“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.

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.

‘There was never any downtime last year,’ says Robert “Sully” Sullivan, chef and co-owner of Utah Food Services, who is back for a fourth year with a full staff that is prepped to handle what is expected to another record crowd of visitors. Epicuriosity will open at 3 p.m. daily, an hour earlier than in previous years. Service will continue through most of the evening hours, at least through 9 p.m. if not later.

Part of the charm at the booth comes in Sully’s gregarious personality and infectiously good sense of humor. Talk about mastering the heat at the venue.

The entrée menu is the same including last year’s introduction of Foiled Again entrees featuring aluminum pockets of food cooked to order on site, which he had successfully tested at some local convention gatherings. One contains Utah trout, asparagus, sweet onion, fingerling potatoes, fresh herbs, lemon, white wine and capers while the other is a vegetarian-friendly assortment of rainbow carrots, yellow beets, asparagus, tree oyster and button mushrooms, fingerling potatoes, and fresh herbs.

Meanwhile, Tim Nelson, pastry chef, has come up with a pair of desserts that should fly out the booth as fast as the entrées – a nicely sized white chocolate mousse confection with pop rocks inside and a cool lemon creme tartlet embellished with blueberry that will be especially ideal for the hot festival days.

Last year, traffic at the booth was up 20 percent over the previous year, which also had beat the first year by nearly the same rate. Its success is easy to understand – great food smartly presented on small plates that are easy to balance even while standing among crowds.

The portions are just right and, for the price, a good deal for a festival venue. More importantly, the quality is top notch: perfectly done scallops, tenderloin at the right texture, and desserts that were balanced in sweetness as well as tartness. The Utah trout packet was a pleasant miniature feast alone.

The entrées will include:

* Seared and herb crusted beef tenderloin served with fingerling potatoes, rainbow carrot (glazed with raspberry and honey) and a Cabernet demi-glace

* Asia peppercorn, seared rare Ahi tuna served over peppery arugula with a wasabi aioli and fresh ginger

* Cyclades shrimp scampi: large prawns pan seared with shallots, tomatoes, herbs, capers, Kalamata olives and olive oil

* Jerked Chicken Caesar Salad, freshly tossed and dressed

* Scallops wrapped with prosciutto: served over creamed spinach and Swiss chard

Always good humored and incredibly self-effacing, Sully looks forward to giving his talented staff as much visibility as possible. As a mentor and teacher, this transplanted Vermont resident who co-owns the company, consistently ensures that Utah Food Services, which employs 300 who participate in a profit-sharing program, is a local model for rigorous standards of exceptional food quality, community outreach and workplace flexibility.

The company regularly wins honors for best and ideal workplace environment, including an Achievement of Catering Excellence (ACE) award at the 2011 Catersource Conference and Tradeshow in Las Vegas.

An additional feature is the opportunity to pair one of Uinta Brewing Company’s Crooked Line beers with the Epicuriosity entrees. Uinta, with a booth adjacent to Epicuriosity, also prepared a beer to commemorate the festival’s 35th anniversary (see below for video) – Arts Fest Amber Ale, which will be available only during the four-day event.

Uinta brewmasters will be on hand to guide tastings of the Crooked Line beers – Detour, Double India Pale Ale; Cockeyed Cooper, Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine Ale; Labyrinth, Black Ale, and Tilted Smile, Imperial Pilsner. The theme is essentially: ‘Pop the cork and create your own crooked experience.’

For more information about Uinta’s Crooked Line series, see here and for the festival, see here.

Uinta Arts Fest Amber Ale from Utah Arts Festival on Vimeo.

And, continue to follow The Selective Echo for wall-to-wall coverage and previews of the festival. The Selective Echo is joined by Max P. Dahl, an intern journalist from Utah State University, who is the blog’s assistant editor.

Utah Arts Festival – Random Acts of Art. Yarn Bombing! from Utah Arts Festival on Vimeo.

Previews of various events and activities will be followed by frequent updates and spotlight features during the festival. There will be more than 40 feature articles and 200 images. Each day’s coverage also will include a Did You Know micro-feature to lead the day’s events. Max Dahl from Utah State University has joined the coverage as assistant editor.

Coverage also will be featured at the Utah Arts Festival Web site here. Unquestionably, the Utah Arts Festival is the state’s largest and most significant event of culture in virtually every realm of the visual, creative, and performing arts. Readers also are encouraged to subscribe to the Twitter feed here and to look for our Facebook postings.

Ten years ago, The Utah Arts Festival began extensive environmentally friendly measures at the festival, including a trash recycling program and a bike valet lot that have grown by substantial proportions in recent years as festival attendance pushed upward to a record-breaking 82,000-plus in 2010.

Staff and volunteers are being especially vigilant about reducing the volume of waste that would end up at a landfill and ensuring that recyclable plastic, cardboard, aluminum, paper, and glass are being processed within the state, according to Mitch Davis, a Salt Lake City employee who is one of the coordinators overseeing the festival’s eARTh team.

