigue for fear of missing the complex notes these chocolate treasures offer. And, skip trying to pair them with wine. These confections seem to match beautifully with warmer liqueurs, rums, whiskeys, and scotch.

For more information about Caputo’s offerings of chocolates as well as classes, see here.

Ingenuity never is scarce when it comes to the final student projects at the Book Arts Studio at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library. For example, ‘Hubbub,’ was an imaginative collaboration of two sisters – Amber and Hayley Heaton – who produced a book of poems that replace simplistic, unrealistic abecedarian sentences (e.g., ‘A’ is for ‘apple) with emotionally engaging representations (e.g., ‘B’ is for ‘bumble bug’) that clearly signal broader, more familiar spectrums of life experience. Letterpress printed, the book incorporates the classic elements of wood block and type, rubber-based ink, linocuts, and hand-sewn binding. Produced in 2004, the book is still available in limited edition through several boutique sellers.

Some projects emerge as unique tributes to the memory of a loved one, such as a book containing meticulously executed Xerox transfers of old photographs representing the home property of a student’s great-grandparents. And, yet other projects defy conventional 2-D forms. Tiny Chinese scrolls tied with a ribbon are placed in an equally tiny test tube. Another is a four-letter-word scramble flexagon. In the just concluded semester-long letterpress course, each student was expected to produce a printed, folded piece of paper which then would be added to an origami masu class portfolio box.

While students are encouraged to create works simple enough to produce multiple copies for their peers and teachers in the program with the same precision employed in the prototype, the process is complex for the decisions it involves – paper, color, size, text placement, visual intent and iconic effect, to name a few. In fact, every course assignment hinges on the same precepts of how form fulfills function: “The folds must contribute to the communication of the idea” or “the book format should be instrumental in the communication of your intent.”

The University of Utah’s book arts program, which includes the fine-press limited edition releases of Red Butte Press, has gained an excellent reputation since the press was established in 1984 and the course activities were initiated in 1995. Marnie Powers-Torrey, managing director and instructor, played a prominent role in the founding of the College Book Art Association in 2008, which now has 19 member institutions from around the country and will be holding a conference next month in San Francisco.

The state board of regents also is expected to approval the school’s book arts curriculum as an academic certificate program. Barely more than a handful of similarly accredited undergraduate programs in this discipline exist around the country.

“I am an educator and a printer who, along with my colleagues at the Book Arts Program and Red Butte Press, both impulsively and philosophically believe in the lasting power of the printed image and word,” Powers-Torrey says, adding that as the digital age continues to be immersed in our lives, the enrollment of students and community members in the program courses has increased steadily.

The scope of expression evidenced in the student projects should hearten anyone who worries about the side effects of total digital immersion. Passion and personal engagement underscore the hunger to become, as Powers-Torrey explains, a modern renaissance person who values the skills to analyze critically, distill context, and synthesize the elements of form, content, and design. The art of creating a book form parallels the writing process in every manner.

Perhaps, as Krozser has written, we’ll be able to distinguish which stories can be chronicled in every imaginable format, which stories lend themselves best to the digital media, and, finally, those which are best suited for the pace of turning the page in a beautifully crafted printed book.

Recently, Art Spiegelman, in an interview with Publisher’s Weekly, explained, “So, if I need a textbook that’s going to be out of date because of new technological inventions, you’re better off having it where you can download the supplements or the update. If you’re going to read a quick mystery model to keep you amused when you’re traveling, it’s fine.”

In other words, it’s not a question of business viability. It is a question of lasting artistic value – for an individual who decides which books will be essential to his or her lifetime personal library. That is the impetus of the Red Butte Press, which has produced exceptional limited edition works that steadily increase in value. Many of these books, which often take two to three years to produce, start at $650 and some editions run upwards of $1,500. Many runs only include between 100 and 150 copies with a few running up to 400.

One of the most stunning examples is ‘Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known,’ a collection of poems by Nigerian poet and playwright Wole Solynka who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. In this edition, the poems – originally published in 2002 – are set in an edition featuring a quartet of original color woodcuts by Robert Kleinschmidt, an artist who has deeply inspired Powers-Torrey’s commitment to the art form. The book’s unusual wire edge binding also features boards covered in Japanese Kyosei-shi handmade paper. A small number of deluxe editions also were produced that are covered in suede.

Red Butte Press releases always bring together artists from around the nation as well as the globe. Victoria Hindley, who designed the Samarkand book, also led the project for an edition of Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Firebird’s Nest’ which features four linoleum cuts designed by Alfredo Benavidez Bedoya, an Argentinean printmaker. Bound in yellow ostrich leather, the drop-spine box, designed by hand as well, is covered in black silk.

When ‘Something Lived, Something Dreamed: Urban Design and The American West’ featuring an original essay about sustainable architectural design by William McDonough, was released in 2004, the production involved more than 50 skilled artists from six states with Hindley once again serving as designer. The cotton paper came from an Italian mill while the book covers were made from a single sycamore tree that had been reclaimed from an urban construction site.

Two Utah woodworkers fabricated the covers, which also featured recycled aluminum, while the text was printed on a handpress dating to the middle 19th century. The book, which came to 125 copies in the production run, included hand-inked letterpress monoprints by Chris Stern and hand binding.

The book was acknowledged with many awards including the American Institute of Graphic Arts 50/50 honors in 2006 as one of the 50 best designed books of the year. More significantly, McDonough’s essay, which has not been published elsewhere, has formed the foundation for many discussions around the country for gaining a seminal understanding of the form and function of sustainable urban design.

Red Butte Press selections always emphasize the extensive collaborative nature of the work. At the centenary of Wallace Stegner’s birth, Red Butte Press released a book containing the author’s famed essay ‘To A Young Writer,’ as well as new text by Wendell Berry and Lynn Stegner. The book’s production was a prominent choice as the University holds Stegner’s archives and the project involved collaborators not only at the school but also from Indiana, New York, and California.

This was the second Stegner issue by the press, which released a 1995 edition of his ‘Wilderness Letter.’ The centenary edition run, which included three original engravings by Barry Moser and was bound in wood, cloth, and calfskin, was limited to 125 copies.

As for the students, the book arts studio provides an instructive change of pace from the now-conventional digital environment where pressing buttons and clicking cursors facilitate information gathering and distribution. Located on the fourth floor of the library, the studio invites students to calibrate and finesse their tactile and physical movement capabilities, working with equipment that demands a firm yet gentle lift, jerk, or press.

