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UTAH ' PRESS ASSOCIATION CLIPPING SERVICE Phone [phone] Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 THE DESERET NEWS Salt lake City, Utah Circulation 75, 180 AU G 2 g 19&3 Continued from 801 er bedroom and bathroom she would like to ' inhabit during her stay. One of the guests (it surely must have been Susa) wrote in descriptive doggerel an account of the eventful week and we quote here four lines that gave special mention to the ta!>ty food: Sweet were the strawberries, delicious and real, Likewise the peas, the lamb and the veal, The omelet Spanish with aU of the trimmings And buttermilk on ice that were served to the women AU striped and fine that Elizabeth asked To stay with her in tile house that she built. . .1 " QUALITY FOOD for a quality mansion Halfway up the handsome winding oakpaneled stairway is a charming little overhanging balcony, reminiscent of that used by Romeo and Juliet. The balcony is part of a small music alcove where, we are told, an orchestra played to be heard through the whole house. The ceiling above is beautiful art glass artificially lighted for night use. Most of the rooms in this majestic structure, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, are presently occupied with offices. But for those willing to climb the long flight of stone steps up to the portico and then two more flights to the upper chambers of the Mansion, is a remnant of the original elegance, described by its architect as a "vision of fairyland." The artificial marble, called scagliola, a practically unknown composition which forms most of the furnishings of the ballroom, required importation of a German from his fatherland to work 8 months on the project. Extending to the extreme west from the two elegant ballrooms is the banquet hall, a modified copy of a famous hall in an old English manor house. Finished in mahogany with beamed ceiling, the frieze extending from the top of the wainscotting portrays the hunting scenes, woodlan_ds a!l~__ haunts of Robin Hood and-Rob Roy. This exciting opportunity to cook at the McCune dropped into Mark Petrie's lap quite unexpectedly. Becky, Mark's wife, asked her husband one night at the dinner table, "How would you like·to own the McCune Mansion?" She meant, of course, the catering business which had just become available. "We'd only have to serve punch and cookies," she continued, "and we could order those in." Becky was looking for a little work. Mark, a car salesman with his own dream of acquiring an automobile dealership, looked at the McCune, immediately fell in love with it and told Becky to go ahead. "But it's your baby," he added. "I'm not going to give up my job for it!" Becky began the project, but was soon back to Mark in tears. The job was bigger than she had bargained for and she needed help. Mark's good business head, sharpened by managing his own business while going to school and by his studies in business administration, was called upon. "As we reviewed the situation, serving ordinary punch and cookies in such an elegant mansion seemed ridiculous," he told us. "If we were to be involved in this endeavor (and we were stuck with the contract), we had to bring the quality of food up to the quality of the mansion. We would expand our services from simple receptions to luncheons, dinner parties, teas, open houses with the best food caterers we could find to do the job! That way 1 could continue with my job, Becky could handle Mark Petrie's specialtiesjor McCune Mansion gatherings include such dishes as Lamb Phyllo, Crab and Spinach Quiche, Marinated Mushroom, and lots ojjresh vegetables and jruit. When he took over the catering, hejeltjood should match elegant surroundings. the details, and we would both be close observers." After 3 or 4 months of close observation, Mark decided he could do the cooking himself, and his first venture was a dinner party for 30, an event he described as a "circus." "One crisis after another occurred in the tiny, ill-equipped, turn-of-the-century kitchen (which has since been remodeled and updated)," and Mark quickly decided that he would cook only those things he knew he could do well, and have the rest catered. As cooking became sweeter to Mark, the car business was going sour. "And finally, simultaneously, it left me and I left it," he said. "From then on it was sink or swim with the McCune. And we knew we had to make it work!" Mark cooks full time, perfecting one food item after another before it goes onto the menu. "No food preparation frightens me now. We've had some pretty big parties with elaborate menus, and 1 can handle them," he said in his rather serious manner. One of his most memorable events was the wedding and dinner for a member of a Salt Lake motorcycle gang. During the evening he caught them throwing plates from the balcony like frisbees, aimed at the Deseret Gym. Later two factions of the group got into a knife fight with Mark breaking it up and leading some of the injured out of the building. And without fear. His youthful appearance, with a jaunty moustache, strawberry blond hair and slight build, are deceiving and misleading. He has his brown belt in karate an4 was a star gymnist at BYU. He can handle himself. Mark was cooking early as a child in an upper middle class Pennsylvania home with a measure of independence under the watchful eye of his good cook mother, Jan Bennett. His mother, he says, is very proper and taught him not only high standards of performance (as a result, Mark demands a lot of himself and of all who work for him) but also a sophisticated taste in food and food __ .presentation. "I didn't always like the food she served," Mark said, "but 1 was certainly made acquainted with a broad culinary spectrum." His mother entertained often and beautifully (and still does), he remembers, using fine china, linen and silverware. Correct etiquette was required procedure. "I was even sent to school to learn proper manners," he elaborated - all .good preparation for the the McCune experience! "The Mansion is an inspiration to us," he explained. "Our goal is to be known for the elegance of the food, not the elegance of the mansion!" To that purpose he is constantly sharpening his cooking skills, with extensive training under Drew Ellsworth, owner and chef of Dijon Restaurant and Ecole Dijon. And he recently completed a week's training at the Deli University, San Francisco, in preparation for an upcoming new food yenturethis fall: the opening of The Publick House in Research Park. Becky, whose major was interior design at BYU where she met Mark, is doing less and less with the Mansion in deference to their two children, Taylor (7) and Brooke (4). However, she is involved right now with Mark in planning the New England-type atmosphere of The Publick House. Mark says they agree in taste and selection most of the time. "I like where 1 am now," Mark said seriously, "but 1 want to progress, to have more restaurants and to work in more elegance. But 1 will never give up the Mansion! 1 love it and 1 can make a living with it. And 1 want to manage it myself. 1 take pride in what we're doing, and I'd be afraid to ever turn it over to anyone else!" "