‘We’re even sending out the vegetable oil used at the food booths to a local business that converts it into bio-diesel,’ he adds. The four-day event resulted last year in more than 16.84 tons of garbage with more than five tons captured directly from the familiar blue-bin receptacles for materials that can be recycled.

Festival staff also managed to capture more than 5.5 tons of glass, 5.3 tons of cardboard and 600 pounds of ‘green’ and food waste, which can be composted. All told, this means that 16.11 tons of materials were diverted for recycling and other purposes.

Davis says that festival staff and volunteers continuously tweak and improve the learning curve when it comes to helping make festival visitors attentive to the overall mission of making a smaller environmental and carbon footprint. For example, nearly 20 volunteers – including interns from the city’s division of environment and sustainability as well as students from schools such as the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College – will be stationed throughout the festival grounds just for the objective of helping visitors decide which bins they should use for disposing their plates, cups, and paper. Along with city and state employees, Momentum Recycling, a local firm committed to helping organizations move toward zero waste, will be assisting.

Indeed, every small action has potential multiple-effects impact. In 2008, festival organizers eliminated the use of plastic bags in disposal bins that alone saved more than $4,000. Also, 2010 trash recycling figures spiked dramatically upward from the previous year. Staff and volunteers were able to capture two and one-half times more materials from the blue bin receptacles than in 2009, and nearly three and a half times more cardboard, glass, and green waste in the same period.

Festival organizers also will continue the free bike valet service, sponsored by Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky program, and, as further incentive, cyclists will get a $2 discount on their festival admission.

In the last three years, the program has grown by an average annual rate topping 25 percent. In 2010, 1,590 cyclists used the valet service, compared to 1,280 in 2009. Typically, almost one-third of cyclists who used the valet service come on Saturday during the festival. Members of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective will serve as lot assistants, which is located on 400 South, adjacent to the City-County Building on Washington Square at the midpoint of the block between State Street and 200 East.

Five years ago this week, the Salt Lake City Public Library was named as ‘Library of the Year’ in 2006 by Thomson Gale/Library Journal. In an extraordinary city, where many prominent symbols of the 2002 Winter Olympics remind residents and visitors just how extraordinary this city truly is, the honor bestowed upon the Library also reminds people just how extraordinary this institution really is. In fact, the City Library – which lies at the heart of Salt Lake City’s emerging civic campus – is the city’s second most visited destination after the Salt Lake temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Today, however, a visitor can no longer find the prominent honor displayed on this magnificent library, save for a single fleeting mention on a south entrance doorway. In the mind of director Beth Elder, who has embarrassed the whole of the staff and the community stakeholders with a display of monumental cluelessness and organizational incompetence, that era has passed. Rather than build upon the glorious culture that led to that exceptional distinction, Elder has removed all public signs of that honor.

She has said that the honor was bestowed because of the new building. Actually, the library received the honor three years after the new main branch opened – more about that later. However, she certainly has shown little respect for her stewardship of the library. Once a beautifully maintained campus, the grounds no longer show that same immaculate touch. Weeds have grown over the area around the dome covering the auditorium, for example. The rooftop garden area – not only a wonderful urban refuge but also the scene of numerous memorable community receptions – has weeds in the concrete and many indicators that the once meticulous landscaping care is no longer available.

The walls along the staircase between the fourth and fifth floors, near the window where the beehives can be seen, are peeling. Rain leaks have occurred more than occasionally and the problems are not immediately addressed. Public relations experts place high value on impression management and the physical appearance of the location. It is the most visible first sign to a patron, guest, community leader, donor, or visitor that strongly suggests the value and commitment to the community an organization desires to communicate.

Does Beth Elder really care about The Salt Lake City Public Library?

BOARD RETREAT

Less than two weeks ago, the Library Board of Trustees held a retreat with Elder, presumably arranged to help bolster her severely weakened position as director. The entire session was recorded and is available at the library’s Web site. The Selective Echo has listened to it and offers its analysis along with some further context. If it was not clear in the first two perorations, there should be no question at the end of this article about Beth Elder’s management and leadership failures being so irreparable that her immediate resignation is the only justifiable option to be exercised.

Unlike what one should expect from an organization’s chief executive officer, Elder’s presentation at the retreat was passionless, uninspired, defensive and defeatist. It was difficult to extract any significant passage from her presentation about the library’s promise, its traditions, its staff, and its engaged constituencies. While she did acknowledge the library as having the most forward-looking mission statement of any in the United States, she appeared to go to great pains choosing her words so as to avoid championing or celebrating the work, spirit and effort of staff members, community supporters, and auxiliary groups comprising a library community that miraculously has continued to sustain itself despite the catastrophic collapse of executive leadership.

Ironically, it was left to two guest presenters who happened to be colleagues of Elder – Pam Sandlian Smith, director of Anythink Libraries, and Donna Morris, director of the Utah State Library – to offer public, positive comments, using words such as ‘great job’ and ‘magnificent’ in references to staff and the overall library. And, it was their presentations that underscored why ignoring the Library of the Year honor is a serious miscalculation.