Depending upon the required skill level of the course, students set letterpress type, where each character is a unique piece of metal, by hand. The studio has gradually amassed a collection of rare fonts and styles that otherwise might have ended up in scrap heaps or in storage lockers to be forgotten. Students respect how old-school technology gains a new lease on life as a form of artistic expression.

The book arts program, which received one of the city’s Mayor’s Artist Awards at this year’s Utah Arts festival, has been a primary force in establishing a worthwhile presence for the hands-on printing enterprise in Salt Lake City and in the surrounding area. These include Sycamore Street Press, Birdbrain Press, Saltgrass Printmakers, and other numerous independent artists who’ve established their creative livelihood throughout the country. Staff members also have worked extensively with the Utah Humanities Council and other organizations on a variety of public festival programming.

“It’s thankless work,” says Matt Caputo. “There are never-ending hurdles. We have to scramble every time the cooler breaks down and the repairs are not like any normal refrigeration work. Coils have to be replaced every 18 months and the cost goes up rapidly each time. After two separate nights when the cave was completely off, we had to push a thousand times harder around the clock to make sure that every setting for the cheeses was correct.”

With maintenance costs atop the initial setup that ran upwards of $65,000, the Caputo’s cheese cave, three and a half years running, readily classifies as a sinkhole for money. That is, if one examines the venture from a purely business accounting perspective.

However, Caputo’s core business model considers that authenticity cannot be mass-produced. Viewed as incidental to the longer project of building a food culture where the revival of traditional agricultural products and markets engages the interest of individual customers, the maintenance headaches and unexpected costs constitute a worthy investment.

“The learning curve has been incredibly steep but we’re gaining more confidence as we near plateaus for some of our best artisanal cheeses,” he says. Likewise, employee Antonia Horne has embraced her role, keeping a fantastically detailed notebook of the aging (affinage) activity in the cave that helps Caputo and others know just when a cheese is at its perfect state for sampling.

Of all the specialty foods carried at Caputo’s, cheese is the most complex. It is a “living product” that must be handled with exceptional care. Shipped or handled improperly, it easily can be destroyed. And, then, aging – which requires an environment of controlling temperature and humidity with the precision of a scientific lab setting – must allow the ecology of the correct molds to be manifested in bringing out the cheese’s full complement of terroir and tasting notes. In the cave, for example, a young Chaource which is slightly sour with a fruity flavor touched with a small acidic tone matures within three and a half weeks into a small smooth, creamy, mushroomy round.

One of the most promising successes has been the cheddar, covered with butter-soaked bandages and aged in house from fresh curd to finish ($19.95/pound). At 11 months, the cheese offers interplay of acid and sweet notes, along with mild to strong flavors suggesting asparagus and horseradish opens up a sense of terroir never possible in its mass produced counterpart.

Aged at least six months and preferably longer – up to 10 to 16 months – Grotte Caputo ($14.95/pound) mixes hints of sweetness and nuttiness with a sharp ambrosial profile in a cheese made from Holstein milk in Wisconsin. A remarkably versatile companion to most wines, the cheese epitomizes Caputo’s essential role in being a genuine intermediary when it comes to communicating the distinguished pedigree and place of cheese for the customer.

Furthermore, cheese buying at Caputo’s is a distinct customer-friendly process. First, customers get as much as they want or need from a particular cheese. In fact, because affinage is so vital to bringing out a cheese’s exceptional qualities, one is better off only buying enough for a specific use or occasion. Indeed, the cheese, left in one’s refrigerator at home surrounded by a common plastic wrap, loses a good deal of its vitality.

Some also might flinch at paying $20 or more per pound for some cheeses but once one realizes just how much taste and flavor can be obtained at $5, $8, or $10, the price-quality-value paradigm is readily evident. And, there are quite a few cheeses that are spectacular bargains in the $12-$15 per pound range. The point is that cheese aging not only guides artisan cheese producers in navigating the market but it also helps cheese consumers – literally on a person by person basis – to comprehend the often-invisible realities of artisan production.

It’s not primarily about short-term profitable margins. It’s about building a long-term trust for a complex product – for the artisanal producer as well as the customer who relies on Caputo and his colleagues to recommend the best product for his or her needs, desires, and expectations.

Without a doubt, the cave provides an excellent pretext for cultivating relations with local cheese producers. A solid example is Kings’ Peak, one of the cheeses from Snowy Mountain Sheep Creamery in Eden, Utah. The dairy is well known for it exceptional standards of cleanliness that minimize to the least extent any need for antibiotics. Appropriate for an authentic cheese-making farm, the milk designated for cheese production is fed directly into an enclosed system, further emphasizing the attention to scrupulous sanitary conditions.

A smear rind cheese, Kings’ Peak ($23.99/pound) is a half and half blend of milk from Lacaune sheep and Guernsey cows. Aged for three months, this cheese capitalizes upon all of the key strengths one would find in a traditional Fontina from the Valle d’Aosta region. It’s ideal in its whole pure form or as a great cheese melt.

Snowy Mountain Creamery’s location nearly replicates the unique Alpine climate and topographical conditions but the conditions nevertheless impart a Utah terroir to its cheese that rises well above the impression that it merely imitates its European counterpart.

Another Fontina ($17.99/pound) from the Italian Alpine producer Fromagerie La Haut Val d’Ayas is made from the milk of the region’s breeds of cows including red-brindle, black-brindle, chestnut. Intensely floral, the cheese’s sweetness matures even with a short aging time in the cave, along with its pungent aroma. Opened in 2002, the Italian cooperative works with 65 local farmers and uses more than 2 million liters of milk annually to produce some 18,000 pounds of cheese.

One of the most successful and popular cheeses coming out of the cave is Ossau-Iraty, which is usually aged for an additional one to six months in the cave after it has arrived. This cheese, produced by Onetik and made from sheep’s milk, has phenomenal nutty and caramelized notes that are beautifully expressed after aging. The name refers to two rivers in the French Basque region, which gives the spectacular terroir distinction to these cheeses, including a Tome de Vache Basque.

Onetik selections range in price from the high teens to $25.99 per pound but note that even small quantities of these intensely flavored cheeses go a long way.

Several Basque-origin cheeses have produced notable results from their time in the cave, even as they are temperamental. For those looking to sampling something different from the first-rate Taleggio offered in the store, the goat milk Pau Mathieu($26.99/pound) is a stunner. The oddly intoxicating funky aroma of this washed rind cheese gives way to a richly complex layered profile of sweetness and nutty tasting notes that is versatile at either end of the dinner course sequence.

