ASPEN:  Today The Quest Express continues with Barclay Dodge, Owner of Michelin-Star Restaurant BOSQ, reveals what it really takes to capture a Michelin Star. What's on the menu for Barclay's Last Supper and how he manages his rock star team.

Make reservations at BOSQ, contact:  [email protected]

Part I of the interview HERE on Apple  or HERE on Spotify

Visit BOSQ

Inside this episode:

• What makes BOSQ unique
• The COVID rebirth
• Influences of BOSQ
• The Michelin-Star journey: the good, the bad, & the gruelling
• Advice for a young cook or aspiring chef

Bio:
One MICHELIN Star Chef Dodge draws from the best of his local farms to the raw, wild flavors of the wilderness. His plates are accessible and consistently thoughtful.

Chef Barclay Dodge’s love of cuisine began in his grandmother’s kitchen and it grew through his vocational experience as a teenager in Aspen restaurants. His passion deepened during his time working at Michelin Star restaurants and under the tutelage of acclaimed chefs.

After being introduced to the cutting edge experimentation in gastronomy while at El Bulli, under Ferran Adria and Albert Adria, Chef Dodge went to open and operate two restaurants of his own, including Bosq. He is inspired by the roots of a place. From his own roots in the Aspen valley to his extensive traveling and culinary investigations into local food cultures.

 In 2010, he returned to his Aspen roots to focus on his restaurant and create a family of two girls, Lennon & Mia along with his wife Molly.

Image by Karl Wolfgang

NEXT WEEK:  Tony Vagneur, 4th generation Aspenite, life-long rancher, businessman & columnist of "Saddle Sore" in The Aspen Times.

Website: https://www.thequestexpress.com

Feedback Survey: https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9

Say Hi: [email protected]

Music Credits: INTRO: Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel

ASPEN:  Barclay Dodge has traveled the world and honed his craft for the last 35 years working in great kitchens, under amazing chefs. In 2010, he returned to his Aspen roots to focus on his restaurant and create a family of two girls, Lennon & Mia along with his wife Molly. 

Make reservations at BOSQ, contact:  [email protected]

Visit BOSQ

Inside this episode:

• The smells of Aspen
• His stage in Spain
• Culinary school in San Francisco
• One of his favorite restaurants in San Francisco while there
• Time in So-Cal and how Barclay came back to Aspen
• Molly's golden touch and hospitality

Part II with Barclay Dodge is up next

Bio:
One MICHELIN Star Chef Dodge draws from the best of his local farms to the raw, wild flavors of the wilderness. His plates are accessible and consistently thoughtful.

Chef Barclay Dodge’s love of cuisine began in his grandmother’s kitchen and it grew through his vocational experience as a teenager in Aspen restaurants. His passion deepened during his time working at Michelin Star restaurants and under the tutelage of acclaimed chefs.

After being introduced to the cutting edge experimentation in gastronomy while at El Bulli, under Ferran Adria and Albert Adria, Chef Dodge went to open and operate two restaurants of his own, including Bosq. He is inspired by the roots of a place. From his own roots in the Aspen valley to his extensive traveling and culinary investigations into local food cultures.

Image by Karl Wolfgang

Website: https://www.thequestexpress.com

Feedback Survey: https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9

Say Hi: [email protected]

Music Credits: INTRO: Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel

ASPEN:  Part II of our conversation with Pitkin County Commissioner, Greg Poschman. Paris, Hollywood, and the spirit that buoyed Aspen during the pandemic. To read Greg's bio or listen to Part I, CLICK HERE

Inside this episode:

• Working with Sting in Paris
• The road to the Emmys
• How filming documentaries became public service
• The tension & resolution between groups in Aspen
• How to be heard if you live in Pitkin County
• What makes Aspen so special as a community?
• Six ways to get involved in the Aspen community