Furthermore, after hearing Elder’s presentation concerning strategic objectives, which showed a disturbing lack of engagement and familiarity with programmatic details on her part, I returned to the June 15, 2006 article in the Library Journal which can be read here in full. If Elder wants to set aside completely the honor, then how does the following differ from the statement she made at the retreat:

‘That multidimensional, varied, and high-risk style is the key to SLCPL’s success. It has made the library a new model that harks back to the tradition established in Boston in 1852, when the trustees told the city fathers the mission of the public library would be to inform democracy, to help citizens answer questions on the public agenda that go down to “the very foundations of public order.”

‘SLCPL truly deserves to be Library of the Year in 2006. Its model for the library of the future includes a magnificent setting in which to hold the community forum and brings the riches of a full array of library materials and services to a public that is clearly hungry for them.’

The answer is regrettably obvious. As indicated in an earlier article, Elder’s actions consistently have lied louder than her words.

At the retreat, several Board members, Sandlian, Morris, and Debbie Ehrman, assistant director of the library, latched onto the branding tagline ‘Where Democracy Happens’ – as highlighted in the article about the award.

And, if the Board would wrest back its rightful fiduciary authority and not allow a terribly disillusioned director to dictate its approach or agenda, it would see quite quickly that the only stakeholder who has no intention of upholding that deeply valued brand is Elder.

After more than three years of nonperformance, how much more evidence does the Board need?

CONTRADICTIONS, TANTRUMS, MANAGERIAL PARALYSIS

At a meeting with managers, Elder reiterated her contention that the libraries were overstaffed – despite reassurances made in agreement with the Board that the library’s staffing requirements needed to be replenished. Quite ironically, one of the branch managers (Sprague) had to leave the meeting immediately because she was informed that there were insufficient staff to open the branch that morning. In other instances, staff members had been suddenly reassigned without consideration for how a branch or department would handle the change without disrupting public services.

Exceptionally protracted meetings, which managers and other administrative staff indicated rarely accomplished sufficiently elucidated instructions or objectives, dramatically reduced, in part, the critically important contact time managers and other administrative personnel traditionally had maintained with the public throughout the branches in the library system. Normally, those staff with decision-making authority who were authorized to satisfy or reconcile any patron concerns or issues would have a combined presence of between 40 and 50 hours on the public service desk. However, because of Elder’s near-total obsession with centralized micromanagement and her total disregard for symmetrical communication, that contact time had been reduced by as much as 80 percent at some branches.

Furthermore, these new procedures were compounding additional costs reaching into thousands of dollars per month at each branch in the system. A stunning example arose when Elder originally had scheduled a long managers’ meeting during a week in which she had arranged her vacation. So disorganized, she rescheduled the meeting with less than a day’s notice, forcing managers to scramble once again so that sufficient staff was available to cover their branches and departments. They already had gone to great length to reconcile the schedule for the original meeting date.

Elder repeatedly insisted that it was not within her realm of oversight to observe or to work occasionally the public service desk to get a solid feel for the front-line customer service dynamics of the public library and for how they would be addressed in the strategic plan. Instead, she made a beeline to the city administration offices asking for advice on matters concerning library operations for which city employees were not qualified to respond.

Virtually every fundamental management training protocol for top leaders and executives recommends that top-ranked executives and officers make periodic visits to the day-to-day operations for which their organizations are chiefly responsible. However, Elder, who mentioned at the board retreat that visibility was key and insularity was to be avoided, has virtually disappeared from any meaningful contact with staff or any semblance of public access. She has remained hidden in her fifth-floor offices.

Likewise, she has become a virtually unrecognized face in the broader Salt Lake community. For example, normal protocol would indicate that the director of the building at which a major event is being held – such as SLC Mayor Ralph Becker’s recent inaugural session for Utah Civility and Community 2011 – would be on hand to greet guests and to introduce the mayor. However, Elder, who is now into her fourth year as director, was absent at the outset.

She appeared just as the session began but then was virtually ignored by others when the audience broke out into smaller discussion groups. One would expect that the director of the city’s library – who should be among the most highly visible ambassadors for community activities, culture, and education – would take on eagerly a prominent role in such an initiative. While she did spend the first year of her tenure meeting various community leaders, she never followed up with any of them in succeeding years. It was as if community interaction was a perfunctory task on a checklist that, once complete, would no longer require her attention.

During the retreat with library board members, Elder, who had virtually no encouraging words of appreciation for the staff or really for any broader stakeholder constituency that would be served by the library, said rather oddly, “We are afraid of people from outside, ideas from outside, consultants from outside and all of that.”

One wonders how she could make such a negatively skewed civic assessment with so little effort put forth on her part to reach directly into the community. Meanwhile, scores upon scores of library staff members are highly visible as participants and volunteers in many community organizations and cultural gatherings that underscore the incredibly vibrant scene of open-minded sensibilities to ideas and activities creating an energetic, bohemian dynamic for the city’s image and reputation.

As for civility, Elder would have done well to cast aside an unflattering and highly disturbing penchant for pettiness along with an inexcusable propensity to fly off so impulsively at the handle. Never concerned about being indiscreet, she would launch into a tantrum or tirade that was easily within earshot or which could be witnessed by any visitor coming to the fifth floor.