After several months in the cave, the cheese’s creamy paste grows big in savory taste with a firmer texture. The goats, which feed on the Basque mountain region’s indigenous plants, are raised on the hillsides barely ten to fifteen minutes away from the Mediterranean coast.

One of the best bargains ($13.99/pound) from the cave is a Livradois Raclette that outdoes its lackluster counterparts with fertile, lively tastes not normally expected in this cold winter supper classic. Made from raw milk in Auvergne, this cheese has a sweet creamy texture and flavor that intensifies with nutty and earthy mushroom tones once it’s been aged. The Raclette already has been aged for two to three months once it arrives at the store but an additional month in the Caputo’s cheese cave lifts this cheese significantly from ordinary heights.

However, the cave is not the only focus of Caputo’s rapidly developing cheesemonger program. The staff continues to cultivate its offerings for cheeses that are shipped with extremely meticulous care and which can be offered directly from the case. But, again, the emphasis is on discovering artisanal cheeses that often pleasantly surprise customers who begin to compare those against the more familiar offerings.

A solid example comes in the Fleur du Maquis ($30/pound), a marvelous representation of the interplay of French terroir and Italian influences. The cheese, which takes its name from the thick bush cover that made it easy for thieves and robbers to hide, comes from ewe’s milk that is cured with rosemary, juniper, and fennel along with a subtly handled hint of tiny chiles.

This cheese stands nicely up to Spanish white wines, Rieslings, and a good range of light to medium red wines. Versatile in every respect, the cheese not only imparts a deeply satisfying spreadable creaminess but it also offers up crumbling bits that work well in many southern European dishes.

For more information, see here.

As spectacular as its sales figures and business success have been in its first 18 months of operations, the founders and employees at Salt Lake City’s Epic Brewing Company have demonstrated their deep appreciation for a far more significant lifelong value in dynamic entrepreneurship. In the unforgiving arena of business, entrepreneurship cannot be seen merely as a contact sport governed by rigid rules. Rather it is the gateway to building a product culture that champions collaboration and innovation not only in the making of high-quality craft beers but also in strengthening Utah’s steadily expanding awareness for superior locally-produced and expertly prepared foods.

Most recently, Kevin Crompton, Epic’s chief brewer, joined with Jeff Hancock, his counterpart at the DC Brau Brewing Company in Washington, D.C. to create ‘Fermentation without Representation,’ an Imperial Pumpkin Porter, a craft beer that includes more than 200 pounds of locally grown pumpkin in each batch along with a mix of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and whole Madagascar vanilla beans. As noted by Mike Riedel, who writes the Utah Beer blog: ‘There are two places in the United States notoriously known for their lack of representation: Washington D.C., which has none — and Utah, whose minority drinkers are a nuisance more than constituents. It seems likely that factions from both places would find some common ground and rage against those that choose not to hear them. Leave it to the beer industry to rock the boat.’ Riedel adds that, while each brewer will follow the standard recipe, the respective versions will be distinctive in their own right, just as they should be. Both beers were released on Nov. 3 in each location.

As the end of 2011 nears, Dave Cole and Peter Erickson, co-founders of Epic who worked for many years as biologists before launching their dream venture in May of 2010, see a company that long ago outgrew the rosiest predictions of their original, meticulously crafted strategic business plan. Their original production targets this year were pegged at 700 barrels. Thanks first to an expansion last winter that effectively tripled its capacity and to further ongoing enhancements that have added huge fermentation tanks and barrels for aging (including whiskey and bourbon, white wine such as chardonnay, and red wine such as syrah and cabernet), Epic is now capable of producing between 6,000 and 8,000 barrels annually.

And, 2012 will see further growth, including an out-of-state brewing location that will aid in serving Epic’s growing market presence in states in the eastern half of the country. In other words, Epic’s production capacity at some point will top 15,000 barrels a year.

Its versatility in the short term verges on the unbelievable. There already are 28 varieties encompassing Epic’s Classic, Elevated, and Exponential product tiers. And, the brewery has nabbed 14 major industry awards in its 18-month existence, including two medals at last month’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver, where nearly 4,000 beers were entered into competition.

Epic’s Imperial IPA earned a bronze in one of the festival’s most competitive categories where 103 entries were posted. Its fabulously popular Brainless on Peaches, which Crompton describes as a Belgian Style beer that goes through a secondary fermentation on organic peach puree in French oak chardonnay barrels, earned a silver medal.

In January, Epic gained honors as a top three new brewer in a review by RateBeer.com, one of the industry’s foremost authoritative review groups. Epic’s beers were ranked against more than 130,000 offerings from 10,000-plus brewers in the world.

Epic beers now are found in 10 states, including Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Ohio, New Jersey, Virginia and North Carolina. And, Cole and Erickson have found key strategic and conducive allies in the always tricky minefield of distribution, such as Hunterdon Distributors in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. This company specializes in representing the new wave of craft beer producers who follow uncompromising standards of quality production ranging from the monitoring of fermentation to the geographically-specific origin of the malt and grains, the multitude of yeast strains, and the sourcing of first-rate ingredients and fruit juices for specialized brews.

The founders continue to wear their phenomenal success with remarkably understated poise as Utah’s first state brewery since the Prohibition Era to produce beer that is exclusively greater than 4.0 percent alcohol (by volume). And, much as when the Selective Echo took its first tour of Epic’s facilities at 825 South State Street, the group of employees (about 20) continues to wear the exciting pace of mushrooming expansion without wavering one bit in their focus on product quality.

Cole and Erickson are exemplars of the best team sport attributes of entrepreneurship. Consistent both in staying confident and affable, the two co-founders appropriately confer the right sense of autonomy in delegating the tasks and responsibilities that have made their coherent, compelling vision a vibrant reality in the marketplace. Experimentation always is encouraged and some of the most unconventional ideas turn out to be rousing successes.

Its Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout, made with cocoa nibs and coffee, proved a bit overpowering in its first release but Crompton dialed the ingredients back in subsequent batches by about 20 percent and the beer now conveys all of the best elements of an imperial stout with just the right hints of dark chocolate and espresso. And like so many other Epic beers, this particular brew has inspired local food creations including a gelato made on the premises of Vinto’s casual Italian eatery in downtown Salt Lake City.

Epic’s place in the local food culture is being welcomed in many of the city’s best-known restaurants and taverns for locally made and sourced products. A prominent example is with Tony Caputo’s Market and Deli where several food classes now are focused on unique pairings of Epic’s brews with the handcrafted charcuterie made by Creminelli and others along with the many cheeses that are part of Caputo’s growing affinage program. A proposed joint venture in 2012 will include a local shop exclusively focused on pairing Epic brews with Caputo products.