1. Roaring Fork Safe Passages: This organization works to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions in the Roaring Fork Valley by advocating for safe passages like land bridges and tunnels. Get involved by subscribing to their newsletter for updates and support opportunities through their website.
https://www.roaringforksafepassages.org/

2. Aspen Valley Land Trust (AVLT): AVLT conserves open lands for agriculture, wildlife habitat, and public recreation in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys. Get involved by volunteering, donating, or attending events listed on their website.   |    https://www.avlt.org/

3. Lift-Up: Lift-Up provides essential humanitarian services, including food distribution and financial assistance, to struggling individuals and families in Western Colorado. Get involved by volunteering, donating, or participating in their events via their website.    |    https://www.liftup.org/

4. Brennan Center for Justice: The Brennan Center focuses on democracy, justice, and the rule of law through rigorous research and advocacy. Get involved by donating, subscribing to their newsletter, or participating in their events and campaigns.    |    https://www.brennancenter.org/about

5. Independence Pass Foundation (IPF): IPF is dedicated to preserving and restoring the ecological health of Independence Pass through various conservation projects. Get involved by volunteering, donating, or attending events as detailed on their website.    |     https://www.independencepass.org/

6. Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES): ACES promotes environmental stewardship and sustainability through educational programs and conservation projects. Get involved by participating in their programs, volunteering, or donating through their website.    |    https://www.aspencore.org/

Website: https://www.thequestexpress.com

Feedback Survey: https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9

Say Hi: [email protected]

Music Credits: INTRO: Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel

• How Greg's parents met
• Skiing, Edelweiss & wildflower hunting
• The silent PTSD of WWII
• The influence of the Paepke's on Aspen culture
• The old Aspen Design Conference & Aspen Ideas Festival
• Greg's quest to express himself in the most fulfilling career

Bio:

Greg Poschman lives on a mountain side near Aspen, Colorado with his wife Maureen and their two children. Maureen is the president of an international travel and lifestyle communications agency called Promo. Greg has a background as a producer, director and cameraman for documentaries and television series. This focus on the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and interesting stories has taken him all over the world to document expeditions, foreign cultures, humanitarian issues and exotic wildlife.

Greg has a civil engineering degree from the University of Colorado with minors in business and filmmaking. He’s won three national Emmy awards for directing and camerawork, and he shares those honors with creative and brilliant collaborators. 

He has served on the boards or advisory boards of Aspen area non-profits, including Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES, ) Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) and Aspen Public Radio. Activities include mentoring startup non-profits, building boards of directors, recruiting executive talent, empowering development and helping them transition to new business models. He served on Pitkin County’s Healthy Rivers and Streams Advisory Board before  joining the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners in 2017. He knows the Aspen community well, having made many biographies and documentaries for and about local people and institutions, including  ACES, Wilderness Workshop, English in Action, The Aspen Institute, The Aspen Music Festival, Challenge Aspen, and the Aspen Hall of Fame. 

Greg hopes that Aspen kids will grow up having the incredible natural environment, and the recreational and educational opportunities his childhood in Aspen offered him.

Website: https://www.thequestexpress.com

Feedback Survey: https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9

Say Hi: [email protected]

Music Credits: INTRO: Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel

Click here to buy Growing Up Aspen  |   Bios & Episode 1 click here or here

Want more bite-sized Aspen stories? Catch the Growing Up Aspen podcast with Andy Collen & Chris Pomeroy HERE

What happens to a sunken fishing boat or a thirsty truck driver? And what got into Burt Reynolds? The Quest Express continues the wild ride with the authors of Growing Up Aspen: Adventures of the Unsupervised.  Buckle up for more stories of four kids who grew up in Aspen in the 70's and 80's... before the paparazzi knew their town.