Often, she never checked initially into the actual facts and contexts of a matter, as was the case with several incidents. In one instance, a long-time staff member had presented for her signature checks that were small monetary book awards sponsored through an ongoing U.S. Library of Congress program. Elder exploded in a public fit, berating the staff member when she saw the amounts of the checks. Even when she was corrected, Elder begrudgingly acknowledged her error.

ORGANIZATIONAL DETACHMENT

There also were many instances where Elder has been oblivious to organizational cycles critical to any strategic plan implementation. Programming for any forthcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, must be in place 90 days in advance. Three days before an April 1 deadline to identify program outcomes that inevitably require a good deal of research for effective implementation, Elder informed staff that she wanted a summer toddler’s reading program ready to hit. Surprised to hear about the impending deadline, she indicated to staff that she had never heard of it. This was a target date virtually every library staff member was aware of when it came to obtaining assurances that a proposed program would be funded and operating in the new fiscal year.

Likewise, many staff members indicated that, even after two years, Elder did not know their names or could not even identify if the individual worked for the library. In another instance, she had failed to make arrangements for the library to be present and to have an informational display at a Utah Library Association conference. A staff member had to assemble quickly materials so that the library would have at least some presence at the meeting.

So detached from the library’s day-to-day affairs, she would couch her egregious incompetence and ignorance in contradictions that defy reasonable explanation. One incident involved a reading program that was initially targeted for boys. Ignoring the research and data staff had gathered to justify the program, Elder nixed it, saying it was discriminating on gender. The refurbished program, which eliminated any gender references, narrowly passed approval by the administration.

However, Elder is not a fan of consistency. When questioned whether male participants could attend a writing program for female teenagers that was being held in the Salt Lake Community College Writing Center on the library campus, Elder refused without any hesitation. Challenged further, she relented, begrudgingly. Similar communication dynamics concerned a pet tortoise that the children’s department had adopted in connection with a popular reading program. Elder issued an edict of “no pets,” claiming inexplicably that the staff would not be able to sustain proper care or responsibility for the animal. Less than two months later, the rooftop beehive project was adopted. And, as The Selective Echo reported previously, a temporary employee had failed to secure substantial external grant funding for a project called ironically “The Hive.”

Elder also singled out a staff member who had written a letter to The Salt Lake Tribune in late January, which defended her against criticisms laid out in an op-ed commentary by Chip Ward, a longtime former assistant library director who was retired. She indicated to the staff member that should he encounter any harassment or difficulty from a colleague for coming to her defense, she would take some form of disciplinary or punitive action against the employee.

Meanwhile, it was being made patently clear that any staff member who publicly criticized the state of library affairs could be vulnerable to some form of punitive action. Elder certainly has not said anything to lay to rest any rumors or concerns that she might make an example of one of her staff critics by firing the person.

Rather than engage any productive two-way communication channel, she clearly prefers the insulated secrecy of her fifth-floor office suite and must see some strategic value in leaving the question open concerning any potential threats of intimidation or vindictiveness.

This is, of course, being realized during a time when the board recently recommitted the organization to transparency and accountability.

NO SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT

In a 2010 meeting with staff in a main library department after the no confidence vote, Hugh Gillilan, board president, said he and fellow board members had taken staff members’ concerns seriously. He also indicated that the board had outlined some criteria for improvements especially in organizational communication and had directed Elder to be more visible in her staff relations.

More than fifteen months later, there is not one bit of evidence suggesting that Elder has acted on any direct communication recommendations whether from board members, former allies who no longer support her continued tenure, or from George Needham’s consultant report.

If the intent of Needham’s report was to guide the library toward streamlining and expediting the decision-making process in a collaborative design, Elder’s actions or performance show no indication whatsoever of following those recommendations. For example, she took more than three weeks to approve an ordinary purchase request – amounting to petty cash – to frame some materials given for display by a guest author.

Marathon meetings with her executive leadership team and managers lead to a frustrating cycle where recommendations are given to Elder who then, in turn, tosses them out, and starts the process over again – only to repeat the cycle again.

At the moment, every organizational management process has stalled – from hiring to performance review – because Elder insists upon total control of every decision, no matter how insignificant. There is little evidence of any delegation because plainly Elder trusts, at best, only a single handful of individuals.

However, more importantly, Elder shows no sign she is planning to correct these problems or make amends for her numerous failures. She has no respect for any responsible organizational governance mechanism. Her presentation at the board retreat certainly gave no indication of that.

Back on February 4, a report of the library’s reorganization concerns task force raised numerous issues that were to be addressed promptly by Elder. Nearly four and a half months later, there is still no response. Meanwhile, Elder talked at the retreat about building upon the culture at the library.

However, she has failed to define, for example, what she means by ‘professionalism’ or what it takes to ensure that staff ‘act professionally.’ The definition should be evident to any reasonable observer. On any given day, any visitor or patron will see a staff that consistently exercises patience, professionalism, dignity, and pride in its work and service to the public. Left unanswered also are basic issues about the interdependencies of agency and departmental services as well as how lines and channels of efficient, productive communication are constructed.

