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Wednesday, July 3, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Navy takes Sisters man
away from comfort zone
BOURDAIN: Dinner
focused on food
and fellowship
Continued from page 3
By Kathryn Godsiff
Correspondent
For centuries, young peo-
ple have left the bosom and
safety of their home towns
and answered the siren call
of the sea. Recently, one of
Sisters9 own did the same.
Chris Epperson, 29,
graduated from Sisters High
School in 2009 and spent
the next 10 years working a
variety of jobs in and around
Sisters Country. In February,
he enlisted in the U.S. Navy
and completed his basic
training at Recruit Training
Command Great Lakes,
north of Chicago, Illinois.
Following that he traveled
to Fort Lee, Virginia for
A-School technical training.
Last week he boarded a plane
bound for Yokosuka Naval
Base in Yokosuka, Japan to
report to his duty ship, the
USS Ronald Reagan.
When asked why Navy,
Epperson replied, <The Navy
provided guiding purpose
away from my comfort zone.=
He added that he9d worked
since graduating from high
school and had gotten rest-
less. The wider world beck-
ons, and while he is grateful
to have grown up in Sisters,
he now feels prepared to face
that world.
Epperson is trained as a
culinary specialist, one of
hundreds who provide suste-
nance for the 5,000 personnel
stationed on the aircraft car-
rier. <Plus, it9s always good
to know how to cook a good
meal,= he said. In an interest-
ing aside, he added that each
ingredient listed in Navy
recipes is considered a <law-
ful order,= meaning that they
don9t necessarily have to be
added exactly according to
the recipe, but they must be
in there somewhere.
He isn9t just trained to
wield a spatula. Each sailor or
airman has a duty station and
drills are conducted regularly
to ensure each recruit knows
exactly what to do, should an
attack occur. In addition to
regular training exercises and
patrols, U.S. Navy ships con-
duct humanitarian missions
if needed. The USS Ronald
Reagan has rendered aid after
earthquakes and tsunamis in
PHOTO PROVIDED
Chris Epperson will serve aboard
the USS Ronald Reagan.
several parts of the world.
The USS Ronald Reagan
is currently the flagship of
Carrier Strike Group Five
and Carrier Air Wing Five,
the only forward-based car-
rier strike group home-ported
at Yokosuka, as part of the
United States Seventh Fleet.
She was christened in 2001
and at that time was the only
ship to be named after a liv-
ing president.
She is nuclear powered
and carries out patrols in the
Asia-Pacific region. With
twice as many personnel as
the population of Sisters,
she will no doubt satisfy
Epperson9s desire to meet
new people and explore the
world.
He added a note to Sisters
young people considering
enlistment in the military.
Each branch has its own
culture, and a person has to
be mature to cope with the
necessary pressure exerted
on recruits. Epperson says
the most noticeable thing
about the changes boot camp
brought about in him is his
ability to think quickly and be
frank in conversations.
<I don9t beat around the
bush any more,= he said.
Epperson9s mother, Peggy
Dorsett, is proud of her son.
She notes that enlistment has
long been on his radar, and
now that he9s over the first
hurdle of boot camp, she sees
that he is being taught things
that will hold him in good
stead for the rest of his life.
<Bourdain taught us about
connection and the impor-
tance of relationship between
our food and the people
who provide it to us,= she
explained.
<My father said that 10
years ago I couldn9t even
cook a hotdog,= Sneva
explained. <That9s pretty bad
when you grow up in a family
catering business. Then, with
one great tantrum, my daugh-
ter influenced me to learn to
cook. She9d learned enough
about food to understand we
weren9t eating healthy, and
that wasn9t acceptable.=
Sneva now cooks as a
volunteer in homeless kitch-
ens in New York City nearly
every week and loves trying
new recipes.
The main course was vol-
untarily prepared by James
Fink, owner and chef at Wild
Oregon Foods Restaurant in
Bend. Splitting Aces meats
were a sprawling feast of skirt
and hanger steaks, chicken,
brisket, smoked ham, meat-
balls and even beef tongue,
all grilled on-site after earlier
preparation.
<All you really need
for great meat like this is
salt and pepper,= said the
chef, whose business was
awarded <Rookie Restaurant
of the Year= in 2017 and has
received a glowing review
in the Washington Post and
other publications. <You let
the food speak for itself.=
For the Pikes, this dinner
was an opportunity to share
their meats with people who
may not have been exposed
to grass-fed livestock.
<We have these animals
from midwifery to harvest,=
Remington explained, <which
makes this a slower process
of growth to maturity.=
Their livestock are never
fed grains nor fattened in feed
PHOTO BY BONNIE MALONE
Jena Pike (right) and guest at the first Bourdain Dinner.
lots.
From Seed to Table,
Audrey Tehan brought sweet,
freshly picked colorful veg-
etables on huge platters.
Sweet Japanese salad turnips
highlighted a spread of beets,
carrots, salad greens, radishes
and kale. Fennel bulbs were a
hit at the hors d9oeuvre table.
Also, from Sara Lawrence9s
Rain Shadow Organics, there
was tasty wheatberry salad.
<We can have such posi-
tive relationships with food,=
Tehan said, a message
reflected in the kitchen crew
for this event, mostly mem-
bers of the Sneva and Pike
families.
Dessert was back-for-
seconds mouth-watering car-
rot cake and brownies baked
by Isabel Sneva, Catrina9s
daughter, using as many local
ingredients as possible.
Jenna and Catrina9s
mother, Ronda Sneva, raised
her children catering fire
camps across the West and
in large venues that included
college and professional
football games and Tucson
Rodeo. Sneva glowed with
visible pride as her children
and grandchildren contrib-
uted their energy and skills
to this special dinner at the
ranch.
<They wouldn9t let me use
anything that wasn9t recy-
clable,= she said, <so I had
to cut napkins from old fab-
ric and use paper instead of
cloth table coverings for this
elegant meal.=
Guests dined, met new
people, learned about local
food and left sated. The eve-
ning was enhanced by an
ambiance of visual pleasure
from a covered gazebo next
to a large pond in Lower
Bridge.
Cattle hovered near fences
in lush grass pastures sur-
rounding the venue. With
every speaker, several of the
cows added their own opin-
ions in a Chorus of Moo,
which created lots of laughter.
Guest comments ranged
from <what a wonderful
experience,= <beyond amaz-
ing,= and <so interesting,= to
satisfaction from what they
learned about local food
sources and community. They
found the dinner enriching in
ways that far exceeded a deli-
cious meal.
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