Inside this episode:

• The significance of Fleetwood Mac's Landslide
• John Denver, Ted Bundy & the pranks of Hunter S. Thompson
• Another gift from Covid that keeps on giving
• The Paepke's Touch
• Aspen's evolutionary timeline
• The influence of community on formative years
• The Tao of Dean
• What to see & do in Aspen

For more info:
Andy Collen: Happy Trails Animation
Lo Semple: Lo's Column in the Aspen Daily News
Dean Jackson: So I Married A Tour Guide Blog
Chris Pomeroy: About Chris

Episode mentions:

1. Don't Get Mad, Get Even by Jack Brendlinger
2. Woody Creek Tavern
3. Jazz Aspen Snowmass - Aug 30, 31, Sept 1
4. Food & Wine Classic Aspen - Next June 20-22, 2025
5. Tyrolean Lodge
6. Aspen Meadows - 98-suite resort
7. The Gant Aspen Resort at the base of Aspen Mountain
8. Hotel Jerome | Auberge Resorts Collection
9. Aspen Snowmass Ski & Snowboard Lessons

For more info about our private events

Next week:  Greg Poschman, Pitkin County Commissioner

Website: https://www.thequestexpress.com

Feedback Survey: https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9

Say Hi: [email protected]

Music Credits: INTRO: Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel

Read Growing Up Aspen now >> PURCHASE HERE on Amazon
Catch the Growing Up Aspen podcast with Andy Collen & Chris Pomeroy HERE

LO SEMPLE

Lo arrived in Aspen in 1974 in the back of his parents green Volvo station wagon. He currently writes a local column every Saturday for the Aspen Daily news, and can be spotted around town or on the bike trails and ski mountains of Aspen and Snowmass.

He also helps travelers from all over the world via Suit Yourself, Aspen's mobile skiwear outfitters—renting skiwear for over 25 years.

DEAN JACKSON

In another life, Dean Jackson was a professional actor, voice-over artist, and puppeteer. While living the life of a starving artist in New York City was an adventure, that life transitioned into a more traditional career once he got married and discovered that Ramen was not a lifestyle choice.

Dean and his lovely wife, Kyra, now live in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has managed high-rise buildings and since applying those skills to create the project management division of a local community management company, is the point-person for managing their team and a multitude of community living challenges. He wrote for an industry magazine for sixteen years, and wrote the travel blog, “So I Married a Tour Guide.” He has begun dabbling in voice work and acting once again.

In their spare time, Dean and Kyra enjoy traveling, gardening, reading, listening to Jazz, and slow dancing in the kitchen. 

CHRIS POMEROY

Chris was born in the mountains and raised from infancy in Aspen, Colorado. He left the valley in the 1990s to pursue a career in Newspaper management. He worked at three newspapers over the span of a decade, The Aspen Times, the Fort Collins Coloradoan, and the Athens Banner-Herald. He shifted away from the industry in the early

2000s with a short stint in agency work, and then to his current job of 15+ years, consulting in Internet Banking for Digital Insight, Intuit, and now NCR.

He has won many awards for campaigns, layout, and illustration throughout the years, and has done illustrations for national companies, newspapers, and magazines for a myriad of uses.

When not “slaving for the man” he has worked in the art of animation, one of his true passions, for the better part of 30 years. As any animator can tell you, animation is a love of the art and the art of sacrifice.

 He currently resides in Athens, Georgia with his wife, two sons, a dog, cats, and a bunch of fish. 

ANDY COLLEN

Andy cut his entrepreneurial teeth at the age of 16 by becoming Burton Snowboard’s first Aspen distributor. After his college years, he discovered a culture of independent animators in Portland, Oregon, and moved there, working at Teknifilm, the local 35mm film processing lab while connecting with the local artists and studios. He freelanced for Will Vinton Studios (Claymation, California Raisins, The PJs), Blashfield Studio (Photo cut-out, MTV music videos), and mentored with Tom Arndt of Merlin’s Hammer.