Also left unanswered are issues about how concerns or grievances should be addressed and resolved. Going broader, how do the library’s basic services fit in the elements of strategic objectives as well as tactics to realize those outcomes? Furthermore, how are relationships established between members of the library’s executive leadership team and direct staff?

A CLEAR VERDICT

It is operationally impossible for a director to cut herself off, in effect, from virtually every stakeholder and then to expect some semblance of a common ground of understanding to emerge instantaneously out of the organizational ether. It bears repeating what The Selective Echo said in April:

Ideally, a director should be a visible, open champion for internal communication. Visibility is the most elemental form of nonverbal communication leaders can exercise.

The decision is clear. No one can expect realistically a leader to hide, be silent and then run one of the city’s most important public institutions, which operates on a budget of many millions of dollars and has a staff and volunteer corps numbering in the hundreds. Even those who were looking out for Elder’s best interests, to help resolve these problems, have put every opportunity forward.

The result? No change. No improvement. No possibility. No probability. No progress. No chance of recovery.

It is unconscionable to think that this magnificent institution – which has a Library of The Year distinction to its name – cannot secure the services of a qualified, conscientious, engaged leader who can visualize just how the potential can be expanded from the rich gifts already a part of this library. The people of Salt Lake City deserve much better in terms of a steward and leader for its much beloved library.

To everyone who cares about the Salt Lake City Public Library, make it loud and clear: Beth Elder must resign. Now.

And, in addition to its basic tasting class, which explores regional and farm-specific differences in the flavors and aromatics of coffee, the shop has added an ‘Understanding Espresso’ class for intermediate and more advanced connoisseurs of coffee. The basic coffee tasting class will be offered June 9 and June 23 while the new espresso class will run June 16 and June 30. Each class, which costs $20 and runs generally an hour or so, starts at 7 p.m. at the shop, located at 249 East 400 South in the street level of the Stoneground Restaurant building. Of course, all classes are held at Caffe d’bolla’s siphon bar counter, again the only one of its kind in the state.

The classes underscore the marriage of art and science in what constitutes a perfect cup of coffee or shot of espresso. Participants in the basic class will sample two coffees and will receive a good interactive primer on what to look for when tasting coffee. The espresso sessions provide a compact yet comprehensive introduction that covers the characteristics of bean selection, freshness, and roast parameters as well as the chemistry and skill behind the brewing process.

Naturally, the most important elements focus on the skills of baristas which can make or break the tasting experience for new as well as experienced coffee lovers. Owners John and Yiching Piquet have spent many years of painstaking practice to improve continuously their capacity to make an outstanding cup of coffee.

Registration fills up quickly as space is extremely limited. For more information, see here. Also, look for future class announcements above.

Both men have brought their unique gifts stateside and have attracted widespread attention. Their products are the exemplars of the ‘good, clean and fair’ standards of the slow food movement that began in their homeland. At Tony Caputo’s Market and Deli in Salt Lake City, Olli and Creminelli products headline a selection of meats that has broadened significantly in recent years with superbly crafted items, regardless of their origin of production, that embody distinctive flavors resulting from traditional and natural processing methods handed down over successive generations.

As a result of an incidental discovery on Facebook, at least a half-dozen products from the Olli Salumeria, based in Manakin-Sabot, Virginia, can now be found at Caputo’s store. “I knew right away this would be a perfect complement to our offerings,” Matt Caputo explains, adding that Olli’s presence along with Creminelli’s strengthens the unique quality-driven values of historic southern European food traditions.

And, as with Creminelli, Colmignoli has vigorous, uncompromising standards. The Berkshire and Mangalitsa pigs come from a small number of family farms in Virginia, Michigan, Iowa, South Carolina, Quebec, and New Jersey where no hormones, antibiotics, or growth stimulants are used. Furthermore, farmers take between two and three times as long to allow the pigs to get to their slaughtering weight, the animals’ diet is all-vegetarian feed, and the pigs live in immaculate, humane conditions free of crates and pens. Many people, of course, know Berkshire pigs that can produce gorgeously marbled, cured prosciutto hams and incredible salami. Mangalitsa pigs that remain quite rare in the U.S., unlike Hungary which breeds more than 60,000 annually, are the hairy fleece descendants of wild boars. They are especially prized for their lard but also are capable of producing protein-rich, intensely fresh flavors in smoked hams and sausage.

Just one sampling of Olli’s pancetta, speck, lardo or coppa immediately transports one momentarily to Europe. In late 2007, just as Creminelli was checking numerous times each day on the 160 pounds of extraordinary salami that were (at that time) being cured in the basement of the Caputo’s store, Colmignoli had confided to Chip Vosmik, his friend and eventual business partner, his dream of making salumi in the U.S. as good as what his family back home had produced in a business spanning four generations. Colmignoli, who had recently relocated with his wife and two children, worked extensively in London as a photographer.