Regardless of whether a beer falls in either as an Epic Classic, Elevated, or Exponential offering, the brewery always pushes the boundaries in even small unexpectedly delightful ways. A particular favorite is Hopulent IPA, which is now in its 30th release. A veritable orgy of hops, this beer still comes in at a healthy 8.2 percent alcohol content. However, it’s a marvel of layered complexity. The peaked hoppy aroma is complemented by a pleasantly surprising malty and smooth textured taste punctuated by the right nuances of grapefruit and pine that nicely separate out the bitterness from the sweet finish of the fruit.

All Epic beers are sold in 22-ounce bottles at the State Street store, in limited quantities at various Utah liquor stores, and at numerous local restaurants and bars. For more information, see here.

Robert Altman’s “Nashville” begins with two points:

1. All of us are deeply involved in politics, whether we know it or not and whether we like it or not.

2. We can do something about it.

The diversity of discontent over immigration screams for systemic reform.

Border security is a focus. Republican presidential candidates have talked about walls, virtual barriers and electrified fences. President Barack Obama joked about a moat filled with alligators.

Experts have long suggested that high walls simply create business for longer ladders, cleverly hidden tunnels or different smuggling routes. Absolute border security seems impossible or obscenely expensive. Perhaps policy should seek border integrity.

Reports show that border crossings are down, but the U.S. will spend approximately $11.5 billion this year on Customs and Border Protection. Wise reform would lend logic to the spending.

Simplifying legal immigration and allowing needed workers to come here would reduce undocumented crossings. This would free border personnel and infrastructure to concentrate on addressing drug cartel activity and other serious criminal and security threats.

Jobs have long been contentious in the immigration debate. Some people argue that immigrants take jobs from Americans. Others argue that immigrants fill jobs Americans will not do.

In a recent working paper, economist George Borjas wrote, “In the United States, immigration has increased the size of specific groups, such as high school dropouts and workers with post-college degrees.” This complexity has not often been found in the debate; however, proposals by Utah Congressmen Mike Lee and Jason Chaffetz indicate that could be changing.

Compounding the complexity is that undocumented immigrants are more likely to be high school dropouts. These immigrants often work in agriculture, construction and hospitality. Native workers would not easily replace them.

Let’s face these facts: some industries need foreign-born workers. Current immigration laws do not allow for an adequate legal supply of these workers.

Federal inaction has tempted states to infringe on the federal authority over immigration. Alabama, Arizona, Georgia and other states have passed enforcement-only laws. Though the federal courts have enjoined many parts of those laws, economic figures and anecdotes suggest that business activity in those states has suffered.

Utah is a curious case. A supposedly immigrant-friendly law was coupled with an enforcement-only law.

The Utah guest worker program HB116 was sponsored by Rep. Bill Wright, R-Holden, a dairy farmer who knows firsthand the difficulty of finding capable and loyal employees among the documented.

HB116 is by all accounts unconstitutional. Though HB116 is slated for implementation in July 2013, few expect it to go into effect, certainly not without a costly legal battle.

The Utah enforcement-only law HB497 was implemented on May 10. It was stopped later that day in federal court. Subsequent hearings have been postponed several times. Federal officials visited Utah on Tuesday to consider whether to join the lawsuit against HB497.

Paradoxically, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff must defend HB497 after having opposed it during the legislative session. Immigration twists people in that way.

Although the diversity of discontent over immigration makes reform difficult, continued inattention and inaction at the Congressional level ill serve us.

However, the remainder of the press release – dishonest, incomplete, and irresponsible for how it erroneously contextualizes the results of the survey – shows that, once again, Elder’s pledges for transparency and accountability are insincere knee-jerk reactions intended only to ride out the current wave of scrutiny and save her job. Helped by a tremendously inexperienced and incapable communications director and a group of board members who long ago ceded its legal, proper fiduciary authority to a vindictive, dictatorial director who has no respect for the integrity of the public trust, Elder has crafted a narrative that is far from a verifiable representation.

After weeks of deliberate stonewalling, it was only a recent flurry of growing unrest surrounding the unprecedented shutting down of internal communications that forced Elder’s hand to release the survey. However, the results, paid for by city tax dollars and to which every citizen in Salt Lake City is entitled to see in its raw, uncensored form, have been craftily manipulated. Elder and the small cadre of Board members truly believe in the collective ignorance of the public to accept their presentations blindly without questions or challenges.

Elder, of course, has blocked the disclosure of the open-ended responses which, according to various sources, show in extensive detail the most pertinent concerns regarding the failures of Elder’s leadership. These, of course, also have been documented last spring in three long articles by The Selective Echo.

The Net Promoter Scores

However, what is missing from Elder’s report and from the press release announcing the survey results are the Net Promoter Scores that target specifically the most critical problems in this four-year-long leadership crisis, which has included at least two staff votes of no confidence. Not one problem has yet been resolved despite the fact that the Board has spent thousands upon thousands of dollars for two consultants and untold other services to bolster a director who has refused every suggestion to change her course of strategic leadership.

For the survey, staff members were asked to answer numerous items on a seven-point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The two lowest and two highest points on the scale were clustered respectively and the difference between the results, reported in percentage form, generated Net Promoter Scores. This is a common measurement tool applied in surveys assessing the satisfaction of employees or customers for a particular organization.

The scores indicate, in part, the potential strength of stakeholder engagement as well as the potential commitment an employee would make to support or endorse particular strategic initiatives pursued by the company. High positive net promoter scores are desirable because they show that communication and strategic implementation are perceived by employees at all levels of the organizational hierarchy to be productive and effective.

Extremely low positive scores or negative scores indicate that employees are more likely to be detractors – not endorsers – of strategic policies and tactics that they see as hampering or minimizing their values and sense of connection to the library’s mission. Negative scores, therefore, should alert organizational leadership to cultivate authentic engagement in particular strategic areas. In subsequent surveys, both managers and employees could then see if, indeed, communications and strategic coordination improved to the extent of reversing those negative scores.