Andy met Amy Blumenstein while producing It’s About Peace, a collaborative short film that Amy and many other local artists contributed animated scenes to. Andy and Amy soon married (at the Portland Zoo) and started their boutique studio, Happy

Website: https://www.thequestexpress.com

Feedback Survey: https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9

Say Hi: [email protected]

Music Credits: INTRO: Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel

ASPEN: We sit down with Valery Moore Kelly, Founder & Creative Director of Snowlight Arts in Aspen. With fond memories of how Aspen used to be, we discuss how Aspen inspired her love of nature, art & community.

Episode mentions:  

• Snowlight Arts
• Aspen Emporium Gift Shop & Artisan Collective
• Intersect Art Aspen Art & Design Fair

BIO:
Valery Moore Kelly, founder and creative director, was born and raised in Aspen, Colorado. She nurtures her artistic practice and hones her creative expression in her studio & home office, downstream from Aspen, in the Crystal River Valley, 

Valery’s dream of creating Art and collaborating with fellow Artists and Art Collectors is coming to life with SnowlightArts.com. She curates Art to add to Snowlight Art’s online gallery, connecting Artists and their creative process to the development of human consciousness. She wants to live in a world where people share a diversity of sensory experiences that bring a meaningful unity to their lives. 

Valery writes, “Art provides a holistic and dynamic approach to being consciously human. Reflecting on Nature’s beauty lifts my spirits. I crave colors of sunrise, grey pebbles in the creek, umber bark on trees. I delight in sunlight on water. I yearn for the mystery and beauty of peaks. Horizons and hillsides pour into valleys, drawing me deeper in. Freedom of expression arises most clearly when I am active in pure contemplation. 

My response to Nature contrasts to my automatic reaction to politics and news. Golden autumn leaves, distant indigo peaks, a farmhouse roof in red-orange, each align my vision of this complex and complicated life. I seek calm in clouds, reflected in the ripple of river eddy. 

I long for uncomplicated days of my youth in Aspen, waking late on a summer morning, the sun high and hot, cumulus building, snow melting, fields greening, dandelions bursting yellow, cool breeze in shadow of scrub oak. Color of life-energy rising from roots into aspen trunks. Weariness and inevitability of today’s news cycles contrasts with the innocence of my youth amidst the beautiful contour of mountains and peaks. 

How can I be responsive? Less reactive? What is my natural being? How can I employ my imagination and intuition to comprehend reality? Art offers a way to develop my senses and my inner capacity to live in a sacred manner. When I delve deeply into the heart of my being, there dwells freedom.” 

SnowlightArts.com will take you on a journey of discovery to Find Inspiration.  Please join Valery and SnowlightArts and our growing community of Artists.

To discover how Art and expression can connect you to a creative community, please follow us on social media @snowlightarts, and join our email newsletter here.

Contact The Quest Express: [email protected]

Website: https://www.thequestexpress.com

Feedback Survey: https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9

Say Hi: [email protected]

Music Credits: INTRO: Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel

ASPEN: The Quest Express launches its next city series with a painter who was born and raised in Aspen. Aspen episodes will air through the remainder of the summer. Purchase her artwork HERE

Inside this episode:

• What was Aspen to those who were raised here pre-colonization
• The influence of nature on Valery's work
• The loss of a family home and other unintended consequences
• Bougainvillea, family memories, and a poignant memory
• In a world of social media what is the solution for preserving communities?

BIO:
Valery Moore Kelly, founder and creative director, was born and raised in Aspen, Colorado. She nurtures her artistic practice and hones her creative expression in her studio & home office, downstream from Aspen, in the Crystal River Valley, 

Valery’s dream of creating Art and collaborating with fellow Artists and Art Collectors is coming to life with SnowlightArts.com. She curates Art to add to Snowlight Art’s online gallery, connecting Artists and their creative process to the development of human consciousness. She wants to live in a world where people share a diversity of sensory experiences that bring a meaningful unity to their lives. 

