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Bob Sanger Pens Three New Books Page 6
Community School Cutthroats Soccer Team Earn National Award
Bob Knoebel Opens Doors for Hispanic Youth
Page 18
Blaine County at Cutting Edge of Mindful Schools Page 19
D e c e m b e r 1 9 , 2 0 1 2 • Vo l . 5 • N o . 5 1 • w w w.T h e We e k l y S u n . c o m
read about it on pg13
Elevating Dining STORY &PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Jennifer Skinner and her daughter, Raven. COURTESY PHOTO
Ancient Echoes in Modern Practice BY BALI SZABO
O
ne day, a press release comes to my computer about the Boise Wisdom Keepers Council and their presentation at the Boise Botanical Garden on Dec. 22. What optimism! The day after the supposed end-of-days, here was a group of people with a marked holistic/spiritual bent confident that the sun will rise on the 21st through the 23rd. Fairfield resident Jennifer Hope Skinner posted the release. She spends quite a bit of time here, bringing her daughter Raven to school in Ketchum, and is trying to start a holistic therapy business in a community that is receptive to alternative methods of thought and action. The Boise event is called Birth 2012, and will be held on the 22nd, on purpose. According to the author of Mayan Cosmogenesis 2012, the Mayans saw the gradual creation of something new, an energy momentum, a shift, and we’re already in it. Jennifer said, “We’re in the beginning stages of a return to the garden state of the earth.” Remember the Age of Aquarius, and Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock,’ which sang of the return to the garden? A group of women who knew each other started B.W.K.C. in January of 2011. Jennifer was quick to point out that several men have contributed their time and/or money to the project. In the spirit of a holistic discipline, this is a cross-cultural approach that incorporates Korean Amma body therapy, acupuncture and Native American ideas. These ideas are a weave of physical reality and the transcendent, so typical of Eastern thought and ‘primitive’ mythologies, a synthesis of the micro and macro aspects of the universe. This is not intellectual, verbal analysis. Jennifer is like a sensitive instrument. In her communication with and treatment of others, she relies on reading energy/vibrational fields which she uses to read our interior maps. She tries to form a vision into the body. Jennifer is a healer. Based on how she reads you, she formulates a nutrition/lifestyle plan that helps you to reach your potential as a human being. She said, “I honor you and your perfection, and hold you in the light of perfection and help you breathe in that perfection. This is a journey toward what Buddhists call ‘our basic goodness.’ If people are imperfect, love them anyway,” she said. Once she sees feelings and tensions surface, she formulates a plan
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John Murcko was praised for elevating dining in Utah, while shepherding more than two dozen Park City restaurants, including The Farm at Canyons, the Waldorf Astoria and Talisker on Main.
J
ohn Murcko carries a pocket full of spoons in his chef’s smock. And he’s not afraid to use them. With 19 restaurants on Sun Valley property, he’s reaching into his pocket a lot as he wanders through one restaurant after another, tasting soups and helping himself to tiny nibbles. “These spoons represent quality control,” said Murcko. “Sun Valley has 400 people in food and beverage. You have so many people touching the food you’ve got to be continually testing it to know that it matches the quality you want.” When it comes to quality, Sun Valley’s new director of culinary operations aims high. He’s been a semifinalist for a prestigious James Beard award. And he was named Best Chef in Utah for 2011 by “Salt Lake Magazine,” which also lauded him for having the Best Restaurant in Utah, the Best Restaurant in Park City and for “reinventing” Park City as a dining destination. Now, he’s attempting to turn Sun Valley into a culinary destination. “John’s expertise will help us raise the bar,” said Jack Sibbach, Sun Valley’s director of marketing. “We went through a massive search. And we believe John will create more reason to come to Sun Valley,” said Bruce Fery, chief executive officer of Grand America Hotels & Resorts, which includes Sun Valley. Murcko started his tenure at Sun Valley this fall by huddling for eight weeks with his chefs to brainstorm new menus and write and test new recipes. They traveled through southern Idaho meeting with mushroom pickers near Boise, heirloom potato growers near Twin Falls and lamb ranchers near Carey as they tried to identify foods they could use to add local flavor to their tables. Murcko added sous chefs to the roster; he put restaurant workers through a threeweek training course focusing on such things as proper table service; and he hired a recruiter and trainer to further elevate the service. Then he rebranded Sun Valley’s lodges and other restaurants, giving each its own identity. Murcko looked at the rustic Trail Creek Cabin, where celebrities like Gary Cooper and Ernest Hemingway partied in Sun Valley’s early years, and built a menu featuring “Rocky Mountain cuisine,” such as elk with maple glaze and duck smoked with the sagebrush so prevalent in southern Idaho. He plans to serve those
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