VALTER of Salt Lake City: The Magic of The Table

"Joyous celebration of food and life mixes a captivating story with gorgeous photos."

There are roughly 750,000 restaurants in America, but few feature a chef like Valter Nassi, a culinary dream-maker who celebrated both great food and the wonderful experience of dining with family and friends. His food philosophy and touching view of life through the prism of the dining experience are captured in a beautiful coffee table book, Valter of Salt Lake City: The Magic of the Table.

Color photographs—of food, markets, restaurants, and Nassi himself—appear on almost every page, alongside told images from his life.  While he touches on the personal, the author’s focus remains firmly on food and its relationship to people, cultures, and the world.

The book transports you into the arena of Valter’s electric personality and love for food.  Filled with unique dishes ranging from simple cannellini beans to Sunday Pappardelle with meat sauce, the delicious photography makes you want to lift the food off the page. You will enjoy seeing over 24 of his original food presentation sketches and will feel the same hospitality of Valter’s Osteria—the chosen SLC restaurant of the NBA and many international celebrities. 

What you won’t find in Nassi’s luxurious book are actual formulaic recipes.  Instead, the volume offers a recipe index to follow the stories of Nassi’s personalized dishes. Nassi’s passion and love for food come through in every warmly written word, each page bubbling with both intimacy and excitement.

Adapted Kirkus Review