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a lifestyle of food and film.

A book titled "Valter of Salt Lake City: The Magic of the Table" by Valter Nassi and Author Elaine M. Bapis. 
feature book

A coffee table book traces a chef’s personal and culinary journey.

Travel with award-winning Chef Valter Nassi in Valter of Salt Lake City: The Magic of The Table, through his culinary trek from Monte San Savino, to his many international stops along the way. The fifty-plus years of touring the world over, tasting, seeing, and thinking about food, culminated in developing his personalized Tuscan cuisine. His story follows his food philosophy, “the story of food is the story of life”.  Portraying food and ingredients as art in over one hundred exquisite photographs, this book invites readers to think about food’s compelling effects on their experience at the table, and explore their food creations—overall, changing the way they think about cooking.

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An oversized coffee table book with large, lush photography. The ingredients of thinly sliced peaches show the process of creating this extraordinary dish.

VALTER : THE MAGIC OF THE TABLE

5X AWARD WINNING BOOK

VALTER : THE MAGIC OF THE TABLE 5X AWARD WINNING BOOK 

video highlight

watch the interview with gabby olczak from the gab talks podcast:

Author Elaine Bapis shares her five-plus years of collaboration with Chef Valter Nassi on this beautifully photographed coffee-table book, wonderful historical context prose, and includes over 50 recipes.

Gabby Olczak, president of the Independent Press Award. Announced every spring, IPA recognizes the best independent press books globally.

  • Valter of Salt Lake City, a chef’s lush memoir, shares a generous philosophy of food.

    The book also speaks to home cooks… directing them through cooking by honoring ingredients—letting the cannellini bean become what it must; following the possibilities represented by a lobster; knowing when a steak is ready to serve. Rigidity is rejected and creativity celebrated. “I want to tell people to respect the culinary magic inside themselves that guides them to put ingredients together in a chronological way. Follow your inner sense,” Nassi encourages. “Let your instincts in the kitchen be your guide.”

    -CLARION REVIEWS

  • Journey with Valter: A Culinary Maestro

    Valter of Salt Lake City captures an expression of comfort, hospitality, family, and the pure joy of creating beautiful food experiences that can only be instilled in a book by a restaurant chef—all of which is rare to find in contemporary cookbooks.

    -FOREWORD’S EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MICHELLE SCHINGLER

  • This joyous celebration of food and life mixes a captivating story with gorgeous photos.

    “When you create the right balance, you will eat something astonishing.” Bates’ photos of such items as simmering mushrooms and freshly sliced ruby red tomatoes are beautifully and artistically shot. Nassi’s passion and love for food come through in every warmly written word, each page bubbling with both intimacy and excitement.

    - KIRKUS REVIEWS

  • CAMERA AND ACTION - great read

    For Film History students this is a must have. While not definitive on the New Hollywood era as it only accentuates ten films during 1965-1975, there is deep analysis here that is rare to find within most film concentrated books. If one is studying how film held relevance as historical archive, this book is crucial. Great read.

    -JMG / AMAZON REVIEWER

reel culture

An early enchantment and fascination with film morphed into a serious study of film’s role in both reflecting and constructing American culture and identity. Camera and Action puts this theory to the test with experimental American films produced during 1965-1975, such as The Graduate, Alice’s Restaurant, Easy Rider, M.A.S.H. and others. 

For over a century, Western landscapes in America have long provided artists, filmmakers, writers, adventurers, and urban escapees a playground, if not lifestyle, for aesthetic and philosophical pursuits.

Popular films during this time reinvented practically everything about American identity, including one of the most American archetypes, the Western. The sixties and seventies provided the perfect proving ground for a new Western with familiar overtones. Two chapters in Camera and Action highlight what was changed and what endured.

Most interestingly, the new narrative remained true to the connection between American identity and the West as sacred space.

Book cover of 'Camera and Action: American Film as Agent of Social Change, 1965-1975' by Elaine M. Bapis, features actors from the movie...
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