In the survey, the most problematic Net Promoter Scores – 18 in total – confirmed what many stakeholders have believed and what the Selective Echo has identified previously as being the most pervasive problems of the current library administration. The most prominent negative scores underscore the deep failings with regard to communication, transparency, and competent implementation of strategic plans:

Library policies and practices promote the most effective library services, 1%

The Executive Leadership Team is committed to providing high quality products and services to patrons, -15%

The Library recognizes employees who provide high-quality library services, -15%

I believe the Library has an outstanding future, -2%

I can see a clear link between my work and Library’s outcomes, -8%

The Library has set realistic goals and outcomes, -24%

The Library’s current strategy and mission are well implemented, -33%

The Library has a clear sense of direction, -33%

The Executive Leadership Team of the Library has communicated a vision of the future that motivates me, -41%

My ideas and suggestions are valued by management, 1%

I am satisfied with my opportunities for advancement, -15%

The information I receive from other departments and committees is adequate, 0%

Organization policies are clearly communicated, -13%

The Executive Leadership Team communicates the information that I need to know about the Library, -39%

The Executive Leadership encourages open and honest communication, -41%

If I had the skills necessary for another position at the library, I would receive fair consideration for transfer to or promotion to that job, -10%

The Executive Leadership Team cares about the staff and volunteers, -31%

Members of the Executive Leadership Team are accessible and approachable, -32%

In no way does Elder address these scores. She obviously must have been referring to some other survey – perhaps involving little elves working in a magical tree making cookies – in writing her recommendations. And, I quote:

‘There is good communication about the matters that affect people’s work. Employees feel that they have a grasp on their role in the Library’s strategy and mission.’

The Board should move to reject her report on the grounds that this is an intellectually dishonest, completely misleading interpretation of the results. This is a travesty of disregard for the integrity of public accountability and trust. And, for the record, there have been reports again from several sources indicating that Elder pressured the Library Employee Organization (LEO) Executive Council with threats of suspension and termination to sign off on this hastily assembled document. The LEO already has spent several weeks in forthright discussions with the Executive Leadership Team regarding how the survey results should be addressed.

The Invisible Director

Elder, despite the fact she is a public official in a role that should be as the city’s most visible cultural ambassador, has led for months now in virtual isolation away from the larger community. She appeared last month to make a few forgettable remarks at the opening of the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the main branch. She has had no meaningful contact with the shop vendors or organizations, who, like every other library stakeholder constituency, have many concerns.

Otherwise, she arrives at the City Library, grabs a coffee, and heads to her fifth floor bunker, popping out for the monthly board meeting or for sessions with her two most loyal supporters – Board members Hugh Gillilan and Mimi Charles who long ago abdicated any real sense of public fiduciary responsibility for proper conduct as library board members. And, as the survey results indicate, staff meetings have done little to make progress on issues that were identified several years ago.

Elder, with the consent of most Board members who have become her collective docile eunuchs, was hoping to stonewall public discussion of the survey until the November board meeting. However, several recent incidents changed that as they involved reprimands and threats of dismissal for staff members who dared to carry on precisely the type of dialogue that she says will be a part of her recommendations. The growing public discomfort about a leader at a prominent public institution that exists to combat prior restraint and censorship made her and an already skittish Board that much more nervous.

Categorically False? Or Not?

Yet, as outlined above, no one should expect Elder to have a transformative moment here in the pursuit of transparency and accountability. On the same day Julianne Hancock, the Library’s communication director, was quoted in The Salt Lake Tribune as denying as categorically false claims that the leadership would review staff communications for signs of criticism or insubordination, an incident involving a Board member suggests that Hancock’s statement is actually the false one.

Mark Alvarez apparently received a message from the library offices to return a call from a KSL reporter. Tommy Hamby, Elder’s executive assistant, sent an email that includes the following:

‘If it is a Library matter, per recent discussions about Board communications, the following is the proposed procedure:

“Media Communications: All Library communication to the public through the media (including social media, print, radio, TV and blogs) will be arranged and coordinated by the Library Communication Director. The Communication Director is the spokesperson for the Library. The Communication Director may be the spokesperson for the Board with the approval of the President.”

Julianne can be reached at jhancock@slcpl.org or by phone at 801-524-8219.’

As Alvarez is not an employee but a Board member, the notion of using intimidation or implied threats is shocking and an egregious interference with the First Amendment rights of a publicly appointed trustee. Furthermore, Hamby, Hancock, and Elder – as well as all Board members – should familiarize themselves with the following pages from the July 2010 Utah Public Library Trustee Manual: pp. 35-36 with reference to Public Relations and Advocacy as well as Appendix K: A Comparison of Roles and Responsibilities of Public Library Trustees and Library Directors, pp. 65-70.

Hopeless Prospects

The prospects for improving communications – perhaps the most critical function to be faced by an institutional director – are hopeless.

For example, on the matter of public relations, one must consider the work of Hancock who, despite the fact that there are many unfilled vacancies including key posts such as finance director, has requested additional staff. This seems currently unjustifiable as the library’s public relations profile and media relations activities are extraordinarily weak for an award-winning institution. Clearly, neither Hancock nor Elder see the media as an important stakeholder in the organizational communication work, a fundamental acknowledgment familiar to every professional public relations person.

Last March, after administrative secretary Bobbi Bohman resigned because Elder wanted to control and delay the routine release of public records, The Salt Lake Tribune offered op-ed page space to Elder so she could address the paper’s March 19 editorial that criticized her stance. She never followed up.

Furthermore, there is no evidence of a communications audit – a standard public relations practice – nor any signs that Hancock nor Elder has developed an ongoing media relationship protocol. This would include arranging for regular appearances on public service programs both on local network affiliates as well as other broadcast outlets. Also, there should be regular media briefings with the editorial board of the major metropolitan dailies. Likewise, Hancock has done virtually no media promotional work for the numerous community outreach activities staff members have developed. Some programs would actually generate national media attention.

One example arose last month when libraries across the nation began offering e-books on Amazon’s Kindles. The Salt Lake Tribune featured an article with the Salt Lake County Library System but there was no mention of the city’s public libraries. Also, many libraries across the country had great feature articles and broadcast reports.

But not the SLC Public Library. Immediately afterward, Hancock sent out a five-sentence press release which had the effect of a “me, too” response. The release had no quotes or context for a feature news peg. A public relations colleague, upon reviewing the press release, said that a freshman in an introductory course could have written a much better media advisory.

One is hard pressed to think of any media campaigns that focus on positive actions, not restrictions that run counter to a public institution’s mission. Hancock’s most effective public relations work apparently is to help Elder push forward on stonewalling, intimidation, and misrepresentation.

For those of us who take to heart and mind a long-standing code of ethics in the profession, this disturbs profoundly. But, then, it is inconceivable to think that Elder would willingly listen to the wise, prudent advice of experienced public relations counselors who would explain just why the library’s communications infrastructure has been so deeply damaged.