With Vosmik’s gift of three Berkshire hams from Emile De Felice’s Caw Caw Creek Farm in South Carolina, Colmignoli spent the next 14 months curing the hams for prosciutto and the results were conclusive. The curing and drying rooms are from Frigomeccanica and the grinder, mixer and stuffer are from Risco. Colmignoli’s meticulousness is evident in the appearance of his meat, which is photo-perfect and would require no retouching whatsoever by a food photographer. Olli’s salumeria removes the nerves and tendons from the meat which otherwise would infiltrate its silky, buttery texture and the whole muscle meats are trimmed and rubbed with spices by hand to keep their natural appearance intact.

However, it’s the taste that amazes the palate. Olli’s speck pays exceptional tribute to its revered counterpart in Alto Adige and for the consortium of producers of the famous Speck ham — Consorzio dei produttori speck dell’Alto Adige (also carried at Caputo’s). It is as deftly handled as the 1,500-year-old tradition in the Sudtirol region of Italy where speck is smoked slowly and intermittently for two or three hours a day, a process which takes many months and disciplined patience.

Olli’s pancetta, made in a rustic flat style that is quite rare in the U.S. as opposed to the rolled version, is exquisite for how it melts in the mouth and the clean taste finish free of excess saltiness or acidity. The coppa, like Creminelli’s, pays deep culinary respect to the original from Piacenza, near Rome. The guanciale and lardo products are as mouth-watering in appearance as in taste.

Also, concerns about lardo’s nutritional and health impact are justifiably minimized. Research has shown that lardo has between one-third and two-fifths of the saturated fat in butter, has roughly one-fourth of the ‘bad’ low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in butter, and is super-rich in protein (more than twice that of butter). Furthermore, its taste is heaven on home-baked crusty bread with fresh homegrown radishes or spring onions. There also is a lardo made particularly for cooking purposes. This is heirloom preparation at its finest.

It’s been nearly four years now that Creminelli’s products were introduced to Salt Lake City customers but even as his enterprise and reputation have grown, Creminelli stays true to the standards of his family’s legendary Salumificio Vigliano in the Piedmont town of Biella. This is maintained at every level of production even down to the herbs, truffles, and other ingredients that come from authentic, ideally sustainable, agriculturally responsible sources. Vegetable extracts, not artificial nitrates, are used to cultivate the flavors and highly appealing appearance of his cured products. His handcrafted artisan salamis incorporate natural beef casings and his most recent additions of Milano and Calabrese salamis are cured in collagen casings from organic material that has been reformed for size and shape consistency.

The significance of an American-based salumificio of authentic standards cannot be overlooked. For the longest time, only those Italian meat products, which had been cured for 400 days or more, could be imported into the United States. With prosciutto, the issue with quality really does not trigger any consequences. However, salami would, as Caputo has previously explained, become dust in that same time.

And, it didn’t take long for the food world to acknowledge the significance of what Creminelli had accomplished. Within one year of beginning U.S. operations, his Tartufo Handcrafted Italian Salami with Black Truffle won the Sofi Silver Finalist Award for Outstanding New Product of 2008. In 2010, his wild boar salami was a finalist for outstanding meat product as named by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade. Food writers in national media including the Wine Spectator, the San Francisco Chronicle and Tasting Table have consistently cited its distinctive, strong flavor profile.

In addition to the higher-priced tasting salamis that have catapulted his visibility, Creminelli recently introduced a diverse line of salami and smoked meat products ranging in price from $13.99 to $25.99 a pound that are versatile for use in sandwiches, antipasti, and culinary preparation. These include salamis such as finocchiona, soppressa, Milano, Felino, Varzi and Calabrese as well as mortadella, prosciutto crudo, coppa, mocetta, and pancetta.

The Varzi salami, while its origin is in the same Lombardy region where the Milano salami hails from, has a coarser grind and contains subtle essences of clove and nutmeg. Coming from a beef eye of round that has been massaged and rubbed with spices and marinade, Creminelli’s mocetta is the best substitute I have ever come across for beef carpaccio. The recipe comes from the Valle d’Aosta region along the French-Italian border.

His mortadella is the lightest, most fragrant version I have recently encountered as well. Obviously coming from the Italian region of Bologna, mortadella arises from a partially emulsified blend of lean and fatty pork and spices that is then tied in a hand casing. For the record, pistachios are not included in this artisan production, staying true to its roots.

No doubt, hams occupy an equally significant place in Caputo’s meat offerings. Pata Negra — the Jamòn Iberico de Bellota – comes from the Iberian pig, a free-range animal whose diet is primarily acorns. The Pata Negra ham has a long, distinguished history in culinary science, highly prized by Spanish explorers.

Customers also have the opportunity to sample and purchase the two most storied classes of prosciutto in Italy – those coming from Parma and San Daniele. The varieties also reflect the time hams have been aged – at least 12 months and up to 24 months.

The origin of prosciutto is ancient – going back well more than 2,200 years. The word is derived from the Latin perexuctus, which translates literally to ‘deprived of all liquid.’ Parma hams are typically made from nine-month-old-pigs weighing at least 325 pounds that are bred in 11 northern and central Italian regions.