Valery writes, “Art provides a holistic and dynamic approach to being consciously human. Reflecting on Nature’s beauty lifts my spirits. I crave colors of sunrise, grey pebbles in the creek, umber bark on trees. I delight in sunlight on water. I yearn for the mystery and beauty of peaks. Horizons and hillsides pour into valleys, drawing me deeper in. Freedom of expression arises most clearly when I am active in pure contemplation. 

My response to Nature contrasts to my automatic reaction to politics and news. Golden autumn leaves, distant indigo peaks, a farmhouse roof in red-orange, each align my vision of this complex and complicated life. I seek calm in clouds, reflected in the ripple of river eddy. 

I long for uncomplicated days of my youth in Aspen, waking late on a summer morning, the sun high and hot, cumulus building, snow melting, fields greening, dandelions bursting yellow, cool breeze in shadow of scrub oak. Color of life-energy rising from roots into aspen trunks. Weariness and inevitability of today’s news cycles contrasts with the innocence of my youth amidst the beautiful contour of mountains and peaks. 

How can I be responsive? Less reactive? What is my natural being? How can I employ my imagination and intuition to comprehend reality? Art offers a way to develop my senses and my inner capacity to live in a sacred manner. When I delve deeply into the heart of my being, there dwells freedom.” 

SnowlightArts.com will take you on a journey of discovery to Find Inspiration.  Please join Valery and SnowlightArts and our growing community of Artists.

To discover how Art and expression can connect you to a creative community, please follow us on social media @snowlightarts, and join our email newsletter here.

Contact The Quest Express: [email protected]

Website: https://www.thequestexpress.com

Feedback Survey: https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9

Say Hi: [email protected]

Music Credits: INTRO: Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel

BONUS EPISODE: Some thoughts about the current political climate, villainization of parties and individuals, and why dark forces feel compelled to snuff out the truth. Excerpt: JFK's Inaugural Speech.

It will be a rocky five months ahead - we only have control over how we choose to behave.

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." -- James Madison

New Recipes Page

Website: https://www.thequestexpress.com

Feedback Survey: https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9

Say Hi: [email protected]

Music Credits: INTRO: Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel

BONUS:  Today we sit down with Joyce Brand, Author of Pioneering Prosperity: The Morazan Model for Free Cities. If you've ever wondered if you're actually free, you probably aren't. With so much polarization in America, and with the doom & gloom of global agendas, this conversation is a good reminder that we are at our nature free ('tis not a privilege but a birthright), and we have choice thanks to the work of Titus Gebel, Joyce Brand, and their work around entrepreneurial governance. 

Inside this episode we cover:

• What are Free Cities & what is entrepreneurial governance?
• The peace, prosperity & success of free cities' business models
• Will we move closer to feudalism or closer to free cities? You choose.
• Prospera & Ciudad Morazán, Honduras
• The case for free cities over coercive political governments
• Anarchy, communes, and how free cities are different.
• How to apply for a free city and learn more

Learn more here:
 
https://morazanmodel.com/

https://www.morazan.city/

https://free-cities.org/

BIO:
Author of Pioneering Prosperity: The Morazan Model for Free Cities and co-author of Economics and the Spiritual Life of Free Men, Joyce Brand seamlessly bridges the worlds of entrepreneurship and governance. Residing in Ciudad Morazán, Honduras, a pioneering ZEDE, she pens insights for the Free Cities Foundation and has been featured on platforms like the Foundation for Economic Education. She is the co-founder of the Morazan Model Association.

**Wednesday, July 10th: Our first guest from the Aspen City Series: Valery Kelly, Founder & Creative Director of Snowlight Arts

Website: https://www.thequestexpress.com

Feedback Survey: https://forms.gle/6yMieXo2iGEE1Qmr9

Say Hi: [email protected]

Music Credits: INTRO: Loyalty - Philip Ayers | OUTRO: Grasshopper's Dance - Etienne Roussel