TLC for a Library

The Selective Echo also would encourage citizens to do a complete walk through the library and its campus so they can assess the serious lapses in upkeep and maintenance. In June, I noted the walls along the staircase between the fourth and fifth floors, near the window where the beehives can be seen, were peeling. That has yet to be repaired. The rooftop gardens are in shabby shape, once again, and we have had long stretches of beautiful fall weather when landscaping work could have been easily accomplished.

There are many signs of roof leaks and water damage especially in the lower-level children’s library department. One can easily spot the dirt on the overhead shade panels. It is standard knowledge that any setting where you have an adjacent water element (such as the reflecting pool) will require regular maintenance against water leaks and damage. Left unaddressed, these problems could create an unhealthy indoor air environment for children who might be susceptible to respiratory infections and asthma.

The gargantuan sculpture in the urban atrium desperately also needs a major cleaning. In its better days, it would shimmer brilliantly in the daylight. The artist who created a dragonfly sculpture for the children’s area gladly cleaned and restored the art piece without charge, only asking to be reimbursed for the cleaning supplies. However, the sculpture has yet to be mounted.

Staff members often go on library business without being reimbursed for travel or gas. However, Elder has a $300 monthly car allowance. Staff members who were moved to new positions under the reorganization last January have yet to receive their two-percent cost of living increase. There were reports last spring when Elder’s contract was renewed of offering the director a raise, despite the fact that a formal performance review has yet to be performed.

Elder would have done well to follow the example of the state’s public university presidents who gave up raises and made personal concessions as a small yet important gesture in a tight budgetary period.

Final Questions

The Board must answer several questions. If indeed the Board believes Elder is the rightly qualified director to lead the library, then why does it continue to condone stonewalling and hiding information that unquestionably falls under the public’s right to know category? If specific information and data are available that justify Elder’s continued employment, then why is it not on the record?

The Board has been so caught up with lapping up Elder’s restrictive policy that members even are hard pressed to identify specific accomplishments which might underscore her managerial worthiness.

Eight days ago, in The New York Times, Thomas Galante, the chief executive officer for the Queens Library, said libraries need to be less introverted. And, so do their leaders.

As for why maintenance issues become significant to note, the same article contained the following:

‘And it’s the small things, after all — some greenery, good lighting, well-maintained sidewalks and well-made buildings — that shape our perceptions of where we live, whether or not we’re always conscious of them.’

The City Library has ranked just behind the Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as among the most visited destinations in the city. However, just ask if Temple Square would ever be allowed to show the same signs of negligence or shabbiness in maintenance.

The Board should take a walk on the library campus and on every floor. And, then, it should return to the survey results that were just released. The evidence becomes clear: The library’s best strategic move at this point is to accept the resignation of Beth Elder and to facilitate a transition where real outcomes can be achieved without fear and intimidation.

When an audience member at one of her lectures asks if she ever consults anyone else for advice, she says, ‘Who do I go to when I want a second opinion? You mean, like a cardiologist? That would be the only time.’ She laments that too many people are writing books that are terrible because people have been taught to have self esteem. She argues that the best culture comes from a natural aristocracy of talent. Lebowitz, soon to be 61, is firmly for smokers’ rights, adding that the history of art has always been about talking, drinking and smoking in bars and cafes.

The 2010 Home Box Office (HBO) documentary will be screened Friday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Salt Lake Art Center auditorium as part of the Utah Film Center’s Creativity in Focus series, sponsored in part by Rio Tinto.

While audience members should not expect to see any deep background details about her formative life, the documentary is really a beautifully edited monologue of her appearances (featuring moderator Toni Morrison) interspersed with footage of her speaking in her customary booth at the Waverly Inn as well as scenes from the 1960s and 1970s featuring William F. Buckley, Jr., Truman Capote, Pablo Casals, Jack Paar, Gore Vidal, Oscar Levant, and James Baldwin.

As for the film’s epiphany, it refers to the extraordinary and refreshing self-confidence of a brilliant wit and mind that refuses to be constrained by digital tools or to be reduced to the pablum dictates of a contemporary age. Lebowitz proudly states that she does not have a computer or cell phone and wonders if a microwave oven would allow someone to text.

One of her favorite possessions, in fact, is a pale gray Checker Taxi Cab that she bought for $9,000 in 1978 with the money she received for a book advance. Lebowitz, who, at 19, moved from her native New Jersey to New York City’s West Village in 1969, drove a cab part-time each month just enough to cover her $121 rent. In the film, the car still looks magnificent, the product of meticulous restoration and its owner’s care.

Lebowitz came rapidly into her own during the 1970s, especially as a columnist for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine and then later for Mademoiselle. The magazine columns – or more accurately, essays – became part of two classic best-selling books Metropolitan Life and Social Studies, published in 1978 and 1981, respectively. A master of repurposing writing, she gathered the essays of both books into the ‘Fran Lebowitz Reader.’

She also published a children’s book called ‘Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas,’ which, as recollected in the film, caused a good deal of consternation among panda experts who were upset that the author had the animals eating pizza.

Those unfamiliar with Lebowitz, who is a widely sought speaker, might be quite surprised at how small her published oeuvre actually is. Already successful at 27, she resisted, as we learn, lucrative offers from Hollywood studios to turn both of her books into movie scripts. She already had decided that her next book would be a novel, ‘Exterior Signs of Wealth.’ However, she lapsed into her famous writer’s block – or as she calls it, ‘writer’s blockade’ – which only has been recently lifted.

To give a sense of just how long this blockade had gone on, one only needs to refer to a 1993 Paris article in an interview with James Linville and George Plimpton:

‘Because I didn’t write. I had an idea for this book, but I wrote very little. When I was about twenty and had just started publishing, I thought: I’ll write two books of these funny essays and then I’ll write a novel. I never wanted to write a novel first. I had—because of my aversion to young people, even when I was a young person—an aversion toward writing a young person’s novel. There are few books written by people in their twenties that, even if they are great books, are not in some way young people’s books. It’s that base longing of youth that really irritates me. I like a person who is more embittered. That embittered sensibility is not possible in a young person. You can be nasty when you are young, but you really have to be older to achieve bitterness. When I finished Social Studies, I had an idea for the novel, but I thought I needed a form for the book. When I was writing all those little essays, most of the topics I wrote about, everyone had written about. Everyone has written about everything; you’re not going to come up with some new topic to write about. So I always tried to come up with some kind of form for the piece that would be intrinsic to what I was saying. I like restrictions when I write. I don’t understand people who want more freedom. The terrifying thing about writing is freedom, when people say, but you can do anything. I don’t want to be able to do anything, that’s too terrifying.’