The gran reserva hams – typically the most expensive– come from pigs that feed on chestnut orchards. Meanwhile, prosciutto di San Daniele is cured in the northeastern region of Friuli Venezia-Giulia and is prized for its pink meat; its creamy, smooth texture, and salty and sweet flavors. And, like Parma hams, they are cured with the application of salt, exposure to sunlight, and aging. Perhaps what distinguishes the San Daniele variety from other types of prosciutto is that it is cured with the bottom part of the leg bone in, a feature that makes for a photogenic rustic-looking ham.

While prosciutto is popular in sandwiches and in recipes, the best way to eat the higher-priced varieties of these hams is with a simple accompaniment of salad greens, cheeses, or fruit.

Others include La Quercia Organic Berkshire, a product from Iowa, which is a near dead-ringer for those Spanish Iberico hams. Meanwhile Serrano hams – of which a small variety is offered at Caputo’s — have lower moisture content in the end product, giving them a firmer texture and a more intense flavor. Unlike the black-hoofed pigs that give the Pata Negra hams, Serranos come from white pigs and are aged 12 months.

Customers also should not hesitate to sample the offerings from Dehesa Cordobesa in Spain, which makes purebred Ibérico meats from the same pigs that would be used to produce Pata Negra but are raised by a cooperative of farmers. The distinction is significant because while European Union and Spanish law only requires that only 50 percent to 75 percent of the pig must be Ibérico bred in order to use Ibérico in the name, Dehesa Cordobesa mandates that all of its meat products use all Ibérico pigs. The cooperative maintains a huge acorn oak tree forest in the Pedroches Valley in Cordoba.

The pigs feed on cereal grains in the summer and the intensely sweet Holm Oak acorns during the fall and winter. This whole cycle of natural feeding for the free-roaming pigs means the meat achieves a wonderful marbling and exceptional taste that comes through in the various pork and pork tenderloin products.

For the customer, this means the experience of eating Ibérico pork products can be had at prices 40 percent to 60 percent lower than the Pata Negra ham and, again, a little bit can go a long way.

What, however, will go a long way is the intensely satisfying taste of all of these meat products and a heart-warming respect for a food tradition that is enjoying a great renaissance in the 21st century.

Dornbush was a Dutch Jewish immigrant who, like his ancestors over the last several thousands of years, transported the foods and recipes – corned beef, pastrami, and matzo ball soup, to name just a few items – from one culture to another. And, as David Sax wrote in his marvelous book about the significance of saving the delicatessen, more Jewish customers went through the doors of a typical New York delicatessen in one week than the entire Jewish population of Utah.

Yet, while Dornbush long ago disappeared from the city’s downtown food scene, Harmsen’s fascination with the deli’s sandwiches, matzo ball soup, knishes, and beet/potato salad has never dimmed. Remembering how he carefully budgeted out his food expenses as a college student, Harmsen says, “I made it a point to eat there at least once every two weeks.”

Later, with a successful career running a heavy industrial engineering and construction firm firmly in place, Harmsen traveled extensively across the country and throughout the world, making delicatessens his de facto choice for meals. With a fervor that matches Sax’s passion about the grandness of the delicatessen as a culinary institution, he was forever inspired by New York City’s Katz (which Sax has described as the quintessential deli), Langer’s in Los Angeles (known especially for its pastrami), and the phenomenal Zingerman’s of Ann Arbor.

Shortly after he retired in 2008, Harmsen, whose personal energy level would challenge that of any college student today, resumed his role as a student – taking meticulous notes, conducting extensive research, getting hands-on training, and recruiting Kathie Chadbourne, one of Salt Lake City’s best-known personalities in the food scene, to guide the process that eventually would lead to opening a deli. Chadbourne, in fact, eagerly plunged into the process, which included an internship at Zingerman’s as well as a quick tour of the Big Apple’s best-known delis.

Today, at the 9th South Delicatessen – in the heart of the 9th and 9th neighborhood – Harmsen, with Chadbourne handling general manager duties, has recreated a culinary experience that reinforces the historically significant cultural linkage of the Jewish deli to the Ashkenazi traditions which Sax has emphasized as essential to saving the deli experience.

The clean, new look of a refurbished home, in fact, amplifies the inviting warmth of the foods – kugel, knishes, latkes, beet/potato salad, matzo ball soup, cookies, and many other dishes of an Eastern and Cental European tradition that Harmsen and his staff have recreated with deep admiration. All of his meats – the pastrami (which comes from the same custom source Langer’s uses), corned beef, turkey, and beef – are steamed and roasted in house.

Like a growing number of other conscientious restaurant and food shop owners in the city, Harmsen has brought his own brand of home-grown integrity to a menu with a remarkable sense of cultural assimilation. He speaks with a profound appreciation of the Ashkenazi culinary world and the communities of Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Lithuania, Russia, Romania, and other parts of Europe whose foods and recipes have been a part of the American food quilt since at least the 1880s.

