Potter’s resolution, will express Portlanders’ deepest gratitude to Voodoo Doughnut management for its dedication in the face of these stringent economic times in providing employment opportunities . . . and above all, creating and naming a doughnut after our beloved city that leaves a lasting taste and fond memories on its customers near and far away.”

Now, this is a great sentiment, at least on the surface. Voodoo Doughnuts is a Portland institution and rightfully deserves every single accolade that has been bestowed upon them.

If one goes beyond the surface, this magnanimous gestures seems to conjure up be a few dilemmas.

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Denevan’s unique concept, dubbed Ouststanding in the Field, began with a few such on the farm dinners and has expanded over the last nine years into a country-wide tour of dinners. Denevan and his team travel in a 1953 bus dubbed “Outstanding.” They follow the harvest season, hosting dinners at farms, and even in sea caves, anywhere that the best of ingredients can be sourced — just feet away from the table. The dinners feature the farmers, fisherman or local food artisans whose harvest comprises the menu, alongside the efforts of local chefs.

The dinners themselves are set up like works of art, arching tables, candles in the earth, each diner’s plate brought from home to give him or her a way to add a personal touch to the event. The events, held for one night only, then whisked away to being anew in another locale have a fleeting beauty to them, not unlike Denevan’s own sand sculptures, some of which stretch for miles, and last only hours.

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