Not one moment sags in this 82-minute documentary, thanks to the appropriate New York sensibilities of Scorsese, whose technique in this film also reflects to a different artistic period. However, Lebowitz appears effortlessly timeless. Her 1997 Vanity Fair essay about race in America remains a must-read piece that seems even more relevant after the 2008 election. She is a favorite guest on late night television talk shows, recently returning to David Lettermen after a 16-year absence. And, she appeared as a tough-talking judge on a Law and Order episode.

Indeed, rare is the artist such as Lebowitz with a fascinating gift to resist the temptation to conform or compromise while still being able to outshine virtually every other figure in brilliant articulation, verbal or written.

For more information about the series see here.

With a name change this season – known for its first nine years as the SLC Film Center – the organization is poised to carve its place among the state’s preeminent cultural institutions. In broadening its outreach to Logan, Ogden, Moab, St. George, and other state locations, the UFC uses film – which founder and board chair Geralyn Dreyfous says is so ideally flexible and portable as a form of creative expression – to capture and cultivate a socially connected network that is inspired by film to take up the “what can we do” challenge for creating better engagements in our community.

It was that recognition of film’s capacity to inspire a community-based identity that overcomes the constraints of contentious dichotomies and social fragmentation, which inspired Dreyfous, along with Nicole Guillemet and Kathryn Toll, to form the center in 2002. The original proposal called for the project to be a local adjunct to the Sundance Film Festival, of which Guillemet was co-director at the time. However, in the spring of that year, Guillemet moved to take charge of the Miami International Film Festival.

Dreyfous brought Toll on board and both women, with impressive portfolios in both philanthropy and the film industry, knew instinctively the center could flourish first by capitalizing upon their close connections with filmmakers and industry distributors and then by collaborating with local organizations with goals and objectives that dovetail with the content of film screenings.

The first film screened was ‘Promises,’ a 2001 documentary chronicling three years of experiences for seven Jewish and Palestinian children living in Jerusalem. The Oscar-nominated film, which racked up many honors at some of the best-known international cinematic festivals, played to a standing-room-only audience at a screening, which featured Justine Shapiro, one of the film’s directors, in a Q&A afterward.

Since then, more than 500 directors, producers, and actors have appeared at UFC screenings and the availability of digital technologies such as Skype have even made it easier for audiences to start a dialogue with a filmmaker. And, of course, to mark its anniversary, UFC is offering programs featuring Geena Davis, John Waters, and many others.

So encouraging was audience reaction to UFC’s first screenings that it wasn’t long before the center’s programming expanded from one screening per month to weekly and eventually to the common two to three screenings each week now. In recent years, the annual attendance at UFC programs, of which nearly all are free and open to the public, has easily topped 20,000.

Those numbers likely will continue to grow at a faster pace especially as UFC widens its slate of programming not only throughout Utah but also with smartly curated film festivals of its own. A single screening of a documentary about climate issues drew more than 130 people at Dixie State College, a new venue for UFC programs.

The center opened its anniversary year last month with the first-ever Gandhi Film Festival, cosponsored with the Gandhi Alliance for Peace. The opening film – the 2008 biographical documentary ‘The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan: A Torch for Peace’ – played to a packed City Library auditorium and audience members talked extensively with Teri McLuhan, the film’s director.

Last spring, effectively achieving the capacity to provide essentially lifelong cinematic programming for Utah residents, the UFC held its first Tumbleweeds Film Festival, the only large-scale cinema gathering in the Intermountain West geared exclusively toward children, which also played to large audiences.

Likewise, attendance has continued to grow at the Damn! These Heels LGBT Film Festival, which will have its ninth run next June. This festival, in particular, signifies UFC’s customary sensitivity for programming in how it reflects the most current pulse on the most prominent issues concerning social and political awareness. For example, the most recent festival underscored the growing public opinion acceptance that marriage rights and economic equality regardless of sexual orientation or identity were important.

Therefore, the lineup represented films of solid artistic measure with aesthetic attributes and storytelling elements that appeal to a broadly diversified audience regardless of sexual orientation and identity. The festival’s storytelling emphasis was less on political points than on the everyday issues of love, happiness, and personal epiphanies, which everyone faces.

Similarly, the ‘Tillman Story’ which aired last spring in four Utah cities as part of the center’s Films Without Border series opened up a dialogue with director Amir Bar-Lev who answered audience questions at all of the screenings. It became evident that the film did not represent a battle between hawks and doves or between atheists and religious adherents or set out to ascribe blame to a specific group for covering up the details behind Pat Tillman’s death in Afghanistan seven years ago.

Indeed, if one wants to find a commonly accessible thread which runs through the 170 or so films the center screens each year is how a monumental cast of governmental officials, military leaders, corporate elites, journalists, talk-show hosts, celebrity pundits, public relations ‘spin doctors,’ and savvy, opportunistic marketers contribute substantially to blurring the lines of entertainment and information for the sake of a production that hardly represents realities with which audiences identify on a daily basis.

In fact, one would be hard pressed to name an issue, event, phenomenon, icon or cultural element that hasn’t been touched upon in one way or another during the center’s first 10 years. A Creativity in Focus series, in collaboration with the Salt Lake Art Center, has featured experimental films as well as top-rated documentaries dealing with artists such as Banksy, Chuck Close, and Basquiat that compel the local art community to face and discuss the challenges of generating visibility for its own work while wrestling with the temptations of making it big without sacrificing their authentic creative voices.

Body image, civil rights, food sustainability, gender and sexuality, environmental protection and preservation, civil rights, immigration reform, Islam, Africa, and literature have appeared among countless other themes. International cinema, including Spanish language films, also has become a regular component of UFC’s annual programming. Afternoon film series for seniors and retired citizens are offered periodically free of charge.

In its second decade, UFC hopes to build upon the expanding film-literate community of Utah with programs that give more opportunity to local filmmakers to hone their storytelling skills, according to Dreyfous, a Harvard graduate who has assembled an impressive portfolio as a producer and executive producer of more than 15 films including the Academy-Award-winning documentary ‘Born Into Brothels.’ UFC has joined with the Salt Lake Film Society and Spy Hop Productions in hopes of developing a film and digital media facility with production and exhibition capabilities in some of the space of the old Utah Theater in downtown. While the concept has been identified in the master plan for development of a cultural campus that would ultimately link all of the existing and proposed arts and culture facilities, no firm initiatives have yet been made.