Likewise, Chadbourne has hit on an equally significant point. After a whirlwind tour of New York City delis, she chronicled her thoughts in an essay:

‘I feel the sense of neighborhood in all these lovely delis, people know each other. I’ve been eating traditionally all day. Even as a stranger, I felt included. Amazing. The commonality was as linked a Creminelli sausage coming out of the case at Caputo’s. Fresh knish from Stages to Katz. The corned beef at Carnegie was salty to perfection, peppery and the mustard was so seedy and spiced I had to keep licking my lips. I wondered if that coriander seed on my tongue was from the mustard or the meat? For a brief moment I thought about salami and eggs, pancake style! I couldn’t believe my eyes, I was standing in line at the doorway to enter Katz! “Turn your ticket in when you leave.”’

For Harmsen, the pure joys of deli eating are always informal and genuine. The first knish and pastrami sandwich I had at the 9th South Delicatessen immediately took me back to an old-fashioned Jewish deli in Toledo, Ohio I would stop by occasionally on my way home from McKinley School. This was in the 1970s. It’s true. You never forget the aroma.

However, rather than pocket the tips, the employees – including many who are either fresh out of high school or in college – decided that the funds would be better spent on furthering their experiences and education about food, its quality, and its sustainability. And, as a way of building employee morale and bringing employees still deeper into the conversation about what really good food means, the group decided to use the tips for a monthly employee dinner at locally owned restaurants that have introduced Salt Lake City diners to innovative culinary experiences.

“It’s been a great first-hand way for employees to see enthusiasm outside of the store for the same types of products we sell,” Petersen explains. “And, it’s a really nice reward especially for a lot of our young employees who otherwise might not have the opportunity or the money to eat at one of these amazing restaurants.”

Their first dinner last December was at The Copper Onion. Just recently, the crew dined at Forage, frequently cited as of the nation’s best restaurants. And, other dining heavyweights such as Takashi and Pago are on the list.

Likewise, at the main Caputo’s store in downtown SLC, employees are just as motivated to be a part of the conversation about food, eager to share with customers what they have learned about the first-class product lines of meats, chocolates, cheeses, oils, honey, pasta, and vinegars the store offers. In acknowledging the lessons of his father Tony who always rises to his role as a personal ambassador to customers, Matt says he has learned to appreciate the importance of treating employees by understanding how their lives matter particularly outside of the workplace.

“We value food that is authentic and that value is just as important for us in making a cohesive group,” Matt explains. “And we try to make the learning about our products as unforced and as unstressed as possible. A lot of our employees begin to see it as a sign of status. It’s cool to be a food person.”

While Caputo’s has earned awards for being an outstanding specialty food retailer, its commitment to employee excellence proves essential for sustaining that reputation. It reflects what Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter sees in organizations that are ‘supercorps.’ That is, companies are innovative, profitable, and responsible.

Social gatherings, such as casual group dinners (also a regular feature for downtown Caputo’s employees), not only reinforce the core values of Caputo’s reputation as a food retailer but also unlock the creative potential for employees who may or may not opt for a career in the food industry.

Petersen, like the younger Caputo, grew up with the family business, understanding that respect, product quality, and customer focus were not just decorative symbols of business but tangible values representing a lot of hard work, constant dedication, and faith in the skills and capabilities of good employees. As he said in an earlier interview: “Growing up with them, I learned things 10 times faster than what was going on in school. It was easy to see the passion that went into the business.”

Falling in love with the product was easy for Petersen and, for a while, he wondered if he would ever have the opportunity to open his own store. Petersen went on to work with Creminelli Fine Meats and Sausage (whose products are carried at Caputo’s) guiding stores on how to display, discuss, and sell charcuterie products. Yet, when the space at 15th and 15th became available, Petersen, now 33, did not hesitate at the opportunity to become a partner and investor.

Meanwhile, Nick Frappier, 22, took a different path. After ‘overstaying’ an high school internship at a local architectural firm (actually 18 months), the young college student took over a Caputo’s job from a young woman he was dating who had just quit. Frappier, who graduated in 2010 with a fine arts degree in painting from the University of Utah, did not think he would have a stake in the specialty food industry, especially as he was spending up to six hours each day on his art. However, like Petersen, he fell in love with the product and quickly became voracious about learning every intricate bit about the store’s food offerings.

By 2009, Frappier, who still has age-deceiving boyish looks with his curly hair, was handling the incredibly diverse chocolate offerings and dispensing the definitively accurate scoop on products to customers. “More than occasionally, there would be an older customer who seemed a little too eager trying to trip up this young kid on the chocolate counter with a question or fact,” Caputo says.

Frappier has moved on, managing sales and distribution for fine food products and reaching out to local and regional grocery stores and restaurants that share the same passion for food he came to respect. And, while he no longer has the opportunity to paint six hours a day, he says the experience in the food industry has informed and shaped his philosophy about creativity, appreciation, and the simplicity of artistic beauty.

It’s plainly easy to see why Caputo’s has emerged from the recession stronger and even more committed to a highly innovative perspective that invites more people to the conversation about food and its community impact. It’s worth quoting Kanter: “Challenging times divide winners from losers. Winners survive because they never forget the important enduring truth: High quality products and services are created by engaged employees who know and care about customers.”

There is no doubt about this at Caputo’s.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Allred