As a strong testament to the UFC’s success, Dreyfous also has assembled a staff with significant experience in filmmaking and philanthropy. Missy Dawson, the current executive director, started out in journalism before moving to nonprofit organizational management and development. She came to Utah in 2009 after serving as the senior manager of the San Francisco Symphony’s Second Century Campaign, which raised more than $120 million for the symphony’s core programs and endowment.

In the same year, Patrick Hubley, joined as the UFC’s artistic director. His portfolio includes substantial press, event producing, and consulting experience with Sundance and the Sundance Institute, the Toronto International Film Festival, CineVegas Film Festival, and the Dubai International Film Festival.

Marcie Collett, the center’s current development manager, brings extensive experience from Denver in coordinating various adult literacy programs. Likewise, Levi Elder, communications manager and programmer, has professional credits with several major studios and festivals including Tribeca, the American Film Institute, the Middle Eastern International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi, and Ireland’s Kerry Film Festival.

One of the most familiar faces on the Salt Lake City cultural and arts scene, Mariah Mann Mellus keys the center’s membership and outreach activities. A writer and event coordinator, she brings broad experience from the ski and extreme sports industries as well as organizations dealing with global youth cultural outreach programs.

Rounding out the staff are Keb Brady, business manager and executive assistants Kelsie Jepsen and Sarah Mohr.

It is worth noting the breadth and depth of experience UFC staff members bring to the table, which will be essential for carrying forward the center’s founding mission. No doubt, everyone sees the strategic opportunities in the cost-effective transportability of films as the center cultivates larger and new audiences especially in other parts of the states. Certainly, initial responses to screenings in locations outside of Salt Lake City have been justifiably heartening.

However, Dreyfous and her staff also are focused on the transformative potential of their work for a state that definitively is not as conservative or as reactionary as what mainstream media and pundits often characterize. Miles Horton, who is one of the best-known teachers of social movement leaders, wrote in his 1990 autobiography ‘The Long Haul’:

‘If we are to have democratic society, people must find or invent new channels through which decisions can be made . . . the problem is not that people will make irresponsible or wrong decisions. It is, rather, to convince people who have been ignored or excluded in the past that their involvement will have meaning and that their ideas will be respected. The danger is not too much, but too little participation.’

For more information about the UFC, see here.

Likewise, emphasizing that not every locally made food product is necessarily worthy of gold star treatment, Caputo regularly introduces participants to the producers behind names such as Creminelli, Snowy Mountain Sheep Creamery, Slide Ridge Honey, Epic Brewing Company, and others whose foodstuffs have captivated specialty food stores in and out of the United States.

Of course, tasting and cooking classes at the downtown and 15th-and-15th locations of Tony Caputo’s Food Market and Deli regularly sell out because the overall program offers a refreshing cost-friendly path to connoisseurship without the intimidating or alienating effects of a staid or stodgy approach that otherwise would match exclusivity with an out-of-the-ballpark price. Along with the meticulous background research that goes into each class, Caputo focuses on the face-to-face interactions between producers and customers as leading to a more effective way of comprehending the true complexities and genuine goals of a food system that is not only known for being local but also for being sustainable and beneficial to the community.

The classes succeed because they serve a longer-term objective about building a resilient food culture in Utah that goes well beyond the obviously inherent retail advantages Caputo’s justifiably reaps from its education program. And, the classes continuously evolve to incorporate broader, more diverse, and more focused elements of tasting and cooking with the meats, cheeses, oils, vinegars, butters, chocolates, and salts so that increasing proportions of participants return for intermediate and advanced levels of experience. Francis Fecteau of Libation, Inc., offers supplemental wine education and, more recently, representatives of Epic Brewing Company have coordinated information about craft beer pairings with meats and cheeses.

Furthermore, the classes help establish an immensely useful baseline of trust where the personal interactions and connections between and among customers, producers, and retailers operate more effectively as a friendly, accessible expert system in lieu of the sterile, impersonal, and technically confusing realm of standard product certifications. Caputo and his staff understand that it’s not merely satisfactory to have the right attitudes and values to make customers want to learn more about these extraordinary food items. Instead, it is better to foster a mutually adaptive capacity on both sides of the transaction. That is, customers are inspired to try these products as well as broaden and diversify their repertoire as food consumers. Likewise, producers and retailers learn what drives the impetus for shared values and attitudes. They also learn what customers expect from these products, what they currently know (or don’t know) about how these products are made, and what they think about the products.

So much valuable information is gathered from classes that could never be generated from an advertising-driven promotion or marketing campaign that uses one-time surveys or focus groups to gather opinions and attitudes. The classes become the ideal vehicle for reaching as many demographic groups as possible that are taking a greater interest in the quality as well as responsible production methods for the food they eat.

Along with the live music Troy Petersen offers each Friday at the 15th and 15th location, the classes have been the perfect medium for reaching out to neighboring residents as well as students, faculty, and staff from the nearby campuses of The University of Utah and Westminster College. “Not only is it a great way for customers to go for the red pill and sample a goat’s milk or sheep’s milk cheese for the first time and pair it with a wine they might never have tried before,” Petersen explains, “but it also is a great excuse for neighbors to walk down to the store and get together.”

The classes not only serve the needs equally of the gourmet foodie and the thrifty consumer but they also orient the store’s employees at the front line to be effective guides for the customer’s specific needs. “Our customers deserve that we are honest and it makes no sense to try and do the hard sell of the most expensive products,” Caputo explains. For example, the classes are designed to help consumers navigate with an increasing sense of confidence the imposing selection of olive oils or vinegars available. Rightly so, Caputo and Petersen break the products into manageable categories ranging from least expensive to most expensive, paralleling the best ways to use them.

Caputo’s usually offers four classes per month (mainly Mondays at 7:15 p.m. at the downtown location and Tuesdays at 7:15 p.m. at 15th and 15th, with some exceptions). The cost per class is a highly reasonable $25 with a wine pairing available at an extra $15.

One class remains in September – a tasting session for olive oils and vinegars on Monday, Sept. 26, at the 15th and 15th store. Fall classes include introductory sessions for chocolate as well as cheese and wine. Others are focused on holiday themes including Italian cooking as well as a comprehensive VIP shopping and tasting tour of the store. Cooking classes, offered less frequently and which cost $20 more than the basic class rate, include a full meal. Private classes for groups also are available. For